Flicking to New York hotels ratings and customer reviews on TripAdvisor, I found this comment about the Sofitel :
"In my experience some of the Sofitels front desk staff (usually the staff from France) can be abrupt, but that is part of the French feel right" !
Well, my American friends, I'm not going to deny that the word "service" has a different meaning over here ! That's very unfortunate, but that's the way it is.
I today was at the in-store café of the Fnac Champs Elysées, one managed by the "Colombus Café" group, which more or less tries to copy Starbucks. What an experience : the ladies in charge were chatting in the back room, they would see me, but they nonetheless let me wait for 5 minutes without coming ! Ladies, I'm so sorry to have disturbed you, how foolish and arrogant I was !
We have great food, great perfumes, great luxury goods, great historical landmarks, a nice and romantic country side to visit, but beware of the typical French !
A customer service over here is the department which takes care of all those bloody customers who are plain annoying, always complaining and screaming !
Sure, this is very carricature-like, but there's lot of truth in it.
Anyway, in my next project, still code-named "Ushuaia" (I shall soon disclose the real company name), the name of the game will be to sell great products with a fantastic service ! Sure, I used to spend quite a bit of time at Photoways taking care of "my" customers, but it's never enough in this matter.
My real challenge is to build up an organization which is enterely customer-focused from day 1. Only great, happy, empowered employees can make happy customers ! Satisfied customers become returning customers. And returning customers are so good for the bottom line !
Il est à noter que l'enseigne à laquelle vous faîtes allusion (Colombus Café) a été fondé par Philippe Bloch, un des "papes" français de la notion de services ("Service compris", best seller datant de 1986).
Même si ce dernier n'est plus à la tête de cette enseigne, le véritable challenge réside à transmettre ces valeurs du management vers les collaborateurs en contact direct avec les clients... la difficulté principale réside là : s'assurer de l'adhésion et de l'application du meilleur des services par tous.
Posted by: Hervé | March 07, 2007 at 08:22 PM
Oui, mon propos n'était absolument pas de mettre en cause Colombus Café ! Mais ce fut vraiment une expérience désolante de constater le peu d'empressement à venir me servir !
Posted by: Michel de Guilhermier | March 07, 2007 at 08:43 PM
right michel. in the US, you may know that when an american is using swear words, and he wants to apologize about this, he says : "Excuse my french". ca veut bien dire ce que ca veut dire!
Posted by: ilan abehassera | March 07, 2007 at 11:58 PM
Salut Michel.
Question de culture. Je me fais la même réflexion à chaque fois que je fais du shopping avec ma femme (qui ne veut plus du coup...!): être commerçant, c'est accueillir. Or, dans la plupart des cas, le client dérange.
Ce n'est pas vrai pour toutes les enseignes. J'ai été "formaté" dans le groupe Auchan (la branche sportive: décat). La notion de service client est omniprésente. C'est la première chose que l'on inculque. Ce qui ce traduit par une stratégie d'entreprise centrée totalement autour de cette valeur... et cela va loin. Car tu te rends compte que tu analyses tes futurs collaborateurs en fonction de ce principe. Tu arrives presque à ne pas recruter un profil commercial car tu le sens "éloigné" de la notion de service client.
Tous les jours j'essaye d'insuffler cela aux gens avec qui je travaille. Mon secteur d'activité (la gestion de la relation client) peut totalement être organisée autour de cette notion. Et je me pose toujours la question: pourquoi tant de commerçants, de vendeurs négligent cela???
D'un autre côté.... c'est plutôt une bonne nouvelle car laisse la place à ceux ayant le gêne "service".
Bonne chance... et ne dérange pas trop le vendeur qui dort!
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Posted by: lily | March 09, 2007 at 10:24 AM
This article is very right.
As much as I like France, its true how poor they are when it comes to maners.
My worst experience in France was last year at a local Mcdonnalds in paris 16eme.
And I made the terrible mistake to ask for extra pickles in my order, before I knew it there was a young girl, that came from the back of the restaurant and yelled
"if you want extra pickles on your burger I sugest you go home and make it yourself!"
how about that? and ever since then I have no words to describe the rudeness and carelesness of the french.
what they have in terms of national beauty they lack in respect for others.
Posted by: Csar | June 18, 2007 at 03:16 PM