HAVE you noticed any changes over the years in the quality of service that you receive in Jeddah when you go into a shop, a bank, a travel agency, or any other office in the private sector? In the old days, shops were small and you were most likely dealing with the owner or his sons, who had a vested interest in maintaining good relations with you, so service was not something that you thought about much. But when the population grew and shops began to morph into emporiums, somewhere along the way, the employees were no longer owners or family members. The people providing you service actually often no longer even knew who the owner was; they merely did their job, or didn't do it, as the case may be.. It was at that point, that two types of service seemed to evolve. There was the type where the salesman was clearly working on some sort of commission and would follow your every step like an unwelcome shadow pointing out the virtues of this item or that. You did not dare stop to admire a particular product without it being whisked off the shelf so you could see how it worked, or be told how popular it was, or what high quality material it had been fashioned from. This was a kind of irritating service, and you, the customer, were the one being irritated. The other kind of service was also irritating. But in this case it was the service provider who was irritated, and you were the source of his discomfort. There you were asking too many questions: enquiring if the dress came in green instead of blue, how long would it take before you had to change the batteries in that machine, etc. Really, he seemed to be saying, either buy it or not, but don't waste his time. In non-sales situations, offices for example, the second type of service provider seemed to prevail. Clearly, most of them were not working on commission or expecting a tip like waiters in a restaurant. Your name is spelled incorrectly (that is, it bears no resemblance to your real name) on your car insurance policy? Well, somehow you are to blame and anyway it cannot be changed until next year when you take out a new policy. And in the final analysis, well, Maa' lesh, what does it matter? And anyway all of your questions are interrupting the personal calls he is receiving on his mobile. Apart from the advent of certain international coffee chains and mobile phone providers which have clearly put their employees through some interpersonal customer relations training (with varying degrees of success) the situation remains more or less the same. But now there may be some relief in sight. Recently it was reported that companies in the private sector are outsourcing their staff evaluation so as to obtain fair and impartial assessment of their employees for promotion purposes and, presumably, also for sacking those who are found to be substandard. Apparently, companies have been formed with specially trained assessors who will visit stores, banks, and offices posing as customers and write secret reports on what they find. They will be using a complicated and complete set of criteria that takes into consideration not only the employees appearance but also his behavior with the customer, quality of service provided, and interaction with subordinates and superiors. Although it is not clear how widespread and far reaching this undercover assessment will be, it does raise some fascinating possibilities for those of us who are just trying to get some decent service for our hard earned money. Once it becomes known that secret agents are infiltrating the market to evaluate employees, no one will know exactly who they are and when or where they may strike next. We, the humble customer, can then seize this opportunity to profit from the situation. The next time we find ourselves up against a hardened employee whose time we are clearly wasting, we might want to work a few special words or phrases into the conversation, such as, ‘assessment,' ‘evaluation,' ‘full marks,' or ‘report writing.' Then again, we might want to fix the service provider with a knowing look and ask some unusual questions, such as, “How do you get on with your colleagues?” or “Do you usually get to work on time?” It would also do no harm to have a pen and small notebook handy to look as if we were taking notes. With any luck we might find that we are being taken for secret agents who are involved in undercover assessment, and we might also find a corresponding increase in the quality of service that we are receiving. If so, the expression “Service with a Smile,” will take on a completely new meaning, because the “smile” will be ours. Really, You have to laugh. __
