Devoted to customer service and the principles of exceptional customer services

Maria, great info. Believe it or not, though, I can tell you from my nearly 3 years of living in the UK that many there consider the USA to be the example of how customer service should be done...!

Hi Becky --

Interesting...A friend of mine who travels to London often says that its about the same. I guess it must depend on what part of the UK you're in ;)

This is an interesting point, and one I've been thinking about for a while. Having grown up in England over the past 4 decades I've seen the concept of customer service develop as the time passed. In the UK, coming off the back of a World War, rationing and with strong unionisation (as were some of the major influences on the public outlook and expectations up to the end of the 1970s) things have moved on. The "make do" mentality has been replaced by the reality of the "customer being king"

There was a time when Fawlty Towers could reasonably be mistaken for a fly-on-the-wall documentary. At that time we looked to America for an example and we got it, no doubt about that. Lately however, in the last ten years or so visiting the US, my own personal observation has been that the US no longer shows everyone else the way. It is not uncommon to encounter surly and grudging attitudes at the point of delivery, especially in those areas where there is no expectation of a tip to keep the manners in check. I blogged about that one a while back

http://blog.capablepeople.co.uk/blog/_archives/2007/12/12/3405641.html

Maybe I am being harsh, and maybe I've just been on an unlucky run, but things just don't seem so choreographed as they once were. Is it me?

Shaun