Eastern, Western and Southern interpretations
By Ito Gruet and Eleonore Breukel
The concept of “service-minded” differs between eastern and western cultures. But even within cultures in the East and West, there are differences in the way people of different countries view the idea of service. A lack of appreciation for these differences across cultures can lead to disappointment for both the party at the receiving end and the one providing the service.
In this article the various cultural concepts of ‘service-minded’ are defined by a group of local business people from each country. There is no good nor bad. It is simply the daily reality of the people of that particular culture which may or may not meet our expectations.
We try to illustrate what good service or being “service-minded” means in a variety of situations such as collaboration on projects, outsourcing, call centers and sales.
We start with some examples of the Philippines versus Japan, Singapore versus India, and the Netherlands versus the USA and India, accompanied by the respective interpretations of good service. We also look at interpretations from Germany, the UK, South Africa, Brazil and Poland.
Philippines
The Filipino has an innate desire to please others and be accepted by them. Being service-minded means to serve the customer in a manner that will elicit a positive response. Process and standards are less important than making the customer feel special. Filipino customers are satisfied if they are made to feel important and to get concessions that were not given to others. Good service is case-to-case and there is a lot of flexibility exercised, sometimes to the point of breaking rules in the name of pleasing the customer. Service providers are also expected to be warm and friendly and never to get into a discussion with the customer.
A Filipino may wonder why his efforts were not appreciated by a Japanese prospective client when he had gone out of his way to make a good presentation, provided value-added services to his offering and treated the client to a dinner at a fabulous restaurant. The Japanese however had a negative impression of the Filipino since he arrived 30 minutes late for their meeting. In the Philippines, however, this is hardly considered late at all and is quite forgivable.