Shop staff in Hong Kong still can't speak Putonghua well enough to deal appropriately with mainland customers, say shoppers.
'Frontline staff may be unsure of, or not very confident about, whether their spoken Putonghua is sufficient to deal with these customers,' said Judy Tsui Lam Sin-lai, dean of Polytechnic University's school of business, as she announced results of a shoppers' survey.
Fashion and electronics store staff have the worst Putonghua, the survey shows.
'It's not just about studying the language. There have to be proper and objective criteria and standards to assess Putonghua language skills. Retailers can do more in this area,' said Mrs Tsui.
The study, the fourth of its kind the university has carried out, was conducted in January and February. Of 2,432 respondents interviewed for the half-yearly survey, 62 per cent were from the mainland, 9 per cent were local and the rest from elsewhere in Asia and from North America and Europe.
Shoppers' ratings of price, service, shopping environment and merchandise showed little change from July 2005, the last time the survey was carried out.