In Hong Kong, the customer is no longer king
Amy Wu says Hong Kong risks losing its competitive edge, as a city known for its efficiency, if the quality of its customer service continues to decline
There we were, sitting in a nice Cantonese restaurant in the heart of Central's business district. It was at the tail end of lunch hour. The server disappeared after seating us.
We examined the menu, and waited for someone to come over to take our order. Five minutes, then 10, and finally my lunch companion stood up waving the menu in the hope of catching someone's attention.
"Excuse me," he said, finally grabbing the sleeve of one of the fast-moving serving staff. The waiter - who even looked a bit annoyed at being button-holed - finally took the order.
"The customer service is getting worse and worse," my lunch companion, a native Hongkonger, said, recounting recent experiences that sounded familiar - waving down servers, suffering the wrath of staff who just can't get the order right, repeatedly asking and eventually begging for more tea, water, the bill, and taking the last resort of serving oneself.
I've become a cynic when it comes to the quality of service in Hong Kong. That's too bad. One of Hong Kong's perks - competitive edge if you will - has traditionally been its fast, efficient and accurate service, plus a workforce with a stellar work ethic and a star attitude.
The cases of bad customer service are building up quickly. There was the case of the travel agent who repeatedly said, "Sorry, there are no more seats" after I made the request to move a travel date. After pushing and prodding, the agent gave me a choice: cancel the ticket and pay a penalty, or buy another ticket. What other alternatives were there, I asked. His response was silence.