Customer Service in Poland, what are your experiences?

nor do I..and dont get me started on the term 'third world' again. I was just comparing customer service levels in different places.

Nepal was a bugger for customer service. Ask for a beer and get given Yak milk. Ask to climb a mountain and sit back for four months to get a permit. On the plus side there were no call centres.

If the customer service in Kenya sucks then I feel for you but it still doesn't change the fact that it sucks in Poland too. I think I can allow myself this statement after being in Poland 4 and a half yrs.

nice! hope it reached places that other milk cant.


I know that but thank you so much for pointing it out

LOL

Some parts of Antarctica must have messed up customer service too. :)

And what's the funniest to me is that the people who live there just take like it is the normal way to do business.

Compared to the States anyway it is slower, less comprehensive and not so polite...in general. ie return periods in shops etc are usually only a day or three.

And why not? It's their country and they have no duty to conform to your requirements. When in Rome, etc.
There are a lot, a LOT of things I find funny/stupid/maddening in the UK, for example. Does this mean the UK is worse than Poland in some respects, or does this attitude work only one way, because the UK is "more developed" by default? I am afraid many of you think that it is only the poor old iron-curtain countries which need to "catch up". Unfortunately, I have lived and visited abroad (so-called western countries - Holland, the UK, Denmark, Germany), and I am not terribly impressed. They are just regular countries. And each has its quirks, some amusing, some downright crazy.

Precisely.

Bloody awful! As far as I can tell Polish work well in the UK in the service industry, in Poland they are fcuking lazy and rude! That was in Krakow in most places, it was a whole different story in Wraclaw, no problems whatsoever, service was excellent...

What customer service in Poland?...is there such a thing?

There was an excellent example of customer service in Poland in a recent issue of the New Warsaw Express. It involved a hotel customer phoning room service to ask for a fork so that they could eat their meal. What was eventually delivered was very interestingly different.

LOL
I know someone here that owns 3 small grocery stores (in Mikolajki the biggest one) and customer service is #1 for her.Unfortunately she's the only one that feels that way here.

Customer Service in Poland...Ha...now that is just a completley foreign concept here. Generally people are ignored when they enter a shop and are almost glared at like some kind of enemy. But I have to say that when I put on my big American smile I usually get a better response.

you just confirmed my opinion to the above subject :-)

Well, it really isn't my "requirements", it is simply a business adage, widely used in US based companies that "the customer know best" and providing value added services which not necessary, make it more likely that the customer is going to leave and say "that was a great place - you have to go there" or "I would never do business with them again" or in my case in a number of times when I had poor service, just leave and take you business elsewhere. Sure "it's their country" but if they want to earn profits which will enable them to make a more reasonable hourly wage, I would think they would break their ass to deliver - yes, exactly, like in the states.

Magdalena was referring to Polish customers (or generally Poles) fitting someone else's expectations, not to business people.

That is exactly it - the general Pole who works in a shop IS a business person, they are the first line for their company.

Apart from everything else - the customer is NOT always right.

When my dad visited the States, he got loads of really way bad customer service - waiters that were right in his face all the time, making him feel guilty for saying no to "would you like something more" (he really hated that one), waiters trying to be overfamiliar with him, pestering him with details of their personal life and habits, trying to be on a first-name basis with him just because he wanted to eat a salad; no "hot tea" anywhere to be gotten for love or money (only iced tea or terrible, watery coffee); at one place they actually gave him tea leaves "infused" in lukewarm microwaved water and were genuinly surprised he did not like the result! Etc., etc. When my dad got back to Poland, he did some complaining, but then stopped short and said OMG, I'm just like those Americans in Poland, complaining of everything in sight. I'd better stop! - So he stopped ;-P

Of course not - it is a "business concept"

And a dangerous one. Lawsuit culture, anyone?

Of course, downright rudeness on the part of the service provider is not to be tolerated. But I think many foreigners confuse rudeness (chamstwo) with a certain aloofness which we Poles like to maintain. We just don't like getting all lovey-dovey with total strangers ;-)

If a salesperson totally ignores me while I talk to them, I will either walk out mid-sentence, or tell them off.
But if they ignore me UNTIL I start talking to them, it makes me feel comfortable. I do not like being pestered before I had even made up my mind whether to stay in that store at all. I know a lot of Polish people who feel the same.

If you want me out a place real quick, ambush me at the door with "can I help you" :-I

I can't speak about customer service in Poland today, but when I still lived there it was definitely in a great position to improve.

The same is true in some isolated cases in North America, but in general the service is great.

customer service in Poland aside - the above is a totally American way of saying "it sucked" ;-)

Hmm I can whole heartedly agree with you on this, the UK is getting just as bad "WHERE THERE'S BLAME THERE'S A CLAIM"!....

I found the service in Poland genuine. Sometimes not as good as desired, but genuine. In UK all shop assistents seem to be following some kind of guide book 'How to serve a customer'. Is there anything more annoying than, for example, when you go for a coffee in Starbucks and you need to tell them how are doing, explain to the ones behind the counter why are you happy/sad, or if you dare to change you usual order... oh, boy, than you need to have some big time to spare because they will ask you WHY you have changed your every day drink! Affff.

I have found customer service at OBI to be evil to the extreme.

great, I'm going to visit England ASAP :-)

That's probably because you are English...

common man. It shouldn't matter where you from. Customer service should be good for everyone.

At the end of the day, it's all about respect - and showing a little bit of respect for somebody who is going to spend their hard earned pennies (or zloty) and has decided to spend it your shop or on your service.

There's no need for it to be OTT as it can be in the states, yet at the same time, there is simply no excuse for sulky couldn't-care-less attitude.

By the way - does this seem off? I was in Poland earlier in the week, and went to an al fresco cafe, where I ordered some food and a drink. When the food arrived, I was given a slip of paper with the price. I figured that it would be ok to pay once I'd eaten. Yet the waitress came and asked me to pay as I was half way through eating.. I had my mouth full too LOL!. That annoyed me - couldn't she have waited until I was finished? It's not like I could have done a runner :)