10 Things to Tell Your Salespeople.

I wonder if we’re ever going to stop writing and talking about horrible customer service experiences here in Jordan, I haven’t been feeling like blogging lately but each time I go out shopping for something, anything, I get this urge to (not exactly blog, more like blow up malls all at once).

Please, if you’re the owner of a store or any business that requires direct contact with customers, please tell your salespeople and customer service employees (actually everyone) the following:

1. The customer is not your enemy, they’re here to buy and they’re the reason this business is alive so you treat them like your source of living depends on them. (It does).

2.  If the customer is on a budget, they’re on a budget. If they tell you how much they’re willing to pay for a certain thing, do not try to convince them to pay more and get something fancier, and you most certainly do not make them feel like the cheaper object is not good. Just tell them the features of both, be objective and let them decide, their money is none of your business.

3. The theft alarm can go off for reasons other than theft. If it does, apologize, sincerely. You don’t take a customer’s bag/handbag/purse and go through their stuff, make the customer feel like a thief and then act like nothing happened. This is not okay. 

4. Don’t follow customers’ every step inside the shop! It’s annoying, it makes the customer feel like they’re being followed because you suspect they’ll take something and not pay for it. And don’t just walk away and have the customer search for help either. 

5. If you look like you don’t feel like helping, the customer will not feel like buying, yes, this is how businesses fail in Jordan. 

6.When it comes to feminine stuff in general (undergarments in particular), a female will feel more at ease asking for help from a salesgirl than a salesman, don’t put them in an awkward position.

7. Female fitting rooms are for females and male fitting rooms are for males, if you’re not letting other guys inside the female rooms, why would you think it’s okay for you to go in?

8. Don’t “what’s your size” a customer when they haven’t asked you to get them their size, sometimes customers just want to look at things on display. 

9. And speaking of size, maintain a poker face after hearing a customer’s size. if she’s a size 20 and asks you for a size 10, it is none of your business. 

10. Don’t offer help if you can’t give it, especially when it comes to electronics, the customer has most likely done their homework and you’ll look like an idiot.

Shoppers, anything else? 

Reform What: Businesses; Production & Services.

I don’t know if this happens with you guys, but when I think of evil businesses, telecom companies are the first to come to my mind, it could be the numerous complain-about-your-ISP tweets that I read every day, maybe because I spend a lot of time on the internet (and the phone). It could also be THAT THEY WON’T STOP REMINDING ME OF THEIR UNFORTUNATE EXISTENCE IN MY LIFE, yes, spam SMS! No, I do not want to subscribe to your SMS channels, I do not want to visit your café, I don’t want you to tghanili, nor do I want to asamm3ak, I’ll watch the discovery channel on TV thank you very much and I most certainly do not care about my horoscopes, I know; Monday will be dull and boring, how about you do what you promise, and stop ripping me off (two totally unconnected things).

Ok, forget telecom, let’s discuss quality of products and services here, I’m pretty sure people will jump and defend businesses by saying that Jordan is not an industrial country, and that we’re not developed. When you get the chance, take a look at products that were made in Jordan and exported to Europe or the US, quite impressive and at the same time frustrating, to realize that your country is in fact capable of producing high quality products and crops (from apparel to fruit and vegetables) but that ‘they’ don’t think the Jordanian market is good enough for such products.

Moving on to after sale, how many positive experiences have you had with customer service in any company? One? Two? Out of how many? And why are there even any bad experiences? Ever tried to fix an appliance that still had its warranty valid? To return something that still had the tag on? Has your internet service provider ever fixed your problem after your first call? In fact, have they ever done anything over the phone except telling you to visit their shops and that this call is recorded for quality assurance purposes? How many times have you decided not to return something faulty just so you do not go through the experience with a grumpy employee?

This is nothing. What about if the service was medical care? With the degradation of ethics that reached even the profession where ethics are most needed, hospitals and even clinics are nothing but businesses now, with money as the ultimate target; you’re sick? Here’s a bunch of expensive unnecessary tests that your insurance should pay for because they’re jerks. What? You don’t have insurance? Here’s a trial-and-error prescription, try that and if you die, come see me, but please make an appointment. The Hippocratic Oath now means nothing to a lot of doctors and malpractice is yet another issue that needs a dedicated post.

I can go on and on about this. Bottom line: business is yet another sector that is in a dire need of reform.

Reform What: Streets and Traffic.

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Jordan

Because Amman’s streets look like this:  

            

Which is already messed up, especially when you try to use logic to find your way (I’ve learned, the hard way, that when your brain says go right, you go left because this is not a rectangle!) and since we cannot do anything about the geography of Amman, how about we make those streets safe? I have some requests, I know I’m being very demanding here but please bare with me, dear reformers:

1.  We need sidewalks, ones that you can walk on.

2. It would help if you paint lines on the streets because many people don’t know what lanes are.

3. More garbage dumpsters, for people who litter “because there aren’t any trashcans around”. Ma3lish, bare with them.

4. Traffic signs that are not hidden or facing the wrong way, because it is not supposed to be a trap you know.

5. Pedestrian bridges and tunnels. Ah, I know the concept might be hard to comprehend at first, but you see they help people cross streets (especially when drivers think zebra crossings are decorations) and for those who insist on crossing the street without using them, you can build fences.  وإذا ضل متنح وتعربش عالسور، الله لا يرده. 

6. Some other way to handle accidents that whatever is being followed right now, it is ridiculous that main streets are being blocked for hours because a car’s bumper was scratched.

7.  Parking spaces would be nice.

8. I’d love a tunnel and a bridge instead of Hada’eq traffic lights for example, but I’m just dreaming.

9. Turning some really bust streets into pedestrian-only streets, Hamra, Rainbow… etc. they’re disgusting.

10. Street vendors who take up huge spaces on the sidewalks with their bastaat could be either moved or limited to a small area. It doesn’t make sense that people need to step down and walk in the middle of the street because of those!

There, pretty difficult list isn’t it? We still need solutions for people who jump in front of cars intentionally to get ‘compensation’ money, motorcycle drivers that pass between cars like they’re in a video game, the crying 3elkeh kid in Rabyeh, actually all 3elkeh kids in general, mentally unstable people roaming the streets, beggars, people who honk when the light turns yellow, people who won’t budge when the light turns green, nose pickers at traffic lights, people who take the space of three cars when they park and people who hang so many flags and pictures on the rear window that it makes it impossible for them to see through it.

Reform streets.