Davidglen77
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- Jul 31, 2007
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What do people think of communication skills and business etiquette in general here? Coming from New York City and a the business environment of a large multi-national corporation, my concept is quite different of what I find here:
For example:
1) Voicemail, people here usually never change the standard message to a personal one, so if you call Juan or Jose or Diego you don´t know if you dialed correctly because they don't announce themselves. In my (former) world in business you changed your voicemail daily and let people know if you were out for the day, on vacation, who to call as an alternative, etc.
2) Answering the phone, here even when you call companies, people just answer the phone "Hola" don't say their name, department or even "gracias por llamar X empresa, en que le puedo ayudar" like they do in the USA, where they say things like "thank you for calling Kentucky Fried Chicken, where our Chicken is Finger lickin' good, may I take your order please?"
3) Callbacks, here if you call a business and the person you are looking for is out to lunch, they tell you to call back later, in the USA they ask for your number and the person returns YOUR call.
4) Orders, if you order something, and it's out of stock, nobody calls you to inform you, they just don't send you the item. When you call back a few days later to ask about your shipment that never arrived, then they tell you it's out of stock. In the USA if somethings out of stock, you usually get an immediate phone call to let the customer know, get offered an apology and an alternative item.
The times I have complained about these things, people say "oh those are just cultural differences" and my response is, no they are just poor business skills / habits. There are people who do these crappy things in the USA too, however it's the exception and not the rule. Here it seems to the the rule and not the exception.
For example:
1) Voicemail, people here usually never change the standard message to a personal one, so if you call Juan or Jose or Diego you don´t know if you dialed correctly because they don't announce themselves. In my (former) world in business you changed your voicemail daily and let people know if you were out for the day, on vacation, who to call as an alternative, etc.
2) Answering the phone, here even when you call companies, people just answer the phone "Hola" don't say their name, department or even "gracias por llamar X empresa, en que le puedo ayudar" like they do in the USA, where they say things like "thank you for calling Kentucky Fried Chicken, where our Chicken is Finger lickin' good, may I take your order please?"
3) Callbacks, here if you call a business and the person you are looking for is out to lunch, they tell you to call back later, in the USA they ask for your number and the person returns YOUR call.
4) Orders, if you order something, and it's out of stock, nobody calls you to inform you, they just don't send you the item. When you call back a few days later to ask about your shipment that never arrived, then they tell you it's out of stock. In the USA if somethings out of stock, you usually get an immediate phone call to let the customer know, get offered an apology and an alternative item.
The times I have complained about these things, people say "oh those are just cultural differences" and my response is, no they are just poor business skills / habits. There are people who do these crappy things in the USA too, however it's the exception and not the rule. Here it seems to the the rule and not the exception.