Service with a smile

Before coming to India, I had heard about the high quality of service, and was ready to be impressed, especially as I was planning to stay in a 5-star hotel. However, more often than not, I’ve found that I’ve had to ask for the same thing multiple times, and requests are often not fulfilled correctly. Don’t get me wrong, people are very nice and say yes, ma’am, right away, but then whatever you’ve asked for often doesn’t get done!

The iron incident aside, there are other examples. When I was shopping on Sunday, I had some pants fitted for alteration. I literally had 5 people in the dressing room with me at one point. It’s like they all had to consult each other as to what they were doing. Also, on a daily basis walking through the hotel, I say hello to several people before getting out the door.

And then on Monday, in the pouring rain, I saw people working outside with a broom to, I kid you not, sweep the water off the planter ledges. I suppose you could argue that this is to help proper draining, but I don’t buy that argument. I just think that the hotel has too many people they’ve hired. And at dinner last night in a medium -sized restaurant, I looked around and counted a minimum of 20 staff people. When our fish was served, one person stood there to cut it and serve it, and two others were I suppose “supervising” from behind. It baffles me.

I suppose I shouldn’t really complain, because I am living the good life here by Indian standards, but I just find it so odd that it’s not really the level of customer service that’s so different here, but more the type of customer service. Shoe shining at the hotel is free, for example, as are clothes alterations. This would be unheard of in the States, but at the same time, I’m fairly confident that a U.S. hotel wouldn’t keep thieving my iron away either. Oh well, just something to get used to! I think in part it’s because labor is so cheap, and the emphasis isn’t so much on efficiency. If I had it my way, I’d try to increase efficiency and getting things done right the first time, more for the principle of it than anything else.