John Grant

The following link is a podcast from myself and fellow contributor Migs from Manila.

Today we will discuss the differnces he finds from living all his life in Manila and then his recent visits to Davao City, the good and the not so good.

Over the last few months Bob and myself have persuaded Migs to leave the concrete jungle and come South to Mindanao, and I know he likes it as I count this is his fourth visit of 2008!!!

The link will also be available in a few days on the podcast page too.

CLICK HERE FOR PODCAST

Last week I went to a City not far from Davao called Panabo City here in Mindanao. I have been there many times and I find it a great place for markets and a great atmosphere and friendly place even though its officially out of the “protection” of Davao City.

I decided to go by bus and this was a great experience as the bus had hardly any windows and seats that just remained on the metal frames because of the weight of your body. The internal electrics dropped in front of your eyes and seemed to be joined wires at many points, I am really not sure what the wires were doing but it seemed a recent addition to the luxury bus.

Add to the delight was our jumping over cartons and fruit and many chickens that blocked the floor and even some of the seats. I wonder if the chickens had to pay for the seat?

Once arrived at Panabo I met some good friends and had the ritual JOLIBEE ( A McDonald’s substitute), following th e gourmet meal I told fellow columnist Migs from Manila that he would be so impressed by the great markets here in Panabo.

So we walked around the streets which seemed quieter than my last visit, not as many stalls along the roads, I now know that this was the Mayor trying to remove unlicensed traders, although he is of course correct it did take away some of the ambiance.

Unfortunately too there was a major fire a few weeks before that burned down many market stalls and the poor stall holders have lost everything as no insurance or replacement site is available.

I understand that there also is some dispute about a new shopping Mall that wanted to occupy the area, thats seems to have been sorted now as there are no market traders to move on.

Still the meat market and fruit markets were spectacular and well worth a visit and the people of Panabo are friendly and very hospitable as proven to my trip to the Wharf which has a small Mango beach where locals enjoy a drink or two or even more and the kids play and the atmosphere is very lively.

One local and his family after a few too many Rums decided he need a picture with this mad Caucasian who had visited this beautiful area, we stayed for Coke Cola and decided to move on increase the invites to drink the Rum become too overwhelming for me to say no.

Back into the City main I saw a stall being wheeled around that said KWIK KWAK and as you see from the video below it was QUALYES eggs(that seemed to be Ducks eggs to my eyes), covered in oil and a form of breadcrumbs that looked delicious. However after a few hours in the sun I did not want to risk those eggs on my delicate stomach, if you know what I mean.

The home journey was on a air conditioned bus that I had to stand up for the whole journey and for some reason I had to pay double fare compared to everyone else on the bus…I WONDER WHY?

IT WAS A GREAT EXPERIENCE AS THE PHILIPPINES ALWAYS IS

Last week I wrote an article about the problem I had at a local supermarket the week before, and I explained how I normally let the problems wash over my head. Well it happenned again THIS WEEK.

I had decided that I needed to purchase a new Digi cam at the low end of the market and had found a place at Gaisano Mall here in Davao city that semed to have what I want. I checked the specifications and the accessories and asked if they could just switch it on for me to check its in working order. After a long delay in getting batteries it was on and I took a 5sec video clip and the memory was FULL. So I said that was a problem and I needed to try another model.

Well that seemed to be ignored as two sales assistants kept playing with the digi cam trying to understand the memory full. I again asked to see another model as I did not want to purchase that one, so “please show me another”.

Unbelievably I was ignored and with no eye or verbal contact hey kept fiddling with the broken cam.

After a few minutes I just walked away and did not even get a goodbye or sorry sir..NOTHING.

I went to another store chose the camera and asked the assistant to just show me it works.

“NO BATTERY,SIR” she said.

I asked if she would plug it in to the power as I wanted to see it work, she then spoke to another assistant and ignored me for about a minute then came back to me and said “NO BATTERY,SIR”

I replied “NO SALE” and left totally flabbergasted.

What I did not tell you that before that I had taken my two week old MP4 back for repair a second time to a shop who showed no concern  and wanted to enforce a NO EXCHANGE and maybe we repair policy!!!

I never lost my temper I listened to the sales assistant repeat the Managers words and everything she was told to say to me was an obvious lie and the Manager would not talk to me or give me eye contact.

After 3o mins of repeating I was not leaving until i got an exchange the Manager finally signalled that I had won and gave me a another unit. Again no thanks or sorry sir or any care or concern whatsoever.

Now please do not get me wrong nobody was rude or abusive (including me), but no one cared and I know that employment here is different but where is the pride of doing the right thing and making the customer happy and wanting him back??

Oh well I think I will just get things sent over from the UK, at least they might work.

I have noticed over the last year I have seen many articles on this site regarding the differences in customer service and customer satisfaction, and in the main the the expats ( including me), have been very negative about the quality of service.

Be it in a a restaurant that has nothing on the menu, a shop where no one wants to serve you or a shop that is very happy to let you queue until you die, and even work in slow motion until your blood boils!

Yes thats my first impression and to be honest its very true, but then you have to realize that the people are paid almost nothing they have no security of job as most have to leave after six months so the company gets over a high hike that is placed in employment legislation.

The other day having now been here some time I can wait in a queue with my MP3 player and accept its going to take a long time and something will go wrong, I am pleased with myself to accept that it will happen ad that I can deal with it wthout being a noisy ex pat.

But this time I just could not get my head around my last experience in a supermarket.

After queuing for a lengthy time to get a basket of groceries, I watched as the cashier worked in slow motion examining everything and even ringing up everything separately even if there was ten of the same item.

Still I accepted this and I noticed that they were so busy as the packing boys behind the counter were not keeping up with customers packing and running the boxes to the taxis. My guy was running out to a taxi and left the customer before me with no packer and the goods were piling up and the cashier just kept adding items, I thought what a lazy customer why not pack it yourself!!

I was the next customer but the cashier could not ring my stuff as the previous customer goods were packed high as the boy had not yet returned from the taxi, so we waited and waited! Finally I said can you start and I will pack my own,and I lent over to get some shopping bags and I could hear three people “tut tut” me . The cashier put my hand over mine and said its not allowed to pack you own sir. “security sir”.

I tried to say its OK I do not mind ,she looked in horror and called a supervisor over who told me I must not pack my own but wait for a packer, I explained there are no packers available and everybody is held up, she gave me a look of “stupid man”, and walked off, so we all waited another five minutes till a poor exhausted packer came and he had to work at top speed as the cashier and every customer in the queue watched him, with eyes that blamed the poor guy for the delays.

After he packed my bags he offered to carry it to a taxi. i told him thank you but I am ok and gave him a tip for his hard work which he had to refuse as the cashier gave him the “Evil stare”.

Logic of the situation baffles me,I was going to pack my paid goods to help the other customers and the staff, but all I got was to do was upset everyone. OK back to the culture books and start again!

CUSTOMER SERVICE WHAT A SHOCK TO MY SYSTEM

Hi John from UK here,

Having spent most of my life in the retail game in the UK from Saturday boy right up to senior management, I must admit it still comes as a shock to experience the Customer service within the Mindanao area.

I always feel great when I see smiling faces and what is a culture of enjoyment amongst my Pinoy hosts.

However I get a little puzzled and even confused, and YES sometimes annoyed at the lack of what I would call customer service, and its down in my opinion to the lack of training that exists in this great culture.

We shop at many supermarkets in and around Mindanao and went getting to the checkout area I am so pleased to see smiling packers eager to assist you, what a pleasure that is until they pack all the heavy items in one bag!! Results apart from broken back trying to carry it, is split bags and a crooked spine.

So being a nice guy I now ask for the bags to be of about equal weight and explain why, sometimes I will even get my pinoy friends to explain this.. and the result is to pack as they want..no luck there.

My next approach was the direct approach get in quick pack it myself, surly that will work…….WRONG.

This only ends up in a group of packers rushing to my assistance thinking that I am angry so they pack fast and with all their might. yes you guessed it. as much in one bag as possible.

Don’t get me wrong this is just something that with a two minute training session can be sorted out and every customer and even every packer will benefit from it, my open question is why does it not happen what am I missing?

I would be grateful to be educated on this or even to offer my training service, you never know?

As you may tell from some upcoming blogs that the customer service and training is something that i love to stay involved with and am already doing some seminars and other activities here in the Philipines to keep my hand in. Anybody wants to comment on similar, come on get it off your chest.

Regards JOHN

I think this country is fantastic.