Week 2 EOC

A Bad Customer Experience

A small shop that sold specialty products had left me traumatized from the small business franchise forever more. I was shopping for a “barong” (Filipino attire worn at social events) for my son’s baptism. Without really doing any research, I ran into one of those small shops at the BX. The lady who owned the shop seemed friendly and so I told her I’ll purchase one of her child size barongs. The mistake I made was that I paid for the product without looking at it. I went with my instinct since she was a nice person. I went to the car and found a hole in the shirt. I went back and asked for an exchange. She politely agreed and gave me another defective shirt. I asked for another one and she said she didn’t have any more that would fit him. I said I wanted a refund and she refused and gave an off the wall reason and so now I am stuck with a defective shirt. I wish I was more of a confrontational person because it bothers me that she had no sign stating that no refunds will be given. From this day on, I will never buy from a small shop ever again. Not only does product satisfaction tremendously lack, but obviously they have no intentions of seeing reoccurring customers.

A Good Customer Experience

I would say just about everywhere in Okinawa, Japan will you find good customer service. The restaurants, big or small, are always clean and they greet you at the door with “Welcome!” and a “Thank you very much!” as you leave. Most restaurants have buzzers at the table, so you don’t have to wait forever and a day for the waiter or waitress to come back to your table, if they ever decide to that is. The stores are always full of friendly people and even though you don’t speak much of their language, they will either find someone who can translate or they’ll use sign language to try and communicate what it is you’re looking for. They also don’t take a casual stroll to the register or to another part of the store to get your product, instead they power walk to their destination. You also would not normally see them sitting down looking bored, waiting for customers to come and find them. They are usually seen cleaning, restrocking or engaging with the customers. I loved the customer service in Japan and I would return there in a heartbeat.