China Herald: Teaching civility

Bill Dodson

China veteran Bill Dodson discusses with a Louis Vuitton expat how she has to organize civility boot-camps for staff in China, while in Vietnam, Thailand, Korea and Japan that seems to be part of the culture. From his weblog:

She told me how LV shop attendants in China have to go to a 3-week long boot camp to learn everyhting from putting on make-up through how to serve a cup of water on a tray. She gave me the example of a worker at one of the stores who spilled the water she was meant to serve to a customer at one of the shops.

The staff member put the tray on the ground before sopping the water from the floor. LV has 40 stores around China, and is planning at least another ten by year’s end.

We talked about why China’s sense of civility towards customers wa different from that of say, South Korea or Japan or Thailand or Vietnam. I attributed Vietnamese service levels in restaurants to the French influence during the country’s colonial period.

Thailand, she said, has a higher level of service than China because of royalty, in which people from a young age are inculcated to be super-courteous to those of higher stations in the country. She believed China would have once been that way, and thought the Cultureal Revoultion had been the main culprit in breaking down a social sense of consideration towards others.

More at Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.