Xenophobic or…?
I start my morning trip to work some days with a stop at my local donut shop franchise in order to get my coffee. (I’ve been avoiding the donuts religiously, good on me.) I stop there because although it’s a national chain, I think the coffee is pretty good. I don’t stop everyday - maybe once or twice a week. I always stop at the same place. It is always staffed by the same people. I always order the same thing - a double espresso.
A double espresso doesn’t sound like too difficult an order, does it? Especially since I’m not ordering it the fancy-schmancy overpriced StarbucksTM way by calling it a “doppio” - I don’t care if that is correct in italian. It’s a double. It’s easy. It’s two shots of espresso and I’m outta there. In theory.
Recently I stopped in. Ordered the same thing as always.
Now, before I continue this story, you must understand that this particular location (as well as all the other local franchises) are owned and staffed by persons whose ethnic background I assume to be south central asian, meaning possibly Indian or Pakistani. I don’t know for sure - I haven’t asked, because generally I don’t care. Except for the situation this story is about, it doesn’t really matter.
So…I order my double espresso. Usually this is not a problem. It’s on the menu! I order from the same young lady who often waits on me. She’s very pleasant. She knows I come in frequently (or maybe she doesn’t - also immaterial). She repeats my double espresso order, and I can see she doesn’t understand. And that’s when things go downhill:
“Double espresso?”
“Yes, please”
“So you want a Turbo HotTM, double?”
“No, just the double espresso - two shots of espresso.”
“So Turbo Hot?”
“NO - double espresso”.
She comes back to the counter with a great big coffee cup, prepared to make a Turbo Hot.
(For those of you southern Krispy Kremers, a Turbo Hot is a black coffee to which a shot of espresso is added.)
“Not a Turbo Hot - a DOUBLE ESPRESSO.”
Now, I’m generally an affable guy with customer service people. My partner frequently accuses me of not being demanding enough. But in this case I was really beginning to get a little peeved. I mean, I wasn’t accusing the woman of stealing from me (as opposed to the unbelievably rude broad - yes that’s right, I said “broad” - who talked on her cell phone while she ordered, didn’t even look at what bill she gave the girl, then argued that the girl shorted her on the change - that’s another story). But I was exasperated.
So the manager comes over and explains the double espresso to the lady helping me out. For at least the 4th time in as many months.
There was clearly a language barrier here. And thus I put my question out there - is it too much to expect that people behind the counter in customer service positions be able to understand an order in plain english? Or am I xenophobic for being incredibly frustrated that the person waiting on me can not even communicate clearly with me?
Filed under: Rants | Tagged: customer service, Rants
I don’t think it is xenophonic at all. I am an extremely un-xenophobic person and that still drives me nuts. Being able to communicate in English is key to front end service job function and if you cannot handle that, you cannot perform your job duties. It is on par with having physical limitations, you would not hire someone with some sort of arm limitation to deliver packages, you shouldn’t hire someone with communication limitations to deal with customers. It is fantastic to offer people oppurtunities, but not if that will hamper your business running smoothly.
Hey, Mike. In my humble opinion, there’s nothing xenophobic about it. Service is paramount in business, and if the server and customer can’t communicate basic things (like ‘double expresso’ in a shop that sells coffee) then there is a problem.
In the US, where the predominant (though not ‘official’
language is English, service should default to English and all customer-facing employees should be expected to understand and communicate (within reason) in English.
It’s not that hard either– I’ve been to plenty of McDonalds’, for example, where the person who takes my order doesn’t seem to know any English beyond the items on the menu… but they usually know the menu items pretty well! I don’t ask immigrants to be English scholars overnight, but working in a restaurant any employee should know the menu inside-and-out, frontward-and-backward within a few days… native English-speaker or not!
Anyway, I sympathize