Is it possible during this crisis, clients to be respected more?
Ok, it was 2008. And all the “intelligent people” (from business owners to all kinds of employees) were able to treat their clients like garbage. They could easily find many others, they were waiting at the queue. They could humiliate them, blackmail them, and make them feel sorry for choosing to work with them. They could be tough, not negotiating anything at all, rude, arrogant and (I guess) you had to pay for a smile of a waiter (except if you were a very good client, always leaving a huge tip, or a “I tricked 1.000 stupids” new generation tycoon, who didn’t care about prices and tips).
Now this is over. I wonder why there are so many people who still did not wake up. I was yesterday at Dorobanti – Beller area, for a meeting with a potential collaborator. The café is famous, always was busy. Now it’s not anymore. My clothes started smelling bad from the smoke (I am sorry, I don’t smoke, I apologize for the inconvenience I cause to the owners of the place), I had problems to breathe properly. Yes, I am older now, reaching 34 this summer, but this does not mean I have to be sent to hell sooner (before in media, then advising politicians, now in Real Estate, I don’t have any hopes for Paradise). Can you guess the solution of the waitress? We were sitting close to the door and she thought that this door must open, for some fresh air, at 21.00 in the night. Needless to say I almost caught a cold and we ran immediately…
They charge crazy prices for a coffee, a drink, something to eat etc. When are they going to respect us more and install better ventilation? Now they are not poor anymore, they have the sources. When are they going to tell their employees that they will not be charged if they will smile a bit, behave better, at least to pretend they care about their client? An investment for a shop does not only include the chairs, the design etc. It also includes the choice of people who can treat the clients good, not the ones who will accept the lowest salaries and they will act accordingly.
Am I too romantic? Maybe, but I don’t intend to accept all these. Do you?
Ionut R Aug 7, 2009
I’m sorry for replying after a few months of this post but it’s my first time(of reading your blog, and it’s an amazing one – my opinion) anyway, before I’m doing what I do now (engeneering – very small salary lucky I love what am I doing) I used to work at cafe, French Bakery, the one on Campineanu St. The job wasn’t perfect(the salary as you well implied in the article) but the people who came there made it all it’s worths. Don’t know exactly what happened but they liked us(me and my coleague from then), we were allways talking to them and smiled a lot(we remained friends with a lot of them even now inviting us to different events even if we are not rich or smart like most of them). The ideea is that we were regulary moved by our “loving boss” from one cafe to another(they have few bars like this all over Bucharest – one on R. Beller as well) and those people came to our place, only because they like us, the talking, the serving don’t know exactly why(even now). Maybe this is what helped us love our job, carring about our clients, treating them like our friends and in the end becoming friends. Indeed the working program could have “destroy” a normal healty person (08am – 09pm daily) but our clients made it worth. In the end it happened something strange, we were accused of stealing – pfff, no comment – anyway it was time to had in a different direction. This happened 2/3 years ago, and still I’m metting some of them on the street and talking.
We got together one last time all of the ex-employees of that time and went to the R.Beller cafe to see it, as clients of course. Sad waiters, exhausted by the work, talk-less and it think we pittied them because we were in their places long ago, but the services were negligent.. The payment, the hours, maybe..
So you see, maybe those employees don’t care because they know they can be easily replaced at any time with other people who will work for less. That doesn’t mean they have to like what they are doing(and in % they don’t because they need the money).
We were a different generation then those are now.
I hope I made view as understood as I could make for my age..
Kind regards,
Ionut Robu