Australians have a reputation for being friendly and informal, but we noticed a change in how we were dealt with by service staff on our recent visit. Rather than a relaxed and natural greeting of 'Hello, can I help you with anything?' in shops we were getting something along the lines of 'Hi!! How are you! Nice to see you today! What can we do for you just now?' This is all delivered in an excited and slightly higher pitch than natural, and with an upwards inflection. At this point there would be a pause so you could respond with whatever it was you wanted. Then there would be a bit more chitchat, usually including phrases like 'where are you from' and an attempt to upsell something. The service itself was an infuriating mix of obsequious and slow. On our first day we spent hours (I am not exaggerating) in the bank sorting stuff out and on the second day a similar amount of time in various telecomms shops. Most service staff sound like they are reciting a script from a training manual. It is not conducive to happy shopping.
Chris at the Garden Cafe, Tenterfield, New South Wales. One of the service staff we liked, and who turned out to be an amazing person. Check out her FB page: https://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Treks-For-A-Cause/100092655536023/
There were some notable exceptions, thankfully. This phenomenon was much more prevalent in big city shopping centres, and much less a thing in rural areas, where people generally behaved more naturally and less like corporate robots.
No comments:
Post a Comment