{"id":17077,"date":"2019-08-28T11:35:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T11:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/?p=17077"},"modified":"2019-08-28T11:37:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T11:37:28","slug":"what-we-can-learn-about-the-italian-approach-to-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.customerservicemanager.com\/what-we-can-learn-about-the-italian-approach-to-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Can Learn About the Italian Approach to Customer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Customer\n

Are cultural insights significant in terms of their impact on customer service? Dr Laura Olcelli investigates.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagine you see a customer entering a shoe shop in Milan: \u201cThe assistant makes no move. She leans on the cash register, observing. Then she says hello but it\u2019s such an unfriendly eructation that the customer thinks the assistant has digestive problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anglophile journalist Beppe Severgnini offers this exaggerated snapshot of Milanese customer service in his book La Bella Figura<\/em>, to highlight some of the discrepancies between Milanese and American attitudes. If customer interactions could be encapsulated in a simple phrase, this would probably be \u2018indifferent and full of misunderstandings\u2019 in Milan; \u2018simpatico, fake and winning\u2019 in the States.<\/p>\n

Severgnini limits his comparison to Milan, but I\u2019ve experienced similar situations all over Italy so many times that I\u2019m surprised I\u2019m not desensitised.<\/p>\n

In Liguria, a waitress looked as if she was doing my family a favour when she came to take our order. We were clearly bothering her \u2013 a lot. She even gave me an eye roll when I asked for my portion not to be too large! But oh my, the chef in that restaurant did make the best trofie al pesto<\/em> ever.<\/p>\n

Another time, a call centre advisor from Rome roared at me loudly: \u201cSignora<\/em>, what do you think? We\u2019re working here, you know\u2026\u201d. He was ready to maul me, and I was armed only with fork and knife. In fact, I made him notice that he\u2019d been calling every night at dinner time to sell me something, exactly when I was tucking in (nothing as scrumptious as the Ligurian pasta dish, unfortunately).<\/p>\n

The doors of perception <\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re probably thinking this is all a matter of perception. Customer service can be good or bad anywhere in the world. It might simply depend on our body language, or our daily state of mind. And sometimes, isn\u2019t it true that our positive or negative expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies?<\/p>\n

In part, yes.<\/p>\n

Before moving abroad over 10 years ago and discovering that customer service can actually be pleasant, my country\u2019s standards didn\u2019t bother me much.<\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t make things any better. As my parents always say, \u201cHere it\u2019s like that, Laura\u201d (with notes of resignation in their voice).<\/p>\n

So should we just accept a place\u2019s customer service ethos, without stereotyping it, comparing and complaining?<\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s helpful, either. The key is understanding why it is the way it is.<\/p>\n

Hofstede\u2019s cultural model <\/strong><\/p>\n

Social psychologist Geert Hofstede developed a seminal model that sheds light on national cultures.<\/p>\n

Across the six cultural dimensions he identified, four stand out for Italy (see Hofstede Insights<\/a>). First, Italy (particularly the north), is very Individualistic<\/em>. This can perhaps be traced back to the Renaissance, when Francesco Guicciardini \u2013 historian and Macchiavelli\u2019s friend \u2013 stated that people, especially those in power, will always act according to their \u201cparticulare\u201d<\/em>, or self-interest.<\/p>\n

Second, with its high Uncertainty Avoidance<\/em>, Italian society doesn\u2019t appear to be keen on uncertainty and has an acute need for rules (which however are often eluded). This characteristic is epitomised by the notoriously intricated Italian bureaucracy, which makes any undertaking unnecessarily hard.<\/p>\n

Third, the Bel Paese<\/em> has a strong Masculinity<\/em> \u2013 or competitive, rather than collaborative culture.<\/p>\n

And fourth, it also seems that when it comes to leisure time or spending money on a whim, Italian people are not very Indulgent<\/em>; instead, they tend to delay gratification. A bit like living an eternal marshmallow test.<\/p>\n

The two remaining dimensions don\u2019t register remarkable numbers. Italy scores above average on Long-Term Orientation<\/em>: it\u2019s a sign it\u2019s mostly focused on the future while still keeping a foot rooted in the traditional past.<\/p>\n

Finally, there\u2019s not a uniform view about how much the country\u2019s unequal distribution of power is accepted by those who don\u2019t have access to it (Power Distance<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Culture and service<\/strong><\/p>\n

These cultural insights are significant in terms of their impact on customer service.<\/p>\n

In their article \u201cCulture and Customer Service\u201d, Huib Wursten, Tom Fadrhonc and Pernilla Roersoe, argue for example that in individualistic societies, the focus is on carrying out the task (an I-action) rather than on establishing a trusting relationship with the customer (a we-endeavour). This might explain the Ligurian waitress\u2019s attitude: she didn\u2019t care about her customers, but after all, she did serve an excellent dinner that still makes my mouth water to this day.<\/p>\n

Also, according to the article, people from countries with a high Uncertainty Avoidance index are like steam locomotives: to work properly, they need to let off some steam. The yelling contact centre advisor is the perfect case in point. (The converse would be equally realistic, i.e. a client venting her frustration as the only way to be heard.)<\/p>\n

\u201cTo stay the same, everything must change\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite my own personal experiences, my family\u2019s, and what research says \u2013 plus all the horror stories you can read on the internet \u2013 Italy ranked 8th<\/sup> in the 2015 Zendesk\u2019s list of countries for customer satisfaction (among companies that use Zendesk software).<\/p>\n

This begs the questions, could the charm of Italian customer service paradoxically lie in its inherent cultural authenticity? But for customer service to be truly successful, we should also take into account how our globalised world is changing \u2013 and with it, the expectations of today\u2019s discerning customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor everything to stay the same, everything must change\u201d, we read in one of the most beautiful Italian novels of the 20th<\/sup> century, The Leopard<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That was in reference to Sicily in the 1860s. At that time, the states that would eventually form the Kingdom of Italy were struggling for unification. Some sceptics only pretended to embrace the transformation that was taking place. In reality, they wished for things to remain immutable.<\/p>\n

Nowadays though, an increasingly sophisticated service culture is unfolding on a global level. Game changers like social media (which gives a public voice to frustrated customers) and AI (which is taking over the least complex customer service tasks from humans) are instrumental. So on the one hand, it\u2019s crucial for businesses to give a wow service able to turn each customer into an advocate \u2013 rather than a critic. On the other, front-line staff should see the incentive they can have in wanting to do better \u2013 from job security to self-actualisation.<\/p>\n

In other words, either there\u2019s real change in the approach to customer service, or <\/em>everything will remain the same.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"DrDr Laura Olcelli is a consultant and award-winning author interested in all things language. She works for T2 Linguistics<\/a>, the leading provider that specialises in the commercial application of psycholinguistics (the psychology of language). She regularly writes about customer communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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