Customer Service – Berlin Style

I have to say I am not setting out to offend anyone, in fact I will start off by saying ‘sorry’ because that’s what us Brits do – right!

I arrived in Berlin with one suitcase, leaving behind a life 6 years ago. I had never been to Germany before so had no idea what to expect, I arrived on a Saturday actually so planned to do a bit of a food shop on the Sunday. That went well then – because on a Sunday there are no open shops in Berlin. I’ve grown to appreciate this by the way, it’s how it used to be in the UK and in my opinion how it should still be, but my first few weeks and months proved a bit of a culture shock. Walking to my first day at work as fast as I could over taking people on and off the pavement – London style – only to get shouted at for walking over a red light when there was clearly no traffic for as far as the eye could see. It’s a strange paradox that German’s do actually follow rules. It’s been to the benefit of Berlin at least with the COVID levels being low here (I hope this continues). They like to shout at anything they deem not correct so it seems so strange to me that on the other hand they put up with so much bad service.

I needed to set up a bank account, quickly when I got here so that I could get paid. I tried calling lots of banks, visiting them (not at lunchtime though as they were closed) – to no avail. I actually had one guy laugh down the phone at me because I suggested I pop along to open an account today and asked if it was easier, I could do it online. In the end a friend of a friend knew someone so I was able to get an appointment the other side of the city, kind of like joining the Masons. My experience with the ‘Bank’ has continued to be dreadful with no help whatsoever from the general customer service side of things mostly – although of course there are exceptions, I have met helpful people along the way. It’s also interesting that other competitors are now emerging promising to give better ‘Service’.

Before I go on, my German is VERY limited and I have no excuse for that – I’m sorry. But I have to say that this has not really been a barrier in Berlin. I work for an English speaking company and have English speaking friends – I know, I know, I’m not integrating but this is a totally different subject. I will Blog about this later and won’t try to make excuses. I have asked German friends to help me when I have needed to set up telephone, WIFI, electricity contracts etc. and they experience the same experience as I do – a bad one unfortunately and the common answer always seems to be . . . ‘It’s just the way it is’.

I was fortunate to have an ex-wife who worked for the John Lewis Partnership in the UK. This meant that we could be very posh and food shop at Waitrose (due to the staff discount she received). I’m not going to show off – BUT – when I did eventually get to go food shopping in Berlin I could not believe it. The choice wasn’t great but more to the point the whole experience was and still is awful. At a Waitrose check-out nice staff would offer to help pack your bags and even deliver them to your car. I’m not showing off honest but really forget all about that when entering a supermarket here.

1. Queue – which is standard practice in the UK too.
2. Unload your goods onto a conveyor belt – which is standard practice in the UK too.
3. Run as fast as you can to the end of the check out because your food and anything else you have or are about to purchase is being launched at you at full speed.
4. Try to grab anything glass before it explodes and either make the mistake of trying to pack it or place it as safely as you can, back into your trolley. If by the way you try to pack it, you are likely to get shouted at by the next person in the queue or the cashier for holding the whole process up.
5. Have payment ready before you have managed to remove everything that has been slung at you because you now have exactly 3 seconds to pay and get the hell out of there.

I could go on and on about my experiences here – trust me it is a subject I could rant about for hours. The point actually is that I really remember the good experiences I encounter now because unfortunately they can be quite rare. They stand out – a guy in an electrical shop the other day went out of his way to help me; I expected  the standard bad service so was pleasantly surprised and passed my good experience onto others because I was so impressed. Of course I have encountered bad service in the UK too but I can assure you not to these levels.

So as I keep saying – I will get to the point. Think about walking into a reception of a business, into a shop, restaurant, a hotel, a train station (don’t get me started on the train ticket experience), trying to navigate an app or website – anywhere that you are a customer. The first impression sticks with you, it’s something you cannot help. From there your User Experience can go well or can go bad. Some of the things are not in the control of the business or supplier perhaps but they can maybe be improved upon to make your experience as pleasant as they can make it. UX Design comes in many shapes and forms – I for one presumed it was about creating Apps. In fact this is far from the truth, it can be applied to most things including Service Design which focuses on contributing to the delivery of services that will positively impact people and bring value to client’s businesses. It’s food for thought isn’t it? The fact that we don’t necessarily have to put up with things because ‘It’s just the way it is’ – as UX, UI and Service Designers it’s our jobs to try and improve User Experience on every level – otherwise what is the point? Bad service I guess.