I don’t think that the idea of salesmanship here has really reached full maturation hereIn some ways things are better than at home, but in other ways people really seem to have no clue when it comes to selling things. In the US we generally try to bend over backwards to please the customer, and caution is taken (except for telemarketers and car salesmen) not to be overly aggressive and scare off the customer. At the other end of the spectrum, one generally does not expect quality service at fast food establishments but rather surly teenagers and frustrated middle-managers. Here, things are very different.
On the subject of good practices, many places you will go to have a security guard or paid employee standing by the door to open it for you as you enter and exit. In the case of fast food restaurants, the employees are very friendly and polite although the service can sometimes be mind numbingly slow. If what you want is not ready at the time of purchase, they will give you a number and bring your food to your table. After you’ve finished, another employee will come to your table and take your tray wipe down your table. All in all, very little is expected of you and you generally get exactly what you want.
Not all restaurant service follows this pattern, though. I’ve found non-fast food restaurant service to be decidedly sub-par, which is strange because Filipinos really seem to pride themselves on their hospitality. Many times you will find yourself left alone for 30 or 40 minutes at a time, trying desperately to get the attention of your waiter who never quite seems to see you waving or hear you calling for him. I’ve also found that when you finally do have the attention of the wait staff you have a very small window of time in which to interact. On more than one occasion a waiter or waitress has come over to the table of the group, taken the order of one person and turned to go back to the kitchen. The whole table will call them back and make it clear that we all want to order, but after one or two more people have ordered they will then turn around and start off to the kitchen while half the group is still waiting.
Ordering, though, seems to be the easy part. Actually getting what you ordered, is another story. Often times restaurants will be out of many things on their menu. Unlike restaurants at home, which will tell you upfront that they don’t have something, the server will not always mention that something is unavailable when you order. Sometimes they won’t even tell you when they bring the food. Whatever is unavailable will often just be absent and you have to make the decision whether you want to ask again for it and maybe be brought something else in its stead.
This happened the other day, we went to a little café for lunch. I ordered a coke, the people I was with ordered chicken sandwiches, an orange soda and another coke. When the waitress came back, she was carrying a plate of tuna sandwiches (sorry, no chicken) a bottle of orange soda and 4 glasses. I inquired about my coke and she said she’d go get it. Upon returning, she brought a diet coke (the last one) and when I said that I wanted a regular coke she said that they didn’t have any. Oh. I was trying to figure out this strange method of service and why people don’t just tell you upfront that they don’t have something and one of my lunch mates said that it was because they were embarrassed. Apparently, if you don’t have something it’s better to pretend that you never got the order or bring something else that the customer may or may not want to avoid having to tell them that it’s not available. It seems to me that it simply shifts the discomfort from the wait staff to the customer, who then has to decide if they want to pester the person for their order (not knowing if they forgot or if it’s not available) or if they just want to suck it up and take what they get. This is difficult, because often times it’s not that something is not available but just that the server forgot or didn’t know where it was.
This has happened several times at our favourite local Indian restaurant. Every time I order extra bread, I have to remind my waitress to bring it after it is mysteriously absent from my meal. Sometimes we’ll let the owner know in advance that we’re coming and she’ll prepare something special for us. When we get to the restaurant, more often than not the waiter or waitress will have no idea what we’re talking about, will search the kitchen and come back to report that there is nothing of the sort. Later, when the proprietress comes out to chat, we ask about the special dish and she confirms that it is there and returns to the kitchen to get it for us.
In drastic contrast of frequent restaurant customer neglect, there is the viciously aggressive sales tactics of transportation specialists and food vendors. Walking through the market, people will usually shout at you and try to offer you everything in their stand as you pass. I’ve occasionally had my arm grabbed by an overzealous vendor trying to get my attention, something which I do not relish. If you should decide that you want to browse around, the booth owner will constantly say, “yes ma’am? yes ma’am?” and try to discern what you want to buy. It seems that browsing and price shopping is completely foreign here, because I find it nearly impossible to get the point across that I don’t want to buy anything, but that I’m just looking to see what there is.
This is not a market-only tactic, going into a department store is a test of patience. There is a disproportionately large number of salespeople, who appear to work on commission but to have specific departments. If you wander around trying to browse, again you get the, “yes, ma’am?” refrain and a salesperson will follow you around the store approximately 2 feet behind you, shuffling along and trying to offer suggestions any time you stop to look at one particular thing. As a person who likes to browse alone, this is an extremely frustrating practice. When you actually do decide that you might want to buy something and pick it up, before you can continue to browse around the shadow-cum-salesperson has taken it from you and is writing up a receipt. I’m sure this is a practice to discourage shoplifting, but it seems to me that it is also an aggressive way to close the sale. I will usually hold onto an item and continue browsing, while deciding if I really want to get what I’m holding onto. Here, when they write up a receipt they take your money from you and bring it up to the register and leave it there until you’re ready to check out. This happens in every department, so if you want to get shoes and also a pair of pants, you have to go to two different counters and pay in two different places. Each item will be placed in its own plastic bag and stapled shut with the receipt visibly displayed on the outside of the bag. It’s a fantastic display of wasted time and materials.
In the area of services, particularly transportation, people are particularly aggressive. Filipinos are not generally inclined to walking anywhere, when they could ride. I’m am found to be more than slightly ridiculous because I like to walk and will think nothing of walking 5 minutes to school rather than take a tricycle (most people here think I’m crazy and that I will make myself sick with the exertion). Because of this, and I think also because I’m the “rich American” despite my protests of having very little money, every single tricycle driver that passes (and there are a lot of them) will shout “Tricycle? Tricycle? Tricycle?” as they pass and may or may not pull up next to you as you walk, with the hopes that you will gratefully hop into their tricycle. I generally find the practice of pulling over to give me a ride when I’m obviously walking along and have not hailed them to be extremely annoying, particularly because they tend to pull up right where you’re walking and block your path. The other day I got off the bus in Legaspi, where the tricycle drivers are notoriously aggressive, and three of them stood at the door blocking my exit and shouting “Tricycle?” at me.
The jeepney, van and bus conductors are equally aggressive. When you walk through the satellite terminal (where busses, jeeps, vans arrive and depart and tricycles come to pick up fares- one should never have to suffer the indignity of walking 3 blocks to your destination) people will shout out the destination of their vehicle. I haven’t quite figured out the reason for this practice, since the name of the route is clearly marked on large signs and vehicles have a set spot for set destinations. Perhaps they are trying to help people who cannot read, or perhaps it’s an attempt to get people to ride on impulse. “hm, now that I think of it Daraga does sound nice. Even though I live 3 hours in the other direction, I think I’ll go there. That man is just so persuasive.” To me the whole exchange rather reminds me of an old John Belushi SNL skit, “Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger! Naga! Naga! Tricycle! No bus, Van!”