In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a plethora of well-known
multinational brands are on the market. While dining out, one can find almost
any restaurant available in the United States of America. Similarly, well-known
clothing brands and accessories remain available. As a matter of fact, I
believe there is more available in the Kingdom when compared to the United
States. But the problem is that some of these world-wide brands do not meet the
same standards like I am used to. For me they’ve left a bad taste.
This weekend was no
exception. Bad customer service was as always available at all the
multinational brands. In one of the malls of Jeddah my wife and I decided to
walk into Sephora. My wife wanted to test out the fragrance of one of the
lotions. The salesperson promptly responded to her request and gave my wife a
little bit of body wash to rub all over her hands. Now most if not all of you
can understand what that would do. Overall I must say the sales person were
professional and took care of the issue. She went to her break room, grabbed her own
bottle of drinking water (complete with lipstick on the rim) and poured some
onto my wives hands. The mistake is a simple human error and since she fixed
the problem I have no complaints. After the final selection my wife walked up
to the cash register to pay. The gentleman there refused simply stating we do
not have change. It is not like we were paying SAR. 20/ item with SAR. 500/-
bill. We had a 50 Riyal bill. In comparison to U.S. Dollars the change was less
than $10/-. Did he ask a sales associate for help? No. Did he call for a
manager? No. He simply took the lazy way out, or the stupid way out. He simply
said he could not sell the product. So we left-without the product. My wife was
infuriated, to say the least. But then we found “The Body Shop” where she
received great service. There was also plenty of change in the register.
Another common source of frustration with international
brands in the Kingdom is their inventory. Chili’s or TGI Fridays never have all
the items on their menu. For the past 4
months, we have ventured into these restaurants and each time they have not had
ribs. To read another good story about available items on the menu click
here. So the night got more exciting when we walked in Clarks and sketchers
where the items we liked were out of stock. Searching the mall to find exactly
what you want and then to find out that they do not have it, just sucks. It
really sucks!
Today we went to Ikea
and found a computer table we liked for the kids room. In their self-serve area
the table was not there. But when I looked up, I saw that it was there. I asked
one of the staff members to help us get it down. He simply refused and laughed,
and told us to come back in three days. Seriously?
Yes, I know that this country is different than any other
place on the planet. Yes, I understand that I must be patient and that this is
how their culture is run. Nevertheless, I think the multinational companies who
claim to be service oriented need to stay out of the Saudi market. The manpower
or the management in Saudi Arabia have little to no clue what customer service
is. They do not seem to want to learn it. Granted, there are many hard-working
and good-hearted Saudi men and women. However, to run a successful company,
employers should train their employees how to assist their customers.
