(This one is for Imre and our discussion on this very topic today.)

There is not much to be gained from saying “you don’t listen” to someone who doesn’t listen. And from my experience, listening is not something Hungarians do well. Other things they do exceptionally well but listening doesn’t appear to be one of them. If the listening involves criticism or suggestions for improvement, it seems those skills get worse. I’ve just read about recent research that backs me up. Perhaps you, too, read the article in the Budapest Times (March 7, 2009) that reported on research done on customer service and other management issues facing CEE companies. Hungary was not the worst. No, that distinction belongs to Bulgaria. Hungary was just the second worst.

Unfortunately, listening is a key component to the thing called, ‘customer service’. Certainly, using the term ‘customer service’ in Hungary could be prime material for stand-up comedy.  And your stand-up comedy gets better: the person who pioneered exceptional customer service was a German. Granted, he had moved to the United States, but he was a German, nevertheless. George Boldt. He made the iconic Waldorf Astoria what it was and reportedly coined the phrase, ‘the customer is always right’, which must have been mistranslated into Hungarian because here it seems to be ‘the customer should always be thankful’.

I’m sure we’ve all got our stories. I made the mistake of asking a butcher at the West End Match store to grind some beef. It wasn’t beef he was prepared to grind, it was an axe. Judging by the look on his face, you’d think I had asked him to clean out my septic tank. So I backed off and he threw the meat on the counter in disgust. I don’t know who ended up buying and eating that meat, I’m just thankful it wasn’t me, although it might have helped tenderize it.

I have found a butcher on Szondi who is pleasant, helpful and comes with a sense of humour. I now buy my meat from him and go to Match only if Kaiser’s isn’t open.

My wife made the mistake of trying to return something to a store. Verboten! But that was not the issue. It was being treated with distain as if she was trying to do something immoral that was the most problematic.

Perhaps all of us are partly to blame for Hungarians’ abysmal performance at customer service. Perhaps no one has properly explained that the term ‘customer service’ can translate to ‘free money”. It is one of the least expensive routes to increased profitability. Here, it often feels like every day is Customer Unappreciation Day.

Americans excel at customer service. Is it because Americans are more altruistic, benevolent, kind-hearted, good spirited, compassionate, charitable and generous? I don’t think so. I think, maybe, it just might have something to do with profitability. That doesn’t mean that Americans are not altruistic, benevolent, kind-hearted, good spirited, compassionate, charitable and generous but those aren’t the drivers for their good customer service. It’s money. Good customer service is good for business, bad customer service is bad for business. it’s not complicated. But maybe that’s the problem: if it was complicated, Hungarians would understand it in a heartbeat.

Perhaps what’s required is a demonstration. No, not the kind where people are marching down Andrassy demanding that the government make things get better but a demonstration that shows one way to help things get better is to be better.  After all, if Hungarians can’t listen, perhaps they can see.

We recently found a new, hole-in-the-wall pizza place on Szondi called New York Pizza. For our taste, it’s the best we’ve found in Budapest. But what makes it remarkable is the level of customer service. It’s exceptional. The first time we ordered, they had some problem or snag and the pizza was quite late. When it arrived, it arrived not with excuses but with apologies, a larger sized pizza than ordered and a free tiramisu dessert that was delicious. We have ordered from there several times and the service remains exceptional. With tourism accounting for such a significant percentage of Hungary’s GDP, perhaps they should give that pizza place operator the keys to the city. Or at least to a couple of the hotels.

If a small, hole-in-the-wall pizza place can excel in customer service, maybe there is hope. It does spring eternal, doesn’t it?