In this episode we talk about the differences between U.K. and U.S. customer service! I’ll just say that I’ve never experienced worst customer service than in the UK. U.K customer service is the most difficult and terrible experience I’ve had in all the time spent here in the UK. It’s so horrible and depressing; people just do not give two bits about customer service.

Here are a couple tips for you on how to manage customer service in the UK. The first thing to know is that you have to be specific and you have to be persistent. If for example you want a particular kind of food or for it to be prepared a certain way, you have to be very specific with them and even if they say no at first, you have to try and be persistent. If at the end of your persistence they still say no, only then do let it go. I find that they often just answer a pre-formulated question already in their head without actually listening to your question. They have a mental question bank of the most common questions that they get and as soon as they think they hear you asking one of them they deploy the usual answer. It’s just plain lazy.

You need to understand that most of the time, U.K. customer service agents are not actually interested in understanding what you want. They have a way of doing things, a process or a menu or whatever, and it’s a non-negotiable way of doing it. Unless you disrupt them or force them out of that box that they’re used to there’s no hope of getting accommodated. The default answer to a request for an exemption is “no” because it’s automatically outside the box of what they’re used to doing. So, you have to continue to knock on the door, to try to get it through to their heads that in this instance they are going to consider going outside standard operating procedures.

Obviously there are exceptions. We have had some great service in the U.K., but as a whole it is very difficult for us to bear. Watch the video to see some reenactments of typical customer service we’ve experienced in the U.K. together with what we’ve experienced in the U.S.