'Customer' Service in Germany

Now before I delve into my final project for Germany, I would like to take a moment to explain why I chose to study German and what ultimately led to my decision to visit Germany. My grandfather has always had a keen interest in German and World War Two. Growing up, I can remember him and my father speaking about World War Two documentaries and movies they've watched. In High School, I was given an option to study one of three languages: Spanish, Italian or German. French would have been my ideal language, but I was persuaded into learning the German language by my family. And it was great. I had a great German teacher, Herr Ball, who had a great way of teaching us the German language, as well as the culture. I would have taken all four years of German, had I not moved. I transferred to a new school in a new state and since German was no longer an option, I took French. While I enjoyed French, when I went off to college I decided to return to my original second language of choice: German. While I'd love to say the German language had enchanted me, it had not. I am fond of all foreign languages, but out of the languages offered, I believed German would be the language that benefited me the most as a scientist. The German economy is doing well, which would mean more funding for research. Germany is also pretty up there in the medical fields prestige-wide. With that being said, when I did travel to Germany, I did not conduct my project on anything directly scientific. Instead, I decided to take a look at something a little different: customer service. For a country to have a booming (relatively speaking) economy, there must be a reason behind it. I hoped to find the reason while in Germany. A better economy = better research opportunities.

Before I begin discussing my findings in Germany, I'd like to elaborate further on what I mean when I say 'customer service'. Upon entering Germany, I planned to purely look at how employees interacted with customers. If they greeted them as you entered, if they offered help, if they were easy to find etc etc. While in Germany, however, my definition broadened. I started to look at how the government took care of the people as well. While I do not think any citizen of any country would be pleased to be referred to as customers that kind-of is what we are. The government provides us with what we need (sort-of) and in return, we repay them by electing them (kind-of like returning to a store).

With that in mind, I'd like to start off first with my opinion on the different type of workers I found in Germany. In Germany, I have found that there are people who don't like us. At all. Then there are the people who are excited that we're here in Germany. They're interested in hearing about why we're here. They ask about our school and whatnot. Then you have the indifferent workers. They do not appear to outwardly hate us, they just want to do their job. While at first this seemed a little daunting, but when I really thought about it, I realized the US has those same exact workers. We have those who are fond of foreigners (such as myself), those who hate them (ah-hem, conservatives) and those who don't seem to care. So there was nothing too different there. We didn't get asked if we needed help in German stores, which is fine, but I found it a little odd at first. Even with smaller stores I was asked only once or twice if I needed help, while in the US it's more prominent (in my opinion). I worked at CVS, and greeting customers is a major part of the job. Workers are also allowed to sit down while on the job, which would be a change I'd like to implement in my stores. If I could sit down while I rang people up, I'd have more energy and be more willing to help customers out.

Another thing I noticed, was the fact that the stores are laid out differently in Germany. For one, it's kind-of hard to find drinks. They're not scattered about like in the US, with coolers having them in the front. They're all in one spot, usually towards the back. It took us a while to figure that out, which is a little sad, but at the same time it is different. Most of our sales at CVS are drink sales, so to see stores that have the drinks in the back was a little different. It didn't seem too consumer friendly to me. I'd like to get in, buy my drink and get out.

With all that being said, there were no real discernible differences I could see between how customers and store employees in the US and Germany. The department stores did seem to have a lot of sample products available, which seems like a good sales tactic (especially with make-up). If people can try the product out, they're more likely to buy it (which gives a boost in sales). I doubt this has a major impact on the country's economy, but it was an interesting difference to observe.

In regards to citizens being costumers of the government, I would like to mention what I was the most impressed by: how the government works hard to implement the blind into the economy. The European bills were all different sizes to make it easier for those who are visually impaired to pay. While this might not be strictly a German thing, I still found it to be impressionable. Even when we visited Germany's EPA, I was surprised to find that the floor had been created to make it easier for the visually impaired to guide themselves throughout the building. I liked hearing about that.

Public transportation: Germany does a great job of keeping up with public transportation and making sure the service is provided to the citizens. The trams and buses we rode were all very well kept compared to ones I've experienced in the US (which unfortunately is limited to MARTA, but still).

Animals: Germans seemed to have a more laxed view of animals being allowed inside stores and malls. I was surprised at how many times I'd be walking around in a store and find myself coming in contact with someone else's dog. Dogs are not allowed in most places here in the US.