Customer care in Vietnam

I am living in HCMC and Vung Tau for more than 3 years and I am sorry to say, customer service in Vietnam is very, very bad. First nobody greet me or welcome me when I arrive in a shop,, indifferent if it is a expensive or a cheap shop. And of course, nobody say thank you and say good bye, after I bought something in the shop. From my side, I always greet the personnel after I steped in the shop and I always also say good bye or bye bye.The echo from the personnel is mostly keeping silent.
An other thing is the very bad knowledge of any foreign language. I am lucky, my wife is vietnamese and can translate if necessary. Alone I really feel helpless , after I tried with french-, english or german language..
If you have a special wish, nobody will serve you, mostly it's impossible they will fullfill any special wishes. Sometimes the personnel is too lazy, sometimes, they don't know how to manage the wishes.
In general the personnel is unfriendly, of course with some exceptions. They should be trained more and better.
I am sorry for my bad opinion, but it's the truth.

From restaurants which serve whatever they happen to have in the kitchen, rather than what you ordered; to shop owners who consider that, since they have taken the trouble to open a shop, it is your duty to come and buy what they have, whether it is what you want or not; to shop owners who throw you out of the shop for ‘asking too many questions’; to sales staff and owners who put the price up multiple times to rip off foreigners, customer service in Vietnam does not exist.

My Vietnamese wife has the perfect solution for me: she does not allow me to come shopping with her, but rather sends me off to drink coffee over a newspaper, or to drink a few beers with friends. Ho, ho, ho.

I never encountered mixed customer service experience. May be it is because language problem.

I stayed in a hotel for 1 year and found very good hospitality as a family member. The owners and staffs were excellent in their behaviour, service and customer care.

But when I was travelling from Saigon to Hanoi, my flight was cancelled and they did not bothered to inform me, though it was booked well in advance.

On my force and unable to wait for next flight which was after 3-4 hours, they arranged my flight in other airline which was going to take off within next 2 hours. What I realised that they are doing this very frequently with many passengers and only buzz and act if you show your concern and urgency

Well, here in Hoan Kiem District, I would say customer service is good because of the competition here. I feel welcome anytime I enter a shop to buy something. What is missing is their smiles. Most of them finds it difficult to smile. But I don't blame them. I blame it on language barrier. Because most of them can't speak English, their mood changes when they see you coming in knowing they can't answer your questions - a kind of nervousness.

Hi Priscilla thanks for your inquiry re Customer Service. In a nut shell Vietnamese provide a reasonable Customer Service but this can be dependant on the Customer either understanding Vietnamese or the staff understanding English. Try being a foreigner and asking for a cup of tea with milk...I would say that at 95% of the time it fails miserably. However the other issue is when I go out with my wife to purchase anything I do try to speak my limited Vietnamese to staff however they often do not understand me so it goes down in flames and the rest of the conversation ends up with my wife because she is Vietnamese. Most restaurant staff immediately target my wife re the Menu. Maybe they are not confident on English however Customer Service is not just a smile and eye contact. So to me the Vietnamese Customer Service is getting better but until most staff realise that English is here to stay in Vietnam it will falter and stumble for sometime yet.

Cheers
Barry

it is  a funny  topic. one of my  pet pieves is horrible  food  service in  Vn.But tonight im  eatting  again at  the  same  seafood  restaurant  we  ate  yesterday.mostly because  food and  service. Its  so   rare here to  have unless u  go  5  star. and  then  that is often a dissappointment.

Yes sir I agree with you on that point, it's a hit and miss. Often it's a lack of a training budget, provincial workers, low pay rates...not a good outcome for customer service.

I completely agree with everything that you have said.

Having lived in twelve countries I can say Vietnamese service is not the best. However, it is by no means the worse.  So, I'd like to put the record straight.  I think the service here on the whole is pretty good.  They not be able to fulfill all my requirements but most of the service personnel do so with a smile and when the dreaded language barrier comes up then they make every effort to understand.  Sometimes they manage, sometimes they don't.  Who's fault is that?  Not theirs.  I am living in their country and I should make more effort. 

So you want examples?  When I arrived, I was opening a bank account but I didn't have a sim.  One of the bank clerks walked me to the phone shop and sorted it for me. Where else would that happen?  Arrived in Munei one weekend and we a tour guide was supposed to pick us up at the bus station to see the sunset.  Only the bus dropped us outside our hotel, which was closed. (where do buses drop you outside of your hotel?) .  A small shop was opposite and the young girl made the call for us and explained where we were. It was 4 am. Order from Vietnammm.com - I have many times and only had one misunderstanding which was my fault. Of course there are examples of bad service too but there are in any country. My recent visit to my home town in the UK was proof of that.

Maybe it's different outside of HCMC but here I definitely think the majority do a decent job. Was recently served in a local restaurant and the young son was very helpful and spoke great English. I offered him a tip but he said he didn't need one. I can't believe people say they don't say hello or goodbye in shops.  Pop into any circle K or family mart and they all say hello.  So I hope i have redressed the balance and, by the way, I am usually one of the first people to complain.

I generally get very good service person to person. But, I do make an effort to be friendly, helpful and smile. Being in my 70's also helps as their is a respect for age. As to eMail, language is a big issue and I almost never get a response. While I can more or less read Vietnamese. I really can't write it.

Note, I avoid expat areas as I don't like being mobbed and receiving poor service. If you see me in an expat zone, I'm the old guy that only speaks Spanish.

I have bought many phones here and mostly it's a terrible experience. I buy them to save a few hundred dollars then what i would pay at home for the same phone. Also If you leave the shop with a new phone and the next day decide it's not performing to what you expected. Take it back to the shop you are treated with  indifference and definitely once they have your money they won't give it back under any circumstances. The only way around this is to buy a more expensive phone then they are happy to take the phone back with you giving them more money. It's really hard to learn all their is  about a phone by research and playing around with it in the shop thats if they have a display model. Only after you have the phone in real life experience and can spend some time you discover the pit falls. In most western countries you have a window of time to return a product if you are not happy with it, not here. The attitude is good when you are giving them money but there is no customer service when you have a issue with what you paid for. This  hold true 95% of the time, but there are occasions when you can receive decent service after the fact. I had similar experience in buying cloths and other items that had faults in manufacturing they refuse to exchange items once paid for. Another huge issue is the language barrier and it is massive even if they speak english they don't really care or try to understand you correctly. Their comprehension of english use of language is very poor, they will pretend they understand but really they don't have a clue what you are talking about nor will they admit it and try to understand. Don't get me wrong i love Vietnamese people in general but in some areas they have major issues. Of course this is their Country and the language is Vietnamese but and it's a large but, the Country wants to become part of the World community, and for better or worse the International standard in the world is a certain level of customer service and english language. Most Government official also have attitude issues towards foreigners and what i have been told they don't treat the locals much better. IS this a issue yes and no, it makes it very limited and time and energy consuming in transacting the simplest procedure here that are done on automatic pilot in my home country. Another interesting facet and this happens quite often they won't help you if you don't have your passport with you, you go home and bring back your passport and honestly they don't even look at it. It's laughable and this has happened to me many times,  dealing with post office, banks, getting an exchange sim for my phone etc, even getting a bonus from  the super market, go home get the passport then not even looked at or asked upon the return to shop for passport when i hold it in  hand, honestly they don't ask to look at it!

Isn't it great when we go and live in another country, we expect everything to be the same as back home?! How dare the Vietnamese not know English!!! Or recognise all the different accents. Or understand the poor English from the foreigner THEMSELVES!!!
One thing that DOES irritate me though is being followed around the shop by an assistant. Walk in and it's like a starter gun has been fired and one, sometimes two people will be up and alongside you. No matter where I wander, there they are - three feet away impersonating a magnet.
Some may argue that this is fantastic customer service - if you have a query, just turn around and ask! No searching forever for someone to assist you.....

Honesty they are studying english here in school from a young age these days. Mostly they don't attempt to apply what they learn. I understand that their language is very different and am sure the grammar difference would be huge. i feel sadden that i found out very quickly how difficult it is for me to speak Vietnamese because i am tone deaf!!! so of course i don't hear the tones. I live in Nha Trang and it is for sure different in Saigon...Here it is Russian and now Chinese that dominate the tourist district so english now as taken to the back of the qui. In any respects the question was asked for personal experience and when someones gives it why under value it. I don't expect this place to operate like the countries i come from. But i would like to see common sense used by people. of course in all countries many people lack common sense and consideration for others...especially with the internet where people in general attack each other over different points of view, it's a sorry state of affairs really. For one i have been traveling since 1969 and have stayed in many countries, Vietnam is a piece of cake compared to India from the 1970-1990'S.

Oh Jaya 1946 you have hit the nail on the head I have the same problem wearing hearing aids the tone just does not get through I sometimes if I talk to someone get them to spell the word  it can help

Hi

Yes, they do study English in school these days but have you seen the quality of teaching in state schools?  I have met state school English teachers and their level of English sometimes if often appalling. (something the government is currently addressing).

We also have to remember that the people we meet on a daily basis in shops and restaurants are low skilled, low paid workers. I am not sure if I am tone deaf but I can't get it either.

I have to agree Walter we had a new home completed in October last year. Getting the builder back to fix shonky workmanship was a pain in the arse & was never done properly. We purchased 6 Panasonic AC units 1 kept loosing gas we were charged $30 to re - gas it the fact that it was loosing gas didn't seem to be a problem to the service man (in & out as quick as possible).
We purchase all of our bathroom products from the 1 shop including our solar hot water system a good brand 2 of the evacuated tubes failed when we contacted the shop they didn't want any thing to do with it.
In both cases both issues were resolved by contacting the manufacturers who had good after sales service.
I think with the smaller companies it's a matter of making a quick buck & get out fast QA & QC are very poor.
How often when you go to a shop to ask for something you get that wave of the hand saying they don't stock it or don't understand. I have learnt to ask a second person & take pictures or download pictures of what I want on my phone especially in my specialty electrical & electronic items. I think a lot of the time they are just too bloody lazy.
Having said that it's not right across the board but the few who DGAF..K ruin it for the rest.
In respect of our house I have learnt a lesson from a friend who has built a few here in Nha Trang keep 10 to 20 percent of the final payment to be paid in  12 months of the completion date that way if you had the water & mold problems like we did you get them fixed.
On a final note if you want something done well over here do it yourself ---- no one to complain to

On the whole, my shopping experiences haven,t been bad, with most people doing their best to help, taking into consideration the language problem. However in my local shopping area I have had bad experiences where I am being served. A person will walk in, (men in all cases) go straight to the person already serving me and speak to them. My order is dropped and they are immediately attended to, which pisses me off greatly and I let them know before I walk out.The worst example was when  on one occasion I was buying vegetables, the guy had put all the things in a plastic bag, had the last item in his hand and was just about to put it into the bag. I had the money in my hand and the sale would be completed within seconds. BUT a guy walked in and spoke to the man serving me, who promptly put everything down and went to the back of the shop where he searched here and there before finding the 1 envelope that the guy wanted.I waited until he came back to me then I turned and walked out, with him calling after me. He lost my sale and the profit on it but what profit was on 1 envelope? This kind of thing has happened to me 5 times and no matter how my wife tries to rationalise things I come away with the feeling that they are just giving me the finger because I am a westerner, and that Vietnamese get priority.  These instances have only been in small suburban shops, not in larger shopping areas, and though they are only a tiny fraction of shopping experiences, they stick in my mind.

Yes Cabraman that does happen a lot

Ah Vietnam.

Perko54 wrote:

I have to agree Walter we had a new home completed in October last year. Getting the builder back to fix shonky workmanship was a pain in the arse & was never done properly. We purchased 6 Panasonic AC units 1 kept loosing gas we were charged $30 to re - gas it the fact that it was loosing gas didn't seem to be a problem to the service man (in & out as quick as possible).
We purchase all of our bathroom products from the 1 shop including our solar hot water system a good brand 2 of the evacuated tubes failed when we contacted the shop they didn't want any thing to do with it.
In both cases both issues were resolved by contacting the manufacturers who had good after sales service.
I think with the smaller companies it's a matter of making a quick buck & get out fast QA & QC are very poor.
How often when you go to a shop to ask for something you get that wave of the hand saying they don't stock it or don't understand. I have learnt to ask a second person & take pictures or download pictures of what I want on my phone especially in my specialty electrical & electronic items. I think a lot of the time they are just too bloody lazy.
Having said that it's not right across the board but the few who DGAF..K ruin it for the rest.
In respect of our house I have learnt a lesson from a friend who has built a few here in Nha Trang keep 10 to 20 percent of the final payment to be paid in  12 months of the completion date that way if you had the water & mold problems like we did you get them fixed.
On a final note if you want something done well over here do it yourself ---- no one to complain to

Ah Vietnam.  Where lasts weeks travel agent is this weeks electrician

Thanks, Cabraman!

I thought it might have been me!    Same deal, (but a girl)
literally pushed me aside to get served first, so I too, walked out.

..leaving the ice cream melting on the counter...

But then, (I am a known regular) at the pharmacy, and (again, a girl)
ignored me while pushing money at the assistant (who ignored her)
(and made small talk after the transaction)   After our 'Au Revoir'
and hand wave, I noted the surly look as she was then attended to.

Still, I doubt it is a 'Westerner' or Tourist thing, seems more like
(some) are unable to connect the dots, or is it the high emotional
manner they feel (forced?) to react to..? 

  Might be a mindset matter.       

I live in HCMC for 4 years now and do a lot of domestic travel. In my opinion the customer service in hotels, restaurants, coffee bars, shops etc is quite good. And if not, it is often a matter of awareness or language barrier, and not a lack of willingness. On the contrary, the state owned enterprises customer service is completely absent. The non-service provided by Vietnam Airlines (and they pretend to be leading 4 star airline thanks to ALL VALUED CUSTOMERS) ground staff in Hanoi is beyond imagination and up to insulting levels. Taxi drivers, also mainly in Hanoi, are another example with their continuous cheating.

I fly from Oz with Vietnam Airlines when you leave Sydney you get a feed then they get the passengers to close all the windows and go and hide this at 12.00 mid day siesta time.

Customer care is still in its infancy stage in Vietnam. Many people are mistaken that just by being friendly and courteous, customers will be happy. They do not realise that it takes much more to ensure customer expectations are met or exceeded. The entire process of customer experience must be managed consistently in order to attain customer satisfaction. I have seen inconsistency in customer service at shops and restaurants. Due to staff not consistent in their service levels, not every customer experience is similar in a store, simply because there is lack of training in processes and customer service as the focus is on selling the goods or service or simply taking orders. Most staff are not aware and do not go the extra mile and are unable to think outside the box when it comes to issues that are not straight forward. Product knowledge is lacking in many restaurants and shops as most staff are employed to be order takers and not serve customers with additional information. I have seen many shops and restaurants losing potential customers due to this. It is a pity but the owners of these businesses are not there to see the actual realistic situation at their shops or restaurants. Even for some of them who are present, they so not realise it. English language barrier is not the issue because I have witnessed hundreds of incidents even among Vietnamese staff and Vietnamese customers that always end up in confusion or wrong orders. However, most Vietnamese customers tend not to pursue the matter as they accept it as normal and this leads to no improvements at those businesses. There is a long way to go in order to "fix it right the first time" to avoid customer dissatisfaction and improve business by avoiding lost customers due to bad or normal service. When there is nothing special in service levels, a competitor can gain the business advantage if they think out of the box and do the right thing to win customers hearts. These comments are based on my own experiences and observations in Vietnam. However, with adequate training and know how, they can improve but it must begin with business owners that have the positive mindset and are willing to change for the better for the benefit of attaining more customers for their businesses.

Bazza139 wrote:

Thanks, Cabraman!

I thought it might have been me!    Same deal, (but a girl)
literally pushed me aside to get served first, so I too, walked out.

..leaving the ice cream melting on the counter...

But then, (I am a known regular) at the pharmacy, and (again, a girl)
ignored me while pushing money at the assistant (who ignored her)
(and made small talk after the transaction)   After our 'Au Revoir'
and hand wave, I noted the surly look as she was then attended to.

Still, I doubt it is a 'Westerner' or Tourist thing, seems more like
(some) are unable to connect the dots, or is it the high emotional
manner they feel (forced?) to react to..? 

  Might be a mindset matter.       

My wife tried to excuse the first time it happened by suggesting that maybe the person was in a hurry and that's why they got served ahead of me.  I said  " Well how about me? Maybe I'm in a hurry too. They don't know"     So 5 shops lost sales from me as well as  future custom as I won't be back to any of them.

Gharan wrote:

Customer care is still in its infancy stage in Vietnam. Many people are mistaken that just by being friendly and courteous, customers will be happy. They do not realise that it takes much more to ensure customer expectations are met or exceeded. The entire process of customer experience must be managed consistently in order to attain customer satisfaction. I have seen inconsistency in customer service at shops and restaurants. Due to staff not consistent in their service levels, not every customer experience is similar in a store, simply because there is lack of training in processes and customer service as the focus is on selling the goods or service or simply taking orders. Most staff are not aware and do not go the extra mile and are unable to think outside the box when it comes to issues that are not straight forward. Product knowledge is lacking in many restaurants and shops as most staff are employed to be order takers and not serve customers with additional information. I have seen many shops and restaurants losing potential customers due to this. It is a pity but the owners of these businesses are not there to see the actual realistic situation at their shops or restaurants. Even for some of them who are present, they so not realise it. English language barrier is not the issue because I have witnessed hundreds of incidents even among Vietnamese staff and Vietnamese customers that always end up in confusion or wrong orders. However, most Vietnamese customers tend not to pursue the matter as they accept it as normal and this leads to no improvements at those businesses. There is a long way to go in order to "fix it right the first time" to avoid customer dissatisfaction and improve business by avoiding lost customers due to bad or normal service. When there is nothing special in service levels, a competitor can gain the business advantage if they think out of the box and do the right thing to win customers hearts. These comments are based on my own experiences and observations in Vietnam. However, with adequate training and know how, they can improve but it must begin with business owners that have the positive mindset and are willing to change for the better for the benefit of attaining more customers for their businesses.

Well said, but I fear change will be a long time coming

Banning the use of phones at work would be a good start. The amount of times I have walked into a shop or cafe only to have the staff look up from their phones and then completely ignore me and go back to what they were doing.

I completly agree with you, your idea would be a very good start to get a better customer care.

Yes, great idea Col, but start where..?    ( The amount of times I have..? )
..seen the (seemingly ubiquitous?) texters blindwalking or worse, on a bike
with the worst being the indelible image of 5 on a scooter, (both) parents
texting with the 3 children's eyes saying 'stark terror'.   Dad was (not) driving...

..so (for me) customer care pales in significance...   ..to the (real?) problem...   

..which might be why the dots cannot be connected..?       

Well thread was about customer care, so I was basically referring to just that area of phone use.

My bad: I like to (ab) use phones...       

I agree; the total is more than the sum of the parts...     

lol customer service. Ever been to some of the Vietnamese businesses in the western world? How can people expect customer service in Vietnam when they can't even provide it in countries that have high expectation for customer services.

money talks in Vietnam. After having my ear checked at the local Vietnamese clinic close to my house for $80,000. They diagnose it as an ear rupture even though I experienced no pain. They gave me steroids and 2 other drugs. My questions were met with impatient. Next day I went down to Saigon's Family Medical Practice clinic. Great customer service, friendly staff that are patient and smiles Very helpful staff all around. The doctor diagnosis was cotton. He couldn't see a ruptured eardrum. Doctor was very patient answered all my concerns and explained everything well. Even had some side conversations. Prescribed me ear drops and my ear problems seems to have subsided so far.

Cost though was $1,000,000.  But well spent in my opinion.

A million bucks for a consultation..???           

Oh, why oh why did I give my medical studies away....!!!       

(LoL)  ..you DID mean Dong, didn't you..?????????????       

It was $42 USD whatever that was converted to in Dong for consultation..

..I was just kidding, Khan...         

Although it WAS free, back in my dark past, complete
with a chat and side stories.   A lot like this forum...         

khanh44 wrote:

lol customer service. Ever been to some of the Vietnamese businesses in the western world? How can people expect customer service in Vietnam when they can't even provide it in countries that have high expectation for customer services.

money talks in Vietnam. After having my ear checked at the local Vietnamese clinic close to my house for $80,000. They diagnose it as an ear rupture even though I experienced no pain. They gave me steroids and 2 other drugs. My questions were met with impatient. Next day I went down to Saigon's Family Medical Practice clinic. Great customer service, friendly staff that are patient and smiles Very helpful staff all around. The doctor diagnosis was cotton. He couldn't see a ruptured eardrum. Doctor was very patient answered all my concerns and explained everything well. Even had some side conversations. Prescribed me ear drops and my ear problems seems to have subsided so far.

Cost though was $1,000,000.  But well spent in my opinion.

I'm up in Dalat and my experiences with doctors diagnoses at the local hospital are not good and even my Vietnamese friends prefer to head to HCMC  for treatment rather than take a chance with a local doctor.  I had to do the mandatory health check prior to marriage and a problem was found when my heart was checked. Diagnosis?   Suspected aneurism in the aorta.  Went down to Tim Tam Duc heart hospital at district 7 in HCMC where I had multiple tests done and an aneurism was not found. It came down to a choice between coronary artery disease and hypertension. After 1 month on prescribed medication I returned for a heart stress test on a walking machine which eliminated coronary arterial disease.  I now take tablets for hypertension (blood pressure)   A friend of a friend here was involved in a motorbike ac
cident and had a leg badly damaged. Doctor told him nothing could be done and that it needed to be amputated.  He said no thanks and went down to HCMC where he had it operated on and the leg was saved.  As a consequence I only go to a local doctor for a minor complaint, and anything more than that   gets treated in HCMC  I agree with you about your doctors reaction to questions at your local clinic. It matches with my experiences with the local doctors, who do not like being questioned

Most Doctors in Viet Nam are decent. But, one should only get serious treatment in Ha Noi, Da Nang or Sai Gon. Except for some of the military hospitals, the hospital quality and the quality of the medical environment just is not there anywhere else.

We have had excellent treatment, within the capabilities of the local infrastructure and when they could not provide the level of care that we needed, our Doctors flat ordered us to go to Saigon. Note, the local Doctors also go to Ha Noi, Da Nang or Sai Gon when they have more serious issues.

Note, small town hospitals in rural America have similar issues. The differance being that in America most people are transferred to a big city hospital if appropriate. In Viet Nam, that only works for the relatively wealthy.

I think in relation to the doctors it's all about the level of education, it's just not available at the average medical university, that's why any doctor worth his salt heads overseas to gain better education.

I went to the local hospital to get treatment as it was TET and the better hospital had no staff due to the holiday,fantastic. The hospital didn't pick up on an abyss on my appendix and I went home and waited a few more days for the better hospital to start operating at full staff. They picked up the abyss and I then went to Saigon for treatment. The doctor at this hospital told me that if I waited too much longer I would have been dead. Never go to a local hospital or doctor if it's a serious issue, agree wholeheartedly. As others have said, just small issues are ok, anything above a cold or flu, head to the nearest major city.

colinoscapee wrote:

I think in relation to the doctors it's all about the level of education, it's just not available at the average medical university, that's why any doctor worth his salt heads overseas to gain better education.

Sort of.  Bác sĩ can refer to a Medical Doctor Bác sĩ tiến sĩ or a M.S. Nurse Practitioner Bác sĩ thạc sĩ. The other part is who paid for their training. If the Government paid, they must work for the Government until age 55. But, they can have their own Clinic, make house calls and practice Medicine in their own name, Bác sĩ tiến sĩ or Bác sĩ thạc sĩ. Those who pay for their own Education need to be employed by a hospital and can not practice medicine in their own name.

Note, this is way oversimplified.