Customer service in France: a privilege for the few, not the many
France is not known for its customer service. Millions of tourists complain about it regularly. But those lucky enough to go to luxury hotels and restaurants, to shop in luxury shops and relax in luxury spa resorts know that France does know how to treat people amazingly well… when they’re rich.
France’s leader and luxury industries believe our entire economy and strategy can be based on the success of industries that cater only to a small minority composed of Saudi sheiks, Russian oligarchs, Chinese businessmen and very few well-off French people. But should our country depend on them? Aren’t we doomed if we do?
The digital revolution has had one major consequence: it’s made customer service the norm, not the exception. As a Venture Hacks post wonderfully put it, the “entrepreneurial age” is about “the ability to serve a customer at the highest level of quality and scale, simultaneously.” Therefore, the post says, “the best strategy is to attempt to deliver the highest quality with the highest scale”. Only companies that deliver the best product and service quality at the highest scale, i.e. for the masses, will survive, which means the very idea of service or product quality for a privileged few is not compatible with a post-digital-revolution world.
For a country that prides itself on its revolution, on defending human rights (“Liberté, égalité, fraternité”) and being profoundly republican, everyday life in France still reminds at times of the “ancien régime”. As far as customer service is concerned, France is still a kingdom: only nobility and clergy (approximately 2% of France’s population under the ancien régime) deserve to be treated well, while the “third estate”, i.e. everyone else, is left with high taxes, low purchasing power, very little customer service, and little social mobility.
When President Hollande campaigned to become president, he insisted he rejected all of France’s pervading monarchic symbols and wanted to be a “normal” president (whatever that means). Once elected, of course, he found himself in constant contradiction with that initial intention. How can anyone look “normal” in the gilded Elysée Palace, one of the most outrageously luxurious presidential palaces one can imagine, with an army of servants at one’s every beck and call?
Old French habits die hard.
Serving is still often unconsciously seen as demeaning in France. But serving the nobility isn’t, because noble people are served by noble people. Of course the nobility per se isn’t as relevant as it once was (but is it really?) but the culture of service reserved for a few remains deeply ingrained in French culture. So you can only expect quality service if:
- you’re super rich or powerful
- you’re a friend (= on a equal footing)
- you expressly show you accept to submit: first say “bonjour” (never ever forget to say “bonjour” first), then say “excusez-moi” (yes, you have to be sorry you have to ask for something), and finally, with the sweetest voice possible, ask for what you want (you can also ask for the person’s expert advice / opinion on the thing you want).
- you’re a true gorilla, use scary threats and are violent, in which case you are perceived as belonging to category 1. (rich or powerful)
But France hasn’t been spared by the digital revolution… and little by little the French have been won over by the new “entrepreneurial age” paradigm. We’ve embraced it with enthusiasm because we like customer service more than anyone else … precisely because we’ve been so deprived of it. We like it so much we can go to many lengths to find it. Average French consumers accept to pay more for quality food and service than average German and American consumers ever will (they like it cheap). We are addicted to TripAdvisor and love making lists of the best value-for-money (service-for-money) restaurants.
According to a recent survey, frozen-food chain Picard is French consumers’ favorite retail chain. Picard delivers American-style quality service for the many: Picard employees fill your grocery bags for you, say hello, are nice and seem to mean it, don’t expect customers to be subservient, have great quality products, well-designed stores. Price doesn’t matter much (Picard is actually quite expensive… but it’s not seen as luxury: it is for the “third estate” as well as for the rich). Though not a tech company, Picard is in fact a company that has understood the digital revolution: it has multiplied the number of its stores so as to be closer to its urban customers, it is constantly working on quality and it offers great customer service.
Luckily for us, Picard isn’t the only company that has understood that customer service is of the essence. There are numerous restaurants, shops, and startups that have made it their utmost priority. But most large French old world corporations, airline companies (Air France), banks, retails chains, administrations, have not. They should ponder Alibaba CEO Jack Ma’s wise motto: “Customers first, employees second, and shareholders third” (Jack Ma wrote that in a letter in Alibaba’s IPO filing last month valuing the company as high as $162.7 billion) because that’s how a company thrives after the digital revolution. It’s either customer service for all or slow death. No subsidy and no regulation can change that…
