Why Filipinos Will Never Get The Service They Deserve

Kyle Lasalita
Jul 24, 2017 · 5 min read

For a country dubbed as the best place to outsource your customer service, we are the worst in offering these so called ‘best’ service to our own people.

I’ve worked as a call center agent before and believe me I know what we are capable of and what we can offer. The patience we have for inconsiderate and rude people are to be admired for. But, why is it that when I ask people about a truly remarkable customer service experience, they take 2 minutes to come up with an answer as compared to when I ask them about a BAD experience they’ve had here? I’ve started a Reddit post here, if you’d want to check it out!

Here are 5 reasons why I think this is:

Lack of option

Normally, when people experience a really bad customer experience, they tend to do business elsewhere. Here in the Philippines, we still continue to do business with same company, despite the poor service only because we lack options

Take this Reddit story for example:

“Our area’s Jollibee has a habit of not updating their inventory. A lot of occasions, karamihan ng inoorder namin eh out of stock daw. So we end up ordering food we didn’t really crave for. I mean I love chicken joy and wouldn’t mind eating it every day, but minsan masarap din na regular yum with cheese di ba?

So minsan pagoorder kami ng regular yum with cheese, sasabihin ng hotline na wala daw. So chicken joy na lang kahit na gustong gusto ko yung yum.

Pagdating ng rider, tinatanong namin kung may yum with cheese sila. MERON DAW. Around mid last year, the rider told us to ask for an inventory update to make sure na updated yung system.”

It’s really sad, but it’s true and I hate the fact that it is. I’d really like a Chicken Joy now, damn.

We are excruciatingly patient and forgiving creatures

Filipinos are known for being the best when it comes to sucking it up. One good example is the MRT, we consistently complain about how terrible the service is. However, we learned to live with it and have even adjusted our own schedules just to wake up early and line up.

Take this Reddit story for example:

“BPI’s phone lines are notorious for wait times.”

Yes, being patient and forgiving is something that we should be proud of, but sometimes when we see or experience something really bad, we should at least try to do something about it rather than just shrugging it off. As simple as talking to the person in charge and (calmly) providing your feedback, sending an email to the company who mistreated you. Let people know about your bad experience with a company. You never know what change you could do.

Even if we know that most of our complaints will be handled blindly, we have the responsibility to let them know how bad their services are.

We don’t know how to complain

This is heavily connected to the last point. I believe that we lack the art or the knowledge on how to properly complain.

I usually see people in restaurants complaining how slow the service is or how bad the food is, but I rarely see people who are good complainers.

The key to a good complaint is by being CALM. Yes, believe me, that is the only way to go. If you want to get what you want in a super fast manner, remain C-A-L-M.

We usually attribute shouting and talking down to people the best way to complain, I myself am guilty of this sometimes.

But, to truly get what you want, you have to stay calm. Call for a manager if no one is present, ask for a complaint hotline or email, if none try to send an email directly to the company office.

Why do you need to be calm? Because you need all the energy to properly explain what went wrong. You want to do this as efficiently as you can and shouting at someone isn’t going to do that for you. Also, a calmly and well-versed threat is a hundred times more effective than a person shouting “I will sue all of you!!!”

A calm person during a customer service failure will usually get the best treatment, because one, people won’t be as scared to talk to you, second, you’ll discreetly shame them and they’ll most likely offer you something else in return.

We do not read

FAQ’s are totally worthless here. You can plaster your FAQ everywhere and someone will still ask you the most obvious question.

This is especially true for any online shops/websites. People would rather talk to someone on how they can buy, rather than reading the FAQ and finding it out on their own. Well, yes customer service reps are paid to do that, but wouldn’t it even be better if we could use that time to answer more relevant questions?

Start reading, it greatly helps and makes you even smarter. Be a smart shopper. Help us, help you. Read.

We do not value training

Most businesses do not value customer service training, I’ve only heard of a handful of businesses that offer specific courses for these and they obviously outperform most businesses by a mile! Take for example Starbucks.

Training specifically for customer service is crucial, especially if you’re starting out. You might think that you have the coolest website, the niftiest product or the best cold brew coffee in town, but if your people lack training, you’ll slowly die.

Most businesses also take these kinds of training for granted, they feel that this is something that any person can provide and it’s something innate to Filipinos (obviously not). Also, mostly because big companies employ people on a contractual basis. They feel that it doesn’t make sense to invest in someone who will only stay for a couple of months. While that is true, it still isn’t as profitable if you trained someone, to begin with.

Let’s say, Jollibee has a local competitor, Jolliboy. Jollibee doesn’t offer customer service training, but Jolliboy does. They both have the same crispylicious, juicylicious chicken. But at the end of the day, Jolliboy still earns more, even if he has spent more money on training.

Why? Because of the repeat customers, people flocking the good word on how amazing their service (and food) is and people switching from Jollibee to Jolliboy. Imagine if we have this kind of choice? Jollibee would have closed down years ago.

What am I getting at here?

It is by providing consistent wonderful and pleasant customer experience that a business can greatly improve their competitive advantage.

Let’s reevaluate and reinvent the customer service experience here in our country.

Let me know in the comments if you have some bad or good customer experiences, I’d really like to hear them.

P.S. I love Jollibee and I only used them as an example above, please do not take them seriously and don’t hate me. I love my Chicken Joy and my Peach Mango Pie.


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Kyle Lasalita

Written by

Customer Service Professional | Customer Service Head at Shirt.ly | Awesome dad ✌️

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