Now the funny and interesting thing I read about Twitter® the other day was how the “hash”(#) came into usage. The community apparently was to blame or acclaim for this, and it makes for most interesting searches on Twitter®. You may also save searches on topics of interest for you, and it will show you everyone’s posts, no matter if you’re following them already or not. Try for instance searching for “apple“® and then searching for “#apple“®. Imagine now how useful it would be if all traffic related issue to Luxembourg was for example tagged with a #trafficlu? You get into your car, you quickly check your saved search, see the most recent tweets first, with their respective geotags. I am sure, but have not checked, that you could even limit the tweets showing in that search to those relatively close to you, say within 10km?

Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated, and of course it would be fantastic if you tried using it yourself/started spreading the idea

The only thing, and this is so far the only negative part, please please PLEASE drive carefully. If you’re just passing some incident, stop your car a little further, and only then tweet about it!

My journey began looking for “gluey-stuff-removers” in the paint section, and as I needed to remove this stuff from my car, I wanted to make sure the remover wouldn’t scrape the paint off the car. After quite some time, the laid-back lady behind the counter took a customer enquiry over the phone and after a few mumblings replied: “Vous parlez français aussi?” (Do you also speak French?). This being a common point of discussion in Luxembourg with 3 official languages, but not everyone speaking all of them, I didn’t catch the drift right away. She then said in a rather assertive tone “Je vous passe mon collègue!” (I’ll pass you over to my colleague) and actually slammed the phone so hard onto the counter I thought it must be broken – my eyes shut instinctively as I was afraid there might be some flying pieces of plastic! She finished it off by telling her colleague smugly: “Il a bien compris ce que je lui disais en français hein!” (He had no issues understanding my French).

I myself have been in the situation where I was asked if I spoke French, and of course always switched for as long as it was asked in a minimally polite sort of way. But I’ve also seen some very stubborn Luxembourgers, bordering xenophobic convictions, that just plainly refuse to speak any other language than their own, and in that moment, I right away thought it must be one of them impolite buggers. To my surprise, the colleague who took over the call spoke to the customer in his limited grasp of German, yet managed to explain everything that was asked of him – the lady before probably just had not liked being reminded she only spoke French. Whilst communication can always be mistaken and misinterpreted, what shocked me most in this service failure, was that the lady did not mind responding in such a harsh and aggressive way in front of me and several other stunned customers (during the moment, several of us exchanged perplexed looks and shrugs). And as you can imagine, when she asked me what I needed, I made sure to ask her in French!

My journey then continued into the land of electronic tools and car equipments, and this was the sort of Lost Land I have been mentioning in other posts. I waited at the information counter whilst several workers from other sections walked past, making sure there was no eye-contact, and all the while being watched by several cashiers that weren’t really all that busy. I stood there for about 20 minutes, looking around, trying to be spotted, with my position in front of the counter clearly stating: “I need some advice”. After the 20 minutes, I obviously had enough, and in my usual punishing ways decided that from then onwards, I would take my custom elsewhere, and make sure not to tell them (they might learn from it)! Whilst checking out my few more urgent items, I noticed this manager-type of person running through the lines whilst talking on the phone, and by his second run through the lines, he actually called one of the cashiers to make sure they’d call someone to man the area. This put a smile on my face as not only I but several other customers that had been waiting there were all in the line and ready to leave.

My conclusions of this shouldn’t be all too harsh I assume, and this is why I recommend going to Hornbach only if you know exactly what you’re doing. Some of their stuff is good quality at a fair price. If you’re not sure, you’re probably most certainly better off somewhere else.

To managers, “Management By Walking About” is not the worst idea, and in the case of Hornbach, MBWA would certainly do everyone well! If you can’t manage your staff in any sort of way, you should consider replacing them. And lastly, for everyone that has employees picking up the phone to strangers, make sure they are trained! If they don’t speak the other languages, that shouldn’t be an issue and the normal procedure should be to politely divert the call to someone who speaks it – if the call escalates, the caller should be transferred to the manager, who then needs to settle the issue, all the while making sure not to undermine his employees (when the team knows you have their back, they will have your back too – at least in my experience ).

Then came the era in Luxembourg (finally) where you could buy tickets at cinema online or at small self-checkouts, and along came IKEA and Auchan and more organisations such as Quick. Whilst the first 3 really do seem to make it a quicker experience for me, the 4th was still dependent on the speed of the person serving my order as that process could not be transferred to me.

But the most pressing thought that just popped to my mind is that even if it is not really quicker or more convenient, I’d still have a tendency to just use the machines anyways, as it removes in most cases a variable that is a potentially bigger burden than a potential improvement: customer service!

If I go to IKEA and manage to not speak to any unhappy/overloaded member of staff, yet purchase everything I had planned to, I would consider myself to be very satisfied. Knowing that I might miss out on a potentially terribly friendly and enjoyable person without the machine is less of a problem to me than the risk of having to deal with a foul-mouthed opposite.

Today, whenever I see one of those automated machines, I use it even if the till next to it is free. Call me anti-social, but I’d rather call myself anti-rude-service. Where does that leave us with the paradigm shift? Whilst years back, a valid way to increase custom was to provide good service, today, a valid way could be to automate service and remove the human factor – skynet much? Syndicates, don’t fight for your right for a job, fight for the support required to do a good job!

I guess, and this is my last conclusion for now, that I’d only consider the automated version if I had doubts my employees’ customer service was not up to my own standards. But please, everyone reading this, if you have employees providing bad service, replace them with a machine!

Now when I try to extrapolate, I can understand that in other circumstances (read: other cultures), this may be a common approach: joking about guilting customers in increasing their custom, but to me and quite a few of my local peers, this has been and still is very strenuous as I (we) do care a lot about what people think about me (us). It has now gone as far as to make me consider choosing another place for the time being where I can just go to, not befriend and just transact with at a superficial level where quality/price ratio is the only important variable.

This cultural distance and its negative effects should however not really exist as the second party in play has actually been living and working in Luxembourg for nearly 20 years, but still, I wonder how this could have gone so far. Is Luxembourg and its culture really so different? Is it really so stuck-up and easily offended? Or is it just that the paradigm of me and the people I consulted about this has shifted?

When I was younger, it was invaluable to me to go places and be recognized, appreciated, and treated as “a buddy”, even in a business context. I guess I could have appreciated these sorts of jokes even, maybe even a lot! But today, it seems I value the other aspects more: ease of access, ease of transaction, ability to “log off”…
When written down like this, it also reminds me of my relationship to my phone on weekends where every ringing or beeping seems intrusive. Am I shutting down?

But what is there to learn from this? That customer paradigms shift? That every service person needs to have a lot of experience in reading body language and non-verbal communication? That near-endless opportunities and the anonymous internet may volatilize your customers?
I am not sure, but would appreciate your thoughts on this!

So a week later (yay), not really happy anymore with the promise of the friendly man, I called them again, and I was told he’d call back. A few days still later, I decided to go to the competition’s shop, and purchased what I needed there, and though the security levels were lower, it also came at a very low price. However, another week later, the man finally called me back with a quote that was twice as high as what I’d already paid, but still a low price, considering that the security was almost twice as strong; he told me he couldn’t order it without a deposit, so I decided to check it out.

That is when I thought I’d traveled to another, “lonely”, planet. In the whole shop, there must have been about 5 employees, and about 50 customers, each looking for answers to their questions, and none of the employees seeming all to be happy to be working. They were happy to chat to each other, but as soon as they were “interupted”  by customers with questions, I thought I’d recognized a couple of looks from old Westerns.

Luckily, I caught a hold of a “dry” man rather quickly, and explained the phonecalls to him; he tried (a little) to find the order, with no luck of course, but said he could just do a new one, on the spot. The price was slightly higher, but I’d actually chosen to go for a still slightly better solution, and I asked him to proceed. Apart from all else that seemed to go wrong there, I wondered why the other friendly bloke was unable to give me a quote over the phone as the quote in itself had taken no more than 2 minutes, and why he’d taken nearly 3 weeks.

The new guy then informed me I had to pay for a deposit of nearly 80% of the cost (?), and asked me that I “by all means” not loose the paper that confirmed me paying the deposit. Then, the woman cashing in did not speak to me as I’d dared interrupt her call about the previous night’s adventure to the other cashier, and nearly broke my credit card whilst swiping it. That was a key moment where I thought to myself that I really needed to build up more courage so that next time I am in this sort of situation, I cancel the order and walk out tall, right there, right then.

A few days later, I received a call, went to pick up the stuff, but forgot the receipt in the car. At checkout, I apologized and said it was in the car, and that I’d get it for her if she wanted, but she said no, no need. This was all-in-all a really frustrating experience to me, although I must say, the locks in themselves are really rather good (hence the 2 stars). But at checkout, I noticed that there was an employee of the month contest, where customers could vote for a member of staff. I wondered if anyone had considered voting for any member of staff yet…has anyone had a good experience at Batiself yet?

So basically, as mentioned before, I really do enjoy going to good restaurants and have a good time with my friends. There are a few very usual places for me such as Adriano’s or Kyoto, but there are also a few more that I enjoy going to if I want to have a little change: Bacano, Miggi’s in Bonnevoie, Lo Sfizio, Patagonia and so on. But none of them seems to be opened on Monday nights! Now in a very catholic country such as Luxembourg, I would be totally understanding of restaurants being closed on Sundays (which most are anyway), but why are my favorites ALL closed on Mondays? Is it a common but secret knowledge that Monday is dine-at-home night? Or is it more the fact that they all tried Mondays, but as there might really be less customers out on Mondays, they all decided at the same time to be closed on Mondays?

It seems crucial to me that whatever business you’re in, that you identify the needs of customers. When I “roam the city” on a Monday night, there are people out there. To me it seems like at least as many as on a Tuesday or a Thursday. Then why not change the pace and announce: “We are opened on Mondays!”

For as long as I remember, my parents and I would go to this place called Pall Center in Oberpallen. It was a petrol station with a very very very large shopping area it was explained to me; effectively, it is a shopping center with a petrol station, but it has been that way for, well, as long as I remember. They are as a petrol station allowed to be opened on Sundays and close on Mondays instead. For as long as I remember, it was common knowledge for everyone in the area I lived in that if you needed anything on a Sunday, Pall Center was there for you; all others were closed. At the same time, everyone knew it unfortunately had to be closed on Mondays. But then again, every single Sunday, you’d have a huge mass of people in the place – all staff needed to be there on Sundays, and I can only assume it was and still is their biggest day of the week. Any why? Because they filled a gap! Pall Center is market-lead, it recognized a long time ago that people that worked during the week would enjoy shopping on a sunday, rather than just sit at home – as society shifted you might guess? Less church going, less family feasting, less “old-fashioned” families…

So if a shift might be guessed in eating patterns, I’d definitely put my money on more and more people dining out on Mondays. The first “good” restaurant to respond to this I am sure will benefit from first-mover-advantage, and with a message as simple as mentioned before: “We are OPENED on Mondays!”

Can’t wait to leave for another road-trip, with Chris, and I’m sure it’ll be lots of fun! In the mean time, and for your very own pleasure, a few pictures from past trips to Innsbruck.

You are taught to sit up straight, not to play with your phone, generally: to follow standards that were in some case created hundreds of years ago. You are also asked to order from a menu as this is what the chef decided to be the best – the chef’s rules so to speak.

Now it seems that the older you get, the more you start appreciating them rules not being applied for you (or is that just me?). When I go to a restaurant, and I fancy a particular dish, but with a different side or prepared in a different way, and the waiter/chef agrees to this without any issues, I feel valued in my desires as a customer. The same goes for me going to a restaurant in a very casual attire, and not being looked at funny, as this confirms to me that my personality is more likeable than my clothing style is dis-likeable.

It has come to my attention that asian (in particular chinese) restaurants apply this to new as well as to existing customers. If there is a particular dish you fancy that is not on the menu, and if they for instance bought this type of dish for their family, they will still prepare it for you. If you go to a chinese restaurant at 4 in the afternoon, for as long as there is someone there that knows how to start the oven, they will prepare a delicious meal for you. I am under the impression that only Adriano&Co in Luxembourg has the same positive approach as a non-asian restaurant.

The question remains whether this makes me feel:

• valued as a customer as they build their model around me
• or important enough for the others to break their rules to please me

What do you think, and do you believe other service providers should bend their rules more often? Should the rules be adapted so as to reflect the needs of a changing society? No more menus or fixed serving times –> flexibility for workers that need to work ever more flexible hours?

Going back just a slight step, some may remember my episode with Luxair in 2007? Where I was not allowed to “lateboard” (or JIT-board if you like ) a plane in London City Airport as I looked like a student? If you don’t, here’s the brief summary:

I was travelling the UK for a few days to meet the EF School staff on site as this was helpful for sales in the Luxembourg office. Extremely exhausting as it was, I arrived at London City Airport late, 30 minutes before departure, but I had one bag filled with all the stuff that needed to be scanned, and in the other hand my papers (no checkin luggage), so in theory, I could have been at the gate in 8 minutes (I’ve managed that in the past). The guy informed me it was too late, and when I pointed my preparedness out to him, he agreed to call the gate. Whilst in call, he looked at me, replied to the other person: “no, a student”, hung up and informed me that it was indeed too late, and I needed to buy another ticket. It took me a few minutes on my way to ticketing to realize what had happened, and so for the longest time, all new EF students would fly with VLM instead of Luxair – I couldn’t risk them being refused boarding just because they looked like a student!

Then however, I managed to get a hold of the marketing director at Luxair, a very friendly fella, who apologized for all the mishaps (there had been quite a few after that), and asked what it was he could do for me. So I informed him I was not the goal, that it was the students that should get a good deal, which he gladly agreed to, and this is how Luxair got back to being in my good books, and we sent quite a few students to London, Nice, Barcelona with Luxair after that.

And as a good planner, for this holiday, I decided to compare offers, and funnily enough, I found the best deal for me to be flying with Luxair, so I booked the ticket a good month and a half in advance at 165€. When I was feeling so off the day before the flight, I decided to ring Luxair and seek out options, coughing and drowzy as I was. I pressed 2 for french, and then explained to the german (?) service rep that I was really quite ill and looking for options, not reimbursement, just ideally the chance to fly a day or two later. He informed me it would certainly cost something, and I said I totally agreed to it, that I was just happy to be able to change the departure flight as I was feeling really rather terrible.

After a couple of minutes waiting, the guy got back to me and said he was afraid he had bad news. In my ticket, it was saying something along the lines of: you can not change this flight, and you can only get reimbursed in case of death, or in case of death from a person of the closest family.

1. This is the kind of information they should give you at booking: not changeable, or changeable only under these conditions. To me, their terms only meant: changes cost money.
2. If I was to die, who in their right set of mind would think of calling Luxair to get a less than 200€ ticket reimbursed?
3. If you have someone call, that is very obviously very sick, very open to suggestions, and absolutely ok with paying an additional fee to change one of the “flight-legs”, you really shouldn’t close down all options at the first opportunity.
4. The fee he could have charged me could have been up to the price of a new ticket, my price-sensitivity was at its lowest as I was just hoping to find any kind of solution. Today, I am feeling much better, as anticipated, and because of their lack of flexibility, London was ruined for me.
5. If you give people a choice for language, make sure it works.

As the typical annoying customer that I am, this can only mean one thing to me: Luxair, you’re back in my bad books, and this time, I won’t continue trying to support local businesses: you ruined my trip to London just before Christmas! **two thumbs up – yay**

In case you didn’t know, VLM changed names to Cityjet: New Name, Same Great Service. I remember flying VLM when I was still at Uni in London (Luxair’s student fee was only valid until the age of 24, and a good friend pointed out VLM to me), and I flew back to London once with a case of the flu that wasn’t as bad as this one, but upon entering the cabin, I asked the crew if it was at all possible to seat me somewhere without anyone next to me as I did not wish to pass the flu onto anyone else. They agreed in a very charming manner, got back to me with a glass of water even before departure to make sure I could take any medicine I might wish to take, and came to see me regularly to ask if everything was ok for me. This is what I call a good memory of flying, and this is what I will choose again in the future.

I still leave it up to you though what company you decide to fly with, but my priorities are set: VLM (Cityjet), Eurostar, Car, Bicycle, Walking, Luxair.