Cultural differences in international business are some of the trickiest things to navigate. Today, I had two separate incidents that highlighted differences in the culture.
1. La Senora with whom I've been staying went out (I assume to grocery shop as they do it practically every day). After about a half an hour, I heard the doorbell ringing. I then heard the doorbell of all the neighbors ringing. Another 30 minutes or so goes by before the lady of the house was able to get someone to let her in. Apparently, her key (which has an electronic code) stopped working. She asked me why I didn't open the door when I heard the bell. I didn't open the door because:
a. I would never open the door at someone else's house
b. I thought it was a peddler going door to door.
I think my reaction was fairly typical to what most Americans would do. We tend to want to keep to ourselves and not get involved. When I realized what I had not done, I felt terrible. I tried to explain that on Saturdays especially in the U.S. is the day for peddlers to go door to door. She said in Spain there is no such thing. Ok, so now I know.
2. I was at the store waiting to be helped. I stood at the cashier for what seemed to be an eternity. He didn't so much look up for get about acknowledge me. He was working on something else but my expectation was that he would have at least said "I'll be with you in a minute". I guess he figured I knew that.
One thing that seems to always be a challenge for Americans going abroad is our expectation of customer service. We need to remember that the type of customer service may be different. Case in point, after the gentleman directed me to another part of their store, I found a salesclerk who was more than helpful and was chatting me about a variety of things. I think it was because I had asked for something very specific to the Spanish culture and he was delighted that I had taken an interest in this.
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