India Alive

My opinion about the Reader's Digest Survey

2006-06-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Hope you have read about the survey, its results and counter-arguments.

"It really comes down to one word -- respect," says Leonard Berry, director of Texas A&M University's Center for Retailing Studies. "We've collected the most common service complaints, and every one of them is rooted in lack of respect for the customer."

Here are my views on this topic.

Indian shopkeepers have do a long way to go in terms of customer service and customer handling.
Shopkeepers and service providers behave to customers as if the customers are at the mercy of the shopkeepers.
Almost 70% of sellers are like this, and of course there are some good and helpful sellers or merchants.

Indians must improve in the way they handle customers, and sellers must keep in mind that customers provide the money and not the other way around and give due respect to customers.

A small advice to Indians is that, "please be courteous and helpful to customers, whatever maybe your business, this one single attitude will increase your business many-fold".

Arguments against the survey

2006-06-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

1. On what basis only 35 countries were selected? What were the criteria chosen in this survey? Why not other countries?

2. Why did Reader’s Digest research team choose only Mumbai and not any other city in India? Mumbai is known for its commercial characteristics and knowledge hub and in general they are known for their modest behavior. I agree that certain cities in North India may lack some sort of civic sense but not Mumbai at all. I strongly suspect its findings.

3. How did its research team develop the questions which they considered as an indicator of rudeness? Was the questionnaire or criteria developed by experts or social scientists or by using a Delphi technique?

4. Most importantly, I am seriously asking, what was “THE RESPONSE BIAS AND NON-RESPONSE BIAS” in the survey? To what extent the findings about Mumbai were statistically significant?

5. By simply giving marks, out of 100, they can't draw inferences or conclusions. For this type of survey, the research team should have developed an index.

6. Before drawing inferences, the research team should have considered the cultural dimensions of Asian societies as explained by Professor G. Hofestede. Asian societies are generally more conservative and shy.
They do not mix up easily with strangers. At the same time, they may not say "Thank you" using English language rather may express thanks in their own language. It appears to us that the researchers have biased mind in jumping to conclusions.

7. Even if, I believe that Readers' Diggest survey findings are correct with some margin of error, Mumbaikar rudeness may be 100 times better than the racial discrimination and hatred attitudes shown by people in London, NY, and other major cities in Europe and North America.

8. Mr. Sanjay from Delhi also argues that "possibly Mumbai has ended up bearing the brunt of a faulty methodology, designed by a Western mind for Western cities. This may be the reason why New York has fared so well". This strong possibility may not be ruled out in these survey findings.

Dr. P.L. Joshi, is a Professor, Editor-in-Chief: Int Journal of Acc. Auditing and Peforamnce Evaluation, UK Managing Editor: Afro-Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting. He submitted this article to “Asian Tribune.”

- Asian Tribune -

The List of cities and their ranking of politeness

2006-06-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

New York	USA	80%
Zurich	Switzerland	77
Toronto	Canada	70
Berlin	Germany	68
São Paulo	Brazil	68
Zagreb	Croatia	68
Auckland	New Zealand	67
Warsaw	Poland	67
Mexico City	Mexico	65
Stockholm	Sweden	63
Budapest	Hungary	60
Madrid	Spain	60
Prague	Czech Republic	60
Vienna	Austria	60
Buenos Aires	Argentina	57
Johannesburg	South Africa	57
Lisbon	Portugal	57
London	United Kingdom	57
Paris	France	57
Amsterdam	Netherlands	52
Helsinki	Finland	48
Manila	Philippines	48
Milan	Italy	47
Sydney	Australia	47
Bangkok	Thailand	45
Hong Kong		45
Ljubljana	Slovenia	45
Jakarta	Indonesia	43
Taipei	Taiwan	43
Moscow	Russia	42
Singapore		42
Seoul	South Korea	40
Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia	37
Bucharest	Romania	35
Mumbai	India	32

Mumbai : Rudest city on Earth

2006-06-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

Mumbai - India's crowded commercial centre Mumbai drives the nation's rapid economic growth but is far too busy to say "thank you," making it the world's rudest city, according to a survey.

Reader's Digest performed a survey recently.
Its about the helping tendency and common courtesy.
They performed three experiments:
"door tests" (would anyone hold one open for them?);
"document drops" (who would help them retrieve a pile of "accidentally" dropped papers?); and
"service tests" (which sales clerks would thank them for a purchase?).

These tests were done undercover, ie, no one knew that they are being tested!

And the results say that Mumbai is the rudest while New York is the most helpful and courteous city.