Saturday, July 16, 2005
Just a note!
--- Devendra Mehta <d_mehta@mail.com> wrote:
> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:29:17 -0500
> From: "Devendra Mehta" <d_mehta@mail.com>
> To: jawad@alumni.washington.edu
> Subject: Just a note!
Well.... I am sure like a few others, I was searching for something entirely
different about emirates and ended up here... and it has been quite an
interesting read so far... I come from the service industry as well.... so does
my husband and my sister and a dozen others from my family, working at
different corners of the world and in different service industries...
restaurants, hotels, airlines... I do empathize with the crew members, because
I do deal with a number of rude clients almost every single day... people of
different nationality... You can find rude people from every nationality and
not everyone who has logdged a complaint is an indian or paki... they are
spread all over... We own a chain of restaurants... I have a no of americans
who work for.... who are down right rude... But we are where we are today only
because of the basic hospitality that we learnt from our families and later
from our profession - I go to the client and apologise for sometimes no fault
of mine... its because every client is important... I have to agree with a
message posted by another visitor... Basics of Hospitality industry says -
Guests are always right... and there are no 2 ways about it... not with your
mighty talks... not even when you get low down to your racism.... it might just
trigger anger in relegious fanatics... but not with everyone... trust me...
Dont generalize... I haven't made a single complaint at any restaurant, any
hotel or with any airlines in a number of years... its not beacause its always
a great experience... I have lost baggages, my flights have been delayed and we
have been stranded in airports, once worse, because the bathroom was locked...
dont ask me why... Its only because I know the pain that you guys go
through.... in satisfying the needs of everyone... but thats who we are and our
profession demands that... if you cannot do that, you should look for a nice
white color jobs... and not everyone who migrates to another country does so
because they dont feel patriotic enough about their lands... I have been
travelling ever since I was a kid... and I have lived with people from every
walk of life... but thats because of my passion for travel and my passion to
know people and different traditions and cultures... and not because I cannot
afford decent living in my own land... I have had some wonderful experiences
with emirates, gulf, singapore, quantas... and many others... I fell sick
during one of my journeys.... and I was flying emirates... My co passenger was
nice enough to move to an unoccupied seat, though it was right next to the
toilet....and he was Indian, A french traveller got me inhalers and other cold
medicines to control my cough... and the middle eastern air hostess, came to me
atleast once every half hour to check my temparature, and to give me my
antibiotics... she woke me up a number of times inspite of my do not disturb
for meal sign... out of concern... because she didnt want me to sleep with just
medicines... she got me help at Dubai airport so that someone can take me to my
next flight... and even there steward was one of the nicest guys ever.... I
dont remember his natioanality... Sometimes experiences can go bad... real
bad... but as people from hospitality back ground... we need to do just that...
be hospitable and smile... you always meet that one nice customer... who makes
that difference... and to those ever complaining guests... just imagine
yourself in the shoes of the airhostess or a waiter in a restaurant... and just
remember... you are not the only guest they have to attend to!!!! and learn to
say "Please" and "Thank you" sometimes...
