Cultural Differences
I talk to people all over the world in my job, and over the past six months I have noticed a few fundamental differences in how they approach their job.
Europeans are my baseline. They are generally very knowledgeable about what they do – not all of them, but most of them. They are no-nonsense and interested in solving problems without assigning blame because they do understand Murphy’s Law very well. French customers will always ask for French support even when their English is quite good.
I seem to get a lot of Americans whose knowledge of the subject matter is very basic. Not all, mind you – but a lot seem to require much less advanced help than Europeans. Management escalations also seem to be more common and more serious for them.
Japanese customers are very precise in their questions and will want to know the answers in unending detail. They’ll often follow up with questions for clarification or further details. It seems like they want to know every quirk and every contingency. I think this is their way of covering themselves in case their co-workers, bosses, or customers ask them and they do not want to have to reply “I do not know”.
Indians are the most “difficult” of the bunch. They seem to lack creativity and they will often ask a question multiple times, even after it has been answered. For example, I had one customer who asked me every few minutes “Can just reboot the device on our end?” – to which I repeatedly told him, “No, do not do this, you will lock yourself out of it.” They also expect you to babysit them the most, and they will very often ask you to “give them an official answer in writing for my management”. The reason for this is very simple; it seems that in India, an employee can – and often will – get fired for the smallest mistake. I actually can understand it – if there is almost no job security, you will not want to risk yours by taking any chances. Still, it makes working with them a little difficult at times. At least the Indian guys are unfailingly polite and exceedingly patient.
