Customer Service - Difference Between India and US/Europe

On a recent visit to the US and Europe, I witnessed the difference between Customer Service (CS) in Europe/US vis-a-vis India in the airline industry.  This is for face-to-face situations (and not over telephone).

Firstly, there is mutual respect in the US/Europe. In the US/Europe the CS execs are normally senior and empowered to take decisions.  In India, normally the CS execs are relatively junior or inexperienced, and normally have to escalate an issue to their supervisor for resolution.

Secondly, in the US/Europe, if you stand in a queue you are reasonably assured that a solution will be provided - or at least a date will be given by when the problem will be resolved.  Both the customer and the CS executive tend to be polite and patient because there are clear guidelines on how to resolve a problem.  In India unfortunately the CS person is normally unclear about how to resolve an issue because the guidelines are not clear enough, or he/she is unfamiliar with the guidelines.  Hence there is usually an attempt by the CS person to 'pass the buck' back to the customer - largely because there is a long queue waiting, and the CS person has a target in terms of the number of customers that he/she has to meet.  This leads to protracted heated arguements between dissatisfied customers and the CS exec.

Consequently, in India bullying of the CS exec by the customer is quite common, as the customer thinks that only shouting at the CS exec will force the CS exec to resolve the issue.  Unfortunately bullying takes place even in situations where the issue has happened in the first place due to the customer's fault or negligence - this is a peculiar problem with India where some customers think they are entitled to brow-beat the CS exec into submission.