The mindset driving ghastly service standards in HK

A refusal to put the customer first has outsized implications for Hong Kong's businesses.

- Magdalene Fung

HONG KONG – “Being in Hong Kong makes me an angry person.”

This was the title of a post by a Singaporean that sparked a lively debate on Reddit’s r/Hong Kong community recently.

“I don’t expect much customer service in Hong Kong, but I get so much attitude (just) asking for prices like at the pharmacies in Tsim Sha Tsui… It honestly makes me feel like a beggar even though I wholeheartedly just wanted to buy the (product),” wrote the person on the 633,000-strong subreddit on Sept 24.

The post on the social media platform drew hundreds of responses – some in agreement; others in ode to Hong Kong’s “authenticity” compared with the “fake politeness” of other Asian cities; and many critical of the writer’s inability to moderate her emotions in the face of rude service.

What struck me the most, however, was the top-voted response: “Hong Kong won’t change for you, so you need to adjust yourself.”

The commenter was not wrong. People ought to learn to accept what we cannot change in general.

But in a dozen words, the response had also conveyed a prevalent attitude in Hong Kong:

The city’s people are not obliged to change; it is the rest of the world that should learn to accommodate them.

As a Singaporean who has spent in total nearly a decade in Hong Kong now, I have learnt – if not quite yet perfected – the art of letting any unpleasantness I encounter on a day-to-day basis simply slide off me.

A HONG KONG TRADEMARK

The unique flavour of Hong Kong’s service attitude is well documented.

In June, a TV news programme discussing a survey that found rudeness to be people’s top complaint about the city’s taxi trade featured a brief interview with a local cabby.

“You want better service?” the cabby was filmed saying to the reporter. “Then tell the passenger to be polite first!”