No passion for shopping

I've come to conclusion that I must be completely abnormal when it comes to shopping. Unlike my girlfriends who get over excited and coo and fawn over the latest lovely shoes, or dresses, or anything shiny, shopping in fact leaves me cold.

This morning I spent two hours wandering round Dubai Mall, but only because I needed to buy presents for my family for when I head out on vacation at the end of the week. So I had my little list of some Molton Brown products for my sister-in-law, clothes for my elder niece, something cute for the new baby, perfume for mum, a book and cd for my dad and some cut offs for my brother. I knew exactly what I wanted and where to get it and was done pretty quickly. I am definitely my father's daughter, I know what I want, I go in get it and walk straight back out again.

I've never been one for window shopping. My mother can wander around shopping malls for hours on end, whereas I get a glazed look in my eyes after about ten minutes and the boredom sets in. Even my boyfriend likes to shop and he always asks why I don't buy anything for myself and just buy things for other people - I don't have an answer to that one, maybe I just never see anything that really catches my attention. So when we go shopping he always insists on making me go and try some things on and ends up buying things for me - hey I'm not complaining about that part :-)

Maybe I need a girlie shopping spree, where you all go and have a laugh trying on different clothes and making a nice time of it, but I seriously doubt I'm ever going to have a passion for shopping, unless it's for a wakeboard, motorbike or swim wear.

Customer service? Does it even exist?!

One topic that is guaranteed to get a reaction from most people in the UAE, is customer service - or lack there of! There really is only one word to describe it and that's 'appalling'.

So many times I've called a company and been greeted with a simple 'Hello!', so you end up asking if you've actually called a company or an individual. Why can't people answer with 'Hello, (company name) how can I help you?' is it really that hard? Or you can't actually get through to anyone on the phone and end up communicating via email forms, which can very easily be ignored or people take literally weeks to answer a simple query.

Either that or you get transferred around five or so different people, none of whom can assist you, so you give up in the end. When you're finally forced to head over to the office or so-called Customer Service Centre, you take your number, wait patiently to be called and then the person at the counter is either too busy yapping away on their mobile or to another person and reacts to you like you're a big waste of their time and interrupting something that they'd rather be doing! Anything but work!

Going shopping can be a miserable experience, the service staff either just don't care or follow you around like your own personal shadow. If there's something that's guaranteed to make me walk straight out of a store it's having someone follow me around like they expect me to steal something - if I want help, I'll ask for it. Then of course you go up to pay for your selected item and the cashier isn't interested in you at all. Very often I've found them chatting to other staff, refusing to look at their customers, slapping change on the counter - put it in my hand please, give me a smile and wish me a nice day!

So many times you can go into a shop and there are numerous staff just milling about doing nothing. You can't win!

As someone who has worked in many customer service sectors, yup I've worked as a receptionist, secretary, cashier, waitress, bar staff, it was always in my interest to help people and be happy as I go about it. So it leaves me cold that companies here just don't seem to care and they seriously need to invest in training their staff.

Simple things like a smile, making eye contact, a cheery disposition make all the difference and a pleasant experience for a customer and encourages them to come back.