france -- the land of customer service?

Last night, my hubby and I got back from a 10-day trip to France. Paris, Nice, Avignon, back to Paris then home to Seattle. The last time I was in France, I was barely 23 years old and spending a month in the French Alps just before starting grad school. In a town of 600, I spent the summer volunteering with other barely-out-of-college folks from all over the world, repairing the roof of the town's only chapel. (I don't have special affiliations with chapels; I happened to want to spend a month in France without spending much money and doing some good (if possible), and a friend hooked me up with this gig.) Back then, our DAILY meal budget was USD 5 and we took turns cooking in the boarding house (potatoes were often on the menu). As soon as we completed the project (which took the entire month despite its 15 ft x 15 ft size due to our rudimentary equipment -- we mixed cement and cut tiles by HAND!), tired of potatoes and stale bread, Maya, a Finnish woman who spoke 5 languages and had blond hair down to her knees (yes, knees), and I hitched a ride to Marseilles and decided we had had enough of France and moved onto the land of pizza, Italy.

This time around, I wanted to get a broader view of France (with a daily budget greater than 5 dollars). Forewarned both by the stereotype of the snotty French and the cautionary tales in travel books, I expected a rather resigned and resentful attitude towards us tourists, but I couldn't have been more wrong. From hotels to stores,to restaurants to train stations and even to airlines (and we all know that customer service and airlines don't always go together), we were pleasantly surprised and delighted at the attention and consideration that these businesses gave us. This reminded me of a fact about businesses -- most businesses, including high growth ones, do not start with a revolutionary idea or technology that changes life as we know it. They, instead, start businesses that are just like many other businesses. How do some differentiate themselves and succeed? By adapting to customer demand and by paying close attention to customer service. The cynical might say that the wonderful customer service we received was the businesses' attempt to reach deep into our dumb tourist pockets. But so what? That's how businesses succeed -- clearly knowing who the customers are and giving them what they want. I don't care that the businesses may not have been gracious to us merely in response to our charm and charisma (although I am not ruling that out either), I still want to say merci to all those that made my second trip so enjoyable. These businesses do it right -- the word "entrepreneurship" comes from French after all.