I read with interest the recent news item in this newspaper decrying the lack of sales experience of many of the newly hired Saudi women sales assistants in shops. The report said they lacked a good work discipline, were not knowledgeable about what they were selling and often did not know how to speak English, which obviously is a hindrance when dealing with expatriate women living in the Kingdom who do not speak Arabic fluently.
All of these are valid criticisms for sure, but since the phenomena of Saudi women working in shops is still in its infancy, I think it is too soon to harshly criticize them. Unfortunately, there will always be some women (and men too) who think that just being Saudi is enough to qualify for the job, but hopefully the demands of a competitive job market, and of demanding customers, will soon put a stop to this attitude and either put such women out of job or force them to change their attitudes and improve their customer service skills tremendously.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for Saudization of jobs, but why should the public suffer when this happens? If anything, we Saudis should redouble our work efforts to prove to ourselves and the world that we can work and provide a customer service experience just as good, if not better, as provided by foreign workers. Being Saudi does not give us the right to slouch and underperform, always with the thought in the back of our minds that a lower paid foreign worker will come and clean up our messes, or finish a job done badly or sloppily. No, we must be proud of our work and efforts, and not be ashamed of being salesmen or saleswomen in shops. After all, there is nothing demeaning in honest work.
Of course, one must wonder how much actual training these young Saudi women receive before they are put on the sales floor. It would be very beneficial if the Ministry of Commerce in collaboration with local chambers of commerce in cities across the country established sales and customer care courses just for women. We cannot blame the women if they have never been trained for the jobs in which they eventually find themselves, though of course one would expect the brighter ones to learn from example and copy good customer service that they had been exposed to in their shopping lives.
I am sure that if given the right opportunities and training, Saudi women would be great saleswomen and provide excellent customer service. On my latest trip to Jeddah I stayed at a hotel, and when I ordered some food from room service a crisp woman’s voice took my order in impeccable English. I was pleasantly surprised and that experience made me realize that there are many unexplored areas that Saudi women can still be employed in.
Allowing Saudi women to work in sales jobs or as cashiers in supermarkets is opening up whole new work opportunities for them that never existed in the past. In an economy where families are more and more dependent on the double income of a husband and wife, providing such jobs to Saudi women is an excellent way to help make them financially independent, especially for women who come from poorer families and who are perhaps obliged to help financially support their younger brothers and sisters.
I have had bad and good customer service experiences in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Lebanon and the United States. They can and do happen all over the world. We have to always remember that we are dealing with salespersons who are human beings just like us, and who have good and bad days. We become overly demanding as consumers expecting salespeople to constantly smile at us and bend to our every demand. Yet we must not forget that being kind to them, smiling at them, asking how they are, and saying “please” go a very long way in smoothing relations between client and salesperson, and ultimately in getting what you want.
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The writer is a Saudi journalist based in Brazil.
