Britain vs. France: Let’s talk about business

Last week I said I was making a list of things that are different between France and Britain as I’d found the two to be rather different. Here is part one of that list. One of the things that has been hardest to adapt to is the difference in business attitudes. I’m sure if a French person came to the UK they would be annoyed/baffled/shocked by the way things are done here and I think we just get used to a certain way of doing things. When people start doing things a different way, it takes a little bit of time to adapt.

Business hours

In the UK business hours are business hours: they are the hours of business. The exception: if a shop closes at 8pm you can shimmy on in there at 7.59 and then they generally have to wait till your done. Why lose out on a sale, right?

Business hours in France though, are more of a guideline for the business worker or owner. For the customer, however, they are a hard and fast rule. If the store closes at 8pm don’t expect to be let in anywhere near to that time and if you’re still dawdling around deciding what to buy at closing time you may, quite honestly, be left with a handful of stuff and nowhere to pay for it. Also shops may close for two hours in the middle of the day, or open late, or not open at all, because it’s a random public holiday in that particular village that day and, well, that’s their prerogative.

Clients, you want them, right?

This, for me, was one of the hardest things to deal with as an English person in France. As “the client”, I’m pretty used to people bending over backwards to make things work for me, or, if I’m not the client yet, try to get me to become the client. A lot of French people I dealt with, they just don’t really work like that. The client seems to be either an added bonus to business, or a bit of an annoyance. This isn’t always the case of course, I dealt with some wonderful people – our florist for our wedding for example who did bend over backwards for us, or our macaron lady who pretty much stalked me into a sale. But generally in the South of France their business plans don’t really seem to revolve around getting, or keeping, clients.

The amount of emails and requests I sent for quotes and information during our wedding planning which were completely ignored was absolutely baffling to me. For every ten emails I sent, I got one response. Half the time I’d get a reply a couple of weeks later, by which time I’d already sorted something else out, but more often than not, no response at all. Was it my grammatically imperfect French? Or was it just the fact that I sent an email rather than phoned them (More on that below)?

I don’t know what it’s like in other countries but in the UK if you’re running a business and someone enquires about your business, you pretty much get back to them straight away and try to make damn sure you actually get that business. But in France, it almost seems like they’re really not all that fussed or, if something is a teensy bit out of the ordinary, it’s just not worth the hassle.

Exhibit A: We wanted a babysitter for the wedding to take care of a few children and one was recommended to us by the venue because that’s generally how you find people: recommendation. I phoned her, she was lovely, she gave me her email address, I emailed details. Nothing. So I sent another email a week later. Still nothing. I left a voicemail. I received an email back saying my request was “not what they normally do.” I replied asking what they normally do seeing as I had never seen a website or had any information about what they “normally” do so maybe if they showed me I could consider it? Nothing. Eventually I got hold of her by phone, we talked it out and had a deal.

Exhibit B: We wanted a car to take guests back home after the wedding so we found and emailed a company with a chauffer and a big car – I fact I emailed several and this one replied so wahey, points to him. He asked how many people, I said about 50. He said no. What? “No, I cannot take that many people,” he said.. I said: “How many can you take?” No reply. Nothing. (Back to normal) So a little while later I told Jono the situation and he called the guy and asked why he hadn’t replied? “I cannot take this many people!” he responded. Jono asked: “Well, can you go back and forth?” He said “Er, well, yes, of course…” Ta da! We’re in business! But we had to convince him.

The list goes on. It’s not a criticism of the French but it is just a very different way of doing things. In the UK, it wouldn’t be the case that the client would be convincing the business how to make something work, it just doesn’t happen that way. So it took some adjusting to not take no for an answer, as the client.

Can I do it online?

So, this is another one that I, well, I just… argh. I love the internet. I love googling things, finding things, ordering things and sending emails to discuss things. But French businesses? Not so much. Most websites were built when the internet was invented and just left like that. Some just don’t even bother and only have a facebook page. The website is jut not a priority. I sourced 90% of my French-themed wedding stuff from ebay.co.uk, delivered to the UK and carried over to France.

Emails too, they’re just not the favourable means of communication in France. A lot of the time when I’ve sent emails and then eventually called they’ve suddenly become really responsive, like my phone call confirms I’m a real human being and we can now communicate. It was the same with renting flats, it had to be confirmation by phone, which is obviously brilliant when you’re still shaky on the language. But when I’d email an English person living in France however, the response was immediate and explained why, much as I tried to avoid it, I ended up doing business with English people quite often in France. We just did things the same way.

Customer Service

Ok so bar the whole chucking you out of the shop if you’re too close to closing time thing, I actually think the French-style of customer service in stores and restaurants is pretty awesome. You walk into the store and are always greeted. Not saying hello and goodbye when you go in and out of a shop is considered very rude. At first I found it a bit difficult and felt self-conscious but now I think it’s really quite nice. They always ask if they can help and then leave you alone to browse and I never feel pressured into buying anything and generally, more often than not, down in Montpellier they are exceedingly helpful.

Now I know not everyone has that experience. I’ve heard a few people say that they find French people rude and the first thing I ask is: did you try speaking French or did you just waltz on in expecting them to speak English? If it’s the latter, then yeah, they tend to be a bit ruder.

In England, when I first came back, I found people in the UK a bit uninterested in comparison, but I’ve adapted and generally have kept the whole French hi and bye routine, because I think it’s nice.

The local store vs. the chain

Recently, the local shop is starting to have some success in London again, but for a while, they pretty much all died as the chain took over. In France, the local shop, the boutique, the small business still reign supreme and are supported locally. I loved the fact that whole of Montpellier was small, locally run businesses. While I think that there’s something to be said for business expansion it’s a real shame that in the UK so many local shops go out of business in the nicer parts of town because they just can’t afford to stay open.

There are some things that I clearly think the UK wins on, but that’s just because I’m used to it, but for the French I’m sure they find certain things we do here in the UK ridiculous too. So, for the expats among you, has anything about business attitudes or attitudes to customers surprised you in your new/old country?