Findings from the interview with Customers
The customers experience with part-time international service employees is derived from their opinions revealed in the semi-structured interviews. The experience of customers is considered to understand their problems in dealing with part-time international student employees. One of the customers, Customer A, a middle aged 26 year old white man revealed his experience with part-time international service employees as follows.
“It happened when I visited the store for the first time when I faced an employee who was an international part-time student. As I was looking around the store, a Nikon camera caught my eye and one of the employees came forward to explain the features of the camera. He gave a brief demo about the camera. Then, as I had some doubts, I asked few questions to which I received irrelevant answers. I asked him repeatedly the same question so as to make it clear. Then, I thought that it is my slang that is troubling him in understanding my queries. He did not even bothered to call his department manager to clear the issue. I found that he was not concerned to clarify the issue and simply let the issue pass on. Moreover, he seemed somewhat abrupt and authoritarian to the point of being abrupt in the style of his communication although he was resourceful.
Customer B, a 35 year old woman of Afro Caribbean origin revealed her experience:
“I am a frequent customer of the store. I have encountered many sales employees both local and foreign students. I never had a strong rapport with a foreign student employee although I found them friendly and empathetic. I never faced any serious issue with part-time international service employees. I used to have a strong rapport with a local employee who used to work in this store. From then on, I did not have a rapport with any local employees. The main reason behind it may be due to their short stint with the store.”
Customer C, a 50 year old male of Indian descent said:
“I am a regular customer to the store. In my shopping experience till date with the store, I observed that the part-time student employees are less patient in hearing my concerns and my requirements. They tend to rush off without listening to me completely. I observed that they interrupt me in the middle of my sentence and they start talking without completely listening to my opinions. This is generally not observed in the behaviour of local people who are employees”