Plastered

Customer service doesn’t exist in the Netherlands.  To refer to the manner in which customers are treated as service would just be wrong.  Quite a contrast to the US, where the customer is King!  Since living here, I have decreased my expectations over the years to the lowest possible level.  When you expect nothing, the service can almost be laughable in shops and restaurants.  It is not so funny when the “service” being requested is medical care for my children, but my recent solo trip to the Bronovo Hospital is a great example of Dutch Service!  Please keep in mind that this hospital claims “Royal Service”!

I needed to have a cast put on my leg and was instructed to go to a designated room and drop a slip of paper through the door. Surprisingly, the door opened rather quickly and I was called in. Afterwards, I was swiveled out into the waiting room on a desk chair and told to wait 30 minutes for the plaster to dry. When the 30 minutes were up, I realized I was stranded without the crutches I had been told I would need. I hobbled back over to the door with the slot and when it opened I asked the guy for the crutches. He told me to go to the other side of the hospital and down to the ground floor emergency room to pick up the crutches myself and then he quickly closed the door.  Self-Service crutches! I was on my own (which he knew), but I did eventually make my way there.  I will save for another time the story about how happy the ER staff was when I interrupted their “Cup a Soup” break.

Does self-service equal Royal Service?  Do they deliver on their promise?

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