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Tailoring Customer Service to Local Taste

Don't ask French customers for personal information.  Avoid telemarketing to Chinese customers. And don't call German customers by their first names.

Customer relationship management (CRM) can only be effective if companies understand the cultural conventions of their target markets at a local level.  Even regional customer service approaches (e.g., Asian or European) can cause problems, due to wide variations in attitudes among different nationalities.

Even more important than cultural tastes, companies must gauge the maturity of customer service practices in a market before launching initiatives. The British may be reserved, for example, but they're much less reserved than other Europeans about responding to CRM techniques they've been exposed to for years.

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