Portugal has zero process optimisation

People in Portugal rarely consider how processes could be improved to deliver better customer service and enable more business.

Here are a few examples:

1. Walk into a gym. Let’s say that two people are signing up to become members and this takes 10 minutes. However, you simply want a towel for two euros. You will wait 20 minutes to get a towel. In most countries, the assistant would stop and say, ‘Do you want a membership, or a towel?’ — but not Portugal.
   

2. Someone makes a complaint at a restaurant. 3-4 people will stop working to deal with the complaint while the queue grows.
   

3. People CONSTANTLY stand at the front of queues chatting away to the shop assistant while the queue grows. Bus drivers stop in the middle of the road to chat — while queues of traffic build up behind them.

Any excuse to down tools and stop working.

Frankly, the attitude is sometimes worse — eg. an eye roll that they have to serve you.

And they wonder why salaries are so low?