Survey: Customers more satisfied when white males serve them

[Newsjock]

Source: The Globe and Mail

North American customers are more likely to be satisfied with their level of service if it comes from a white male instead of a woman or minority, says a new study.

The research by University of British Columbia professor Karl Aquino found that female and minority employees who exhibited the same behaviours as their white male counterparts were rated lower in anonymous customer feedback surveys.

... The research was conducted in the U.S. and focused on customers in a health maintenance organization, a bookstore, and at golf courses.

... What's particularly troubling, he said, is not just that female and minority physicians were rated less favourably for providing similar service, but that the harder they tried, the lower they scored.

“It seemed like doing more actually penalized them,” he said.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/survey-customers-more-satisfied-when-white-males-serve-them/article1223879/

[Occam Bandage]

1. Great. Let's pull all the white males out of management and put them in service jobs.

Everyone will be happy!

[BlooInBloo]

3. (snarfle)

[rwheeler31]

5. I like that idea. Can we get this done this year?

[Deja Q]

6. And then they can say "I did NOT service THAT woman"...

:yoiks:

[Captain Hilts]

11. Okay, that's funny. nt

[alsame]

13. And off the SCOTUS. nt

[aquart]

18. A simple but brilliant solution.

[Odin2005]

31. LOL, that's a DUzy!

:rofl:

[tomm2thumbs]

35. make it so.

[Ian David]

41. That makes an odd sort of sense, actually. n/t

[NashVegas]

52. Great Minds ...

:toast:

[Hydra]

2. Are they for real?

I'm a guy who works customer service. 99% of the time, they'd prefer a female than me. Even so, I still manage to get kudos now and then, but I'd do far better as a woman.

[bemildred]

4. I especially like it when they wear dog collars. nt

[bloomington-lib]

7. If I had to pick, I'd say female

[weddingdress]

30. agreed

I agreed to choose female if I need to pick,who will be more carefully and patient. :)

wedding dress

[Gwendolyn]

8. What a dumbass study,

The golf establishment extrapolations are hilarious.

[Libertas1776]

9. "from a white male instead of a woman"

Really, I just don't buy that. More men would prefer a man serve them than a woman? Well, I know I would, heh heh ;-) but I also ain't the majority of men. Also, how come they didn't apply this study in Canada. America and Canada aren't all that similar.

[lolly]

15. I don't think it asked what they "preferred"

It asked whether they were satisfied with the service when it was over.

And it seems like they were more likely to find fault w/minority and female servers.

[Skittles]

28. it's pretty simple really

women / minorites have always had to work twice as hard to be perceived as half as good

[Captain Hilts]

10. People are FAR more comfortable criticizing women and minorities. You know it's a 'good' place when

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. Take heart GOP losers - there is work for you in the service industry.

[Yupster]

14. I read the story to find out if

minority customers also rated the whites higher or if each minority group rated their own group higher, but the survey didn't say anything about that. Too bad.

[FrenchieCat]

16. What kind of a fucked up survey is that?

Why was it taken? What was the point?

I'm so fucking tired of this kind of shit, till it ain't even funny.

Give me a Female Doctor Please!

[RC]

21. I have a female doctor. I find women health care providers more empathic.

Willing to listen and ask questions for clarification.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

17. Canada?

[MadMaddie]

19. They provided no numbers to justify these findings.

I call bullshit on the supposed research.

[aquart]

20. Uh, what was the make up of the CUSTOMERS?

How many of THEM were white males?

[spiritsong13]

22. Sad to say it

but I can tell you from experience that it's true. I've worked as a bartender for years, mostly in sports bars where they tend to prefer female bartenders over male bartenders. Time and time again I've been told, "we want girls behind the bar, tits and ass that's where it's at". At every establishment that I was told this, I proved them wrong by having the highest sales and the most regulars and I've never given away a single drink. At each and every one of these places all of the female bartenders wanted to work with me on my shifts because that's when they "made the most money" to put it in their words.

I'm not saying this to tell anyone how great I am, I'm just stating facts for you as I've experienced them in my life.

P.S.
Things have been bad for the past 7 months and anyone who owns or works at a restaurant or bar in Nashville and needs a good server or bartender, please feel free to drop me a message in my inbox.

[DUlover2909]

26. I can tell you this from my experience here at DU:

Anecdotal evidence that's contrary to the prevailing belief is not smiled upon. Even if you are completely honest and mean no offense, it's considered less than credible, for good reason.

[Regret My New Name]

50. I'd say you're just good at what you do...

I bet if you had 'tits and ass' you'd be even better. ;)

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

23. What were the races and sexes of the customers?

[McCamy Taylor]

24. Problem with the survey is so many women choose to see female MDs.

They would not do that if they were not happy.

True that if a woman doctor acts like a stereotypical man----if she just does the job without any overt signs of empathy---she is considered a "bitch", whereas a man is just considered professional.

Also what do they mean by "more"? Does "more" mean telling people what to do more forcefully when they do not want to do it? That is a violation of autonomy and people will tolerate it less well from a woman than a man.

I would take this study with a grain of salt.

[dmallind]

25. This may be true but I'm curious - how did they equalize service?

Unless there was a remarkably objective and detailed impartial observer watching all interactions with customers how do we know service was equivalent? There may be a way, and I'm asking only about this aspect without taking a position one way or another on the veracity of the survey, but I'm damned if I can work out how they would do that. I thought the whole point of customer service surveys was to find out what kind of service customers received. How can a customer service survey make that a constant rather than a variable?

[Frosty cupcake]

37. They used actors

who used the same script. Then the videos were watched and measured by viewers. Though the actions and verbiage was exactly the same, the women and minorities scored lower.

[dmallind]

39. Ahh so they were actually measuring reactions to FAKE customer service. Got it. NT

[Romulox]

44. Only as to the bookstore scenario. The doctor and golf course data was not scripted

(Though the article was not particularly well written or clear in this respect.)

The article does not mention how the study determined that service granted by two different people was equivalent. It seems it was simply assumed to be so.

[Gwendolyn]

47. Only in the case of the bookstore.

For the health providers and the golf courses, they just gathered a bunch of patient reports and customer surveys, and made ASSumptions. As the author of this study admits. That there might be less over-all customer satisfaction at one golf club over another could easily have nothing to do with the women or minority males working there, but rather that it's a shittier establishment. The study is hugely flawed.

[DUlover2909]

27. This study is pointless and poorly conducted.

What do HMO's bookstores and golf courses have in common?

[enlightenment]

36. Historical areas of white male dominence.

Health profession - traditionally white male doctors and female midwives and nurses.

Bookstores - There is an association with higher education (voluntary purchase of learning materials versus libraries where you can get it for 'free' - higher ed is bought, lower ed is "given"); traditionally white male professors at the higher ed level, females teach children.

Golf - no-brainer. Traditionally white males and still considered primarily a male oriented sport. Womens golf gets little respect, women still suffer discrimination at golf clubs; remember that lovely bit of nastiness at Augusta? And if it weren't for the fact that some of the best pro golfers are black, I suspect we'd still be seeing a lot more racial discrimination, as well.

I'm not saying any of it is proper or right; just that people carry around a lot of notions and conceptions that they don't even think about. Those three desperate professions all have history as male-dominated fields.

Or at least that's my 'probably should have gone to bed 1/2 hour ago' opinion! :)

edited because I really do need to go to bed . . .

[joeglow3]

48. I agree with you on the Health and Golf arguments

The bookstore argument sounds like it is fresh out of your ass.

[enlightenment]

51. Wow. The rude is strong today.

I offered an opinion. It wasn't rude or snarky, just an opinion.

As an historian, I could - if I chose to waste my time on you - back up that opinion, but I have no intention of wasting one more second than I have typing this response.

Have a good day.

[DallasNE]

29. This Shows How Much Farther We Have To Go As A Society

Frankly, it does not surprise me the the harder minority physicians tried the lower they scored. It reminds me of the old saying "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink". The more the physican attempted to help the more the person dug in their heels. They want Dr. Welby, not Dr. Nancy.

You know what the problem is at the golf courses. The only women that men want to see at the golf course are those driving the beer cart. Sad but true.

[TygrBright]

32. I agree. I think white males make great servants. n/t

[depakid]

33. He he

[defendandprotect]

34. Don't put any males near food, thank you-!!!

[Iggo]

38. That's some bullshit right there.

Whos' serving you your coffee? A white guy, or a pretty young girl?

[cap]

40. Now that we are graduating more female doctors, I wonder how that will play out?

eom

[No Elephants]

42. Ok. I thought this was going to be about waiters. And I was going to say, An old school

waitress in an old school diner or "hearty" restaurant is my utmost favorite.

Doctors? I bet a lot of folks think "affirmative action" when they see women and minorities. And so many have bought into the Republican generated disinformation about people who got into school (finally) with the help of affirmative action being less qualified as graduates. (Affirmative action helped people get into schools that had excluded them, but it never kept anyone from flunking out, nor did it help them graduate, especially with honrs.)

Funny: Not a word in the story about the gender or race of the people who were doing the rating.

I'd be really surprised ir, for example, women were less satisfied with female gynecologists than they were with male gynecologists.

[Maine-ah]

43. male servers (at least where I work) make more money than the girls.

[Lithos]

45. LOL

I guess my wife and I buck this trend.

Best OB/GYN we had was black and female and my wife would still be with her if she still maintained a practice. Our children's doctor is white and female, our GP is Indian and male. We would not recommend the last three white male doctors we had.

L-

[Demeter]

46. Did they ask any women?

The worst service I get comes from white males. Everybody else treats me as an equal--which we are, since we AREN'T white males.

[onager]

49. My experience too, and I AM a white male.

I've traveled a lot in my job, meaning lots of hotel stays and restaurants in many different nations and cultures.

In my experience, ESPECIALLY if I'm having a problem in the hotel or whatever, I want to talk to a woman.

At the risk of generalizing myself: women are a lot more likely to just fix the damn problem, with a minimum of fuss. Which is exactly what I want.

Men, OTOH, are more likely to (a) try and turn it into a big p*cker-checking contest or (b) disclaim any responsibility and try to shift the blame. Usually to a woman. :-)

This is especially true in foreign cultures where women are just starting to work publicly. Cough-Islamicnations-cough. I just spent nearly 4 years in Egypt.

e.g., in Egypt I often used to stop at a Metro (grocery) store in my neighborhood (Alexandria) on the way home from work. Several women worked in the store as checkers.

My Egyptian driver told me, several times, that I should make sure NOT to get in the checkout lines operated by the females, because they were "slow and stupid."

Naturally, I made a point of always getting in those very lines, then telling my driver that the women were faster and better checkers than the men. Plus, one of the women spoke very good English and always helped me out if I couldn't find something.

He thought I was crazy and often told me so. I just laughed.