Be Sensitive to the Local Culture and Beliefs

This is very important especially if you are new to the community. Anything that you do, you must be sensitive to the local culture and beliefs. Do some research on the taboo in that community. If they find it offensive than avoid doing it. One example to this point is, when I was a waiter for a hotel that had just been taken over by an international chain. The Group General Manager, a foreigner insisted that for the new menu, we serve the local dishes in a wok. To the local community eating out of the wok was a taboo. We told him about this but he brushed it off, saying it was rubbish. We went ahead with this menu. The result of this action is that the locals avoided us and those that came were very annoyed. After a few bad reviews from the customers eventhough the food was great, the Group General Manager finally gave in to change the menu but it was too late. It took us another year to build back our local clientele. Even the design of your place or the uniform is also important. In the East Coast of Malaysia, the people there don`t take too kindly to their waitresses wearing revealing clothes. When I was working in Thailand, they have so much respect for their King and Queen to the extend that they don`t serve alcohol on the King`s and Queens` birthday.
Also if you know their culture you can use this to your advantage too. One episode of Restaurant Makeover, the designer found out that it was a culture for the Somalian families to dine together in a private dining area. So she created an area just for that. By the way they were making a Somalian restaurant. Well this a great customer service to the Somalian community.
All this means is that different cultures have different beliefs and taboos. In order to give great customer service and be on the good side of your customers, you must know what is the beliefs and taboo of the community around you. Even Sun Tzu has a verse for this in his Art of War. It goes like this
"We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country--its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and precipices, its marshes and swamps." Chapter VII. MANEUVERING Verse 13
To know more on how I use the Art of War, please click here. How I use the Art of War