Namaste Sir … Madam

When we enter the swanky malls and supermarkets, we get smitten by the razzmatazz of the environment. We splurge, we dine, and we have all sorts of fun that the money can buy and these malls can offer. We return with all material happiness bought by monetary elements.

When we return home, we indulge ourselves in the colors and odors of products bought. But not even by mistake we tend to indulge in thinking about the person who had greeted us by saying: Namaste Sir/Madam at the mall while we were entering.

( You might argue, is it necessary to think about that person? Well, I am not here to preach anything as to what is right or wrong, I am here just explaining how I feel.)

Greeting is an essential part of services marketing and this way customers feel more valued than without it. But often I have felt that when they greet us they lack the real essence of greeting a guest, which is greeting with happiness. And why is it?

I feel that they don’t feel connected to the materialistic opulence that the malls represent. Despite being an integral part of retail sector, they seem aloof from the prosperity that the sector churns out.

They seem completely unaffected by the retail boom in the country. And perhaps this is the reason that when they greet the customers they feel their lips strained to smile freely. And when they smile after an effort, it is bereft of warmth of a smile.

I don’t know, but I feel pain in their smile for being left behind in the race of the economy and for being only a sightseer of the progress of the country.

I understand everything is not possible for everybody to get, but I also understand how it feels to be so close to the prosperity but at the same time to be so far from it.  There should be efforts, on the part of the economy, to give a slice of economic happiness (that is balanced and reasonable in terms of social framework) to these greeters as well. So that when they greet they feel the warmth of greeting themselves as well.

P.S: This is entirely how I have felt about the situation, you might have experienced exact opposite situations with janitors of malls. And the article is restricted to and based only on my observation about the situation.