Is the ลูกค้า Unimportant?

[MartinL]

While I’m often reluctant to speak Thai because my pronunciation is awful, despite efforts to practise, I have a reasonable vocabulary and am at a point where I’m starting to analyse the composition of words more, instead of just accepting that ‘X’ in Thai means ‘Y’ in English.

A word I’ve used for ‘customer’ is ลูกค้า , but it’s not something I’d use often.

I know that ลูก means child. I’ve very recently found that it also means ‘subordinate, junior, lesser partner(?)’. So the word ลูกค้า means ‘subordinate in doing business’ – correct interpretation or not, please?

There’s an adage in some of our western countries – “The customer is always right”, i.e. the customer is important (or at least should be made to feel that way). The Thai word seems to suggest the exact opposite – the customer is an unimportant part in a purchase, something I prefer not to be.

I’m not getting hot & bothered by this, just interested, but it seems it could explain some of the poor customer service I see here. Also a nice illustration of the status-driven Thai culture.

If, instead of ลูกค้า I used something like e.g. คนค้า or คนซื้อ , both of which seem, to me, to convey a sense of buyer/seller having equal status, would it be understood?

With a bit more searching, I find that ‘employee’ is ลูกจ้าง , an employed subordinate, which seems more appropriate.

Thanks for any insights. As I said, I’m interested rather than bothered by this.

[CaptHaddock]

You could also use ผู้บริโภค for "consumer" which is more formal. The commonest term I hear for customer though is ลูกค้า. For Thais the ลูก position of the customer is not just subordinate, it also suggests that the seller in his implied role of พ่อ/แม่ has an obligation to look after his customer. This is not always just deception to take advantage of the customer. Sometimes the seller will indeed go out of his way to protect the customer's interest, although seldom to the point of compromising his own.

It does seem that customers here are less catered to than in the West, except for hi-so customers. Like pedestrians, customers appear to be at the bottom of a power hierarchy. Of course, businesses in the West sometimes abuse their customers, like Volkswagen for a recent example on a massive scale. The other factor affecting service here is that the employee, the waiter in a restaurant, for example, has no authority at all to make concessions and is trained to follow the boss's orders to the letter. Focusing on solving the customer's problem or maintaining good-will to encourage repeat business is not on his menu. Most of all he wants to avoid being blamed for anything by his boss. If the teller in a bank here makes a counting error in a transaction she will be forced to make up the difference to the bank out of her own pocket, a practice that would be illegal in the US. Just as in the West, if you can manage to deal directly with the business owner you will be better off, although one of the main responsibilities of the employee is to keep you away from the owner.

In terms of getting better service or resolving problems in retail transactions I have found that I can sometimes use Thai's aversion to confrontation to my advantage by complaining quite directly and making it clear that I will not go away until it is resolved. When it works, which is not always, it does so by letting him know he's not getting off the hook.

Thai has an important expression, ตอบส่งๆ, which is a brush-off reply, a tactic they almost always try to avoid an uncomfortable situation. When I hear this I usually respond bluntly, ช่วยอย่าตอบส่งๆครับ and then restate my demand. Thais would never speak so directly, so I am sure they are offended.

[rexgraves]

Very interesting Capt. Haddock.

I like the พ่อ-ลูก relationship very much as an explanation for the origin of the word; one syllable words are the basis of Thai and can mean so much.

Martini, ลูกจ้าง is the worker but นายจ้าง is the boss. You will find these terms defined in the dictionary because they are one word; grammatically they don't make sense. If you wanted to describe people as a class you use ผู้ , as Capt. Haddock says.

ผู้ one who does something > is something. I am not sure that I would use บริโภค though because it's long word for a learner. ผู้ซื้อ is the definition of ลูกค้า