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Most foreigners have heralded the Philippines as a country with great hospitality. Our tourism industry, although can be better, thrives sometimes on the simple premise that our people go the extra mile to serve tourists and make sure that they have a nice time in any of our 7101 islands.

Ironically, we treat foreigners with such high respect but when the very same people deal with fellow Filipinos, everything seems to fly out the window. As a Filipino, it pains me to see Filipinos “mistreating” their own countrymen – at least when it comes to customer service.

Filipinos have resorted to having the “Pasensya na” mentality to a point where it is used in every lapse of customer service. The phrase is colloquially used to say “sorry”, even when the term actually means – “patience”. Every Filipino in the service industry uses this term to a fellow Filipino when they want to say sorry about something. Why? Why? Why?

Why will a waiter say “patience” to you if he spills water on you? Why will Globe say “patience” when they make a mistake in your billing? Why will a barista say “patience” if they get your coffee wrong? Shouldn’t they say “Sorry” and not PATIENCE?

What is worse is that the person saying “pasensya na” expects the other person to react in a submissive fashion. As if the use of the term magically fixes things. Saying “pasensya na” suddenly dries up your pants from the spilt water of the waiter. Saying “pasensya na” makes your bill all good from Globe. Saying “pasensya na” miraculously fixes your coffee. Wake up people, the term does nothing!

I understand that some people use this term as a sign of respect to their customers. However, it should also be understood that using the term should also mean doing something to correct whatever prompted you to say it in the first place. A lot of service providers seem to miss out on training their personnel to veer away from using this phrase. Their people usually rely on this phrase as a solution for everything.

As customers know your right to complain and demand good customer service. The next time somebody says “pasensya na” to you – ask why you should be patient! Do your part in changing the mind set of these people that instead of saying “pasensya na” – APOLOGIZE. “Pasensya na” is not an apology!

So until a foreigner or tourist actually accepts “patience” as an apology, why should we Filipinos succumb to such an illogical phrase that is used as a cop out to bad customer service? Remember to stand up for your right to get a proper apology instead of being asked to have patience.

“Pasensya na lang po sa mga tinatamaan.”