Unveiling the TRUTH: Is German Customer Service the WORST?

American customer service is all about smiles, small talk, and over-the-top friendliness—but step into a store or restaurant in Germany, and you might think everyone is rude! 😳 No “How’s your day going?” No forced enthusiasm. Just straight-up efficiency.

But is German customer service actually bad? Or is America’s version just… fake? In this video, I break down the huge differences between American and German customer service, why Germans don’t do small talk, and why Americans might be in for a culture shock when visiting Germany.

Would you rather have friendly but fake or efficient but blunt service? Let me know in the comments! 👇

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[hughjazz]

German here. I prefer our waiters to the US ones. When I'm dining out I want my peace and quite. I don't want some underpaid server to jump around my ankles like an untrained puppy so that I may hand them some extra money so they can pay rent. Also, why do US americans confuse professional with unfriendly?

[wanderwurst]

Oh, there is much less friendly service in Europe. There's a saying in Germany: “As you shout into the forest, so it echoes back”. This means that people meet you the way you meet them. This also means that if you treat the cashier in the supermarket like dirt, you will be treated like dirt yourself.
The fact that you don't get your shopping wrapped up in Germany is just a business model that has become established in Germany and most other countries and has nothing to do with friendliness.
I am friendly myself and 99% of the staff are always at least formally friendly and often really friendly. From time to time there is even small talk and a joke in Germany, if you are prepared to do so yourself.
If that's not the case, my God, people are just people with their own moods and characters. If you want others and yourself to be free, then you have to be able to accept that - if you force people into a certain pattern of behavior, they will only become sick and wrong. 🤷‍♂

[Redclaw]

As a German i can say: it's not that you're not greeted, or the staff is unfriendly... Usually if you got to the checkout at a Supermarket, or go into a small shop, you will be greeted in a friendly fashion and might even get a smile, especially if you greet them back. But over here, it's not forced on the staff to be friendly... if they have a bad day, they might just give you a nod. Smalltalk happens here at times, but usually not with strangers, just with people you already know... like you're a frequent customer at the bakery... smalltalk might happen more often. I for myself hate it when i go let's say into an electronics store and the staff jumps on you trying to help, if i just want to check what's available. We usually don't do smalltalk at all with strangers, that's just how we are :)
I have communicated with a lot of U.S. people via the internet and have been accused of being rude so many times, just because i went straight to the topic instead of "beating around the bush" for 30 minutes, slowly circling in on the subject. Acting like this feels like a waste of precious time to us, so germans could actually see it as rude, when you're wasting their time with smalltalk and might at some point just say " can you please get to the point?" :)