Volunteers

We haven't had a chance to write about the volunteers throughout
Beijing for the Games. We'll use our intermission at the basketball
games to give you some observations.

There are literally thousands of volunteers at every venue and around
the streets of Beijing. We've heard the number 100,000 and it feels
entirely possible. The volunteers are extremely pleasant and very much
try to help. Even when they can't help due to language or lack of
training (there have been some examples where they clearly don't "get"
what to do from a customer service standpoint) they literally will
follow you to reiterate their thanks and/or apologies.

There are definelty those moments where you are waiting a security
line and look over and see groups of 10 volunteers in other lines that
are not accepting guests... and want to have a "here's a suggestion
for improving customer experience" conversation.

We also get the sense that,given the sheer population of the city and
perhaps the desire to employee as many as possible by the government,
the rule of thumb is to over staff in all situations. Examples:
volunteers for the Games, staff in the hotels, 3 staff members walking
around the hotel pool while you swim, personnel in the metro, and on
and on.