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Customer Service The Japanese Way!

After 24 hours traveling we grabbed the luggage off the carousel, and with bleary eyes met our friend who took us straight to the train station – with still an hour and a half to go to get to our hotel, we started to notice something was different. We were half asleep and in “travel mode” (you know, when you are awake, but only just – kind of going through the motions and holding your bottle of water like your life depended on it!) but when we boarded the train nothing happened, it just sat there. Then a cleaner joined us in the carriage and looked around for things to sweep up into his long handled dust pan. He didn’t find anything as the train was spotless, but then he walked to the door of the carriage, turned and bowed to us.

Welcome to Japan! It’s like he was hired by the Japanese tourist board for our benefit, and as if to rub it in, as he left the carriage, he saw a spot of dirt on the platform so he took out a spray and a cloth and very precisely rubbed the tiny mark until it was gone. Then he stood bolt upright and faced us as the train pulled away. I’d never seen anything like it, it was like someone smacked me over the head with a frying pan and shouted in my ear “YOU are not in the U.K. anymore, Lee” then that song came to mind “…I-cant-bel-ieve-it-I’ve-nev-er-been-this-far-a-way-from-home!”.

I’ve never seen anyone take so much pride in their work. 23 hours earlier we were on a noisy rickety diesel train going to Manchester Airport where the conductor with body odour and a builders bum was grumpily walking up and down the aisle barking things as he knocked toddlers unconscious with his comedy size ticket machine!

What a difference a day makes, as Tony Bennett once crooned.
I’m not pretending that I understand the complexities of Japanese culture, where I saw pampered pooches with their own cafes, hardcore late night gambling and toilets that both washed and dried! But I do know one thing, we can learn a lot from Japan about having pride and respect in our work, and our neighbourhoods.

Why do we have dirty train stations and streets, and why do shop assistants look like we’ve interrupted their day when we ask them for help? Surely it doesn’t have to be like this, does it?

On my last day we took a trip to the Apple store in Osaka, we got off the train, exited by the right exit but were still a bit lost, so I asked a man walking towards us in a business suit for directions. He understood us quickly and then turned 180 degrees and walked with us to the store, delivering us at the entrance. A very Japanese thing to do, apparently. Then over the next hour me and my friend had the single best customer service experience I’ve ever had. The shop assistant called Shun was so helpful, we could hardly believe it and before we left we decided to talk to his manager about how great he was, his manager smiled and put his arm around him. A very un-Japanese thing to do. What a great place to work.

If I was to write a new presentation about customer service it might well be the shortest talk I’ve ever delivered. I’d get up and say “Do your best and be nice” and then sit down again! It might just work!

Lee Jackson

UK author and speaker www.leejackson.org – www.leejackson.biz