A Tale Of Japanese Customer Service

March 5, 2013 by Koichi 65 Comments

At one point in our recent trip collecting film for TofuguTV, we went up to Yoichi, Hokkaido to visit the Nikka Whiskey Brewery. In our naivety, we bought whiskey thinking we could send it back. We quickly found out that this would be very hard. Various shipping companies as well as the first post office we went to said we couldn’t ship it. I say first post office because we decided to try again at another post office. The first one seemed to have some things that said you could send it and some things that said you couldn’t (they ultimately decided that you couldn’t send it, though).

nikka The guy standing in the window assured me that we could send the whiskey in the post

We didn’t want to lug these heavy bottles of liquid around and nor did we want to drink them all. This was some pretty expensive stuff, after all! Going to a second post office in the Kansai area (we figured they’d be the most likely to bend the wishy washy rules) we finally found success. Someone can ship our whiskey to the US! Or… so we thought.

I think you can guess what happens here. It didn’t ship. A couple days later I got a phone call from the post office. It was the same lady who helped us ship things. After apologizing profusely, she said they couldn’t ship it and they were so sorry for the mistake. She then said she’d try to look into other shipping methods for us to see if she could find an alternative and then offered to ship if it she found one, using a rival shipping service (to the Japanese post office). I agreed, of course, and she said she’d call the next day at 9am.

Lo and behold, right at 9am I get a call from the same lady again. She apologizes a lot more and then says she isn’t able to ship it. I suggest she send it to my hotel, though perhaps it would be good to wait until I’m in Tokyo so that way I can just check it in easily onto the plane. I had to figure out where said hotel will be first, though. “Okay! I’ll call back tomorrow at 9am,” she says. “Also, I’m so sorry for all the trouble” ← this times 30.

Next day, I get a call at 9am. This time I have the hotel address and name. I tell it to her, and she asks how I want my refund. Now, color me pink, but I didn’t really expect a refund for some reason. I guess I also didn’t expect to ever hear back from anyone at all if it couldn’t ship. It’s an international telephone number for them, after all. She did have to take out 800 yen (around $8) for shipping it to Tokyo, but that was nothing compared to the $100 or so we paid to get it to America.

So awesome, we get a refund too. Also, she’s still super apologetic.

Then, on the day I arrive to my hotel, she calls again, just to get the room number just in case. Wouldn’t want there to be another problem, right? I let her know my room number and she sends it out in overnight mail. I don’t think we got charged for overnight mail, nor did we need it get it overnight, but it was nice. Maybe that’s where Zappos got the idea from.

But, it doesn’t end there. Inside our box is a handwritten note, once again expressing how sorry she was. On top of that is a tenugui (how did she know that I lovvve tenugui?) as well as some udon and a Kumamon sticker.

presents

Did I mention that I love tenugui more than just about anything? I was pretty blown away with this. Sure, in my opinion doing all this and coordinating with me on the phone was already above the call of duty. But, a handwritten apology note, plus presents (probably came from her own home and moneys), plus a Kumamon sticker… that’s customer service at its finest.

Japanese Customer Service

In general, I do think Japanese customer service is pretty incredible, though. Going beyond the call of duty is something that seems to happen quite often. There have been multiple occasions where a server from a restaurant will chase me down even when I’m a block or two away to give me something I’ve forgotten. Or, if I ask someone at an information booth / shop for directions, I’ll often get walked there. I remember one time when someone probably walked me a good 5-7 minutes, which seems to be overdoing it a bit. There have been so many other similar instances like this as well. The level of customer service in Japan is very high quite consistently.

Then you compare it to America. While there’s great customer service here, it’s hardly standard. In a very similar comparison, I ordered some beer from Rogue Brewery to get it shipped to Japan as a present for someone. The beer never arrives. Then, around a month after I ordered it, I get an email saying that “they can’t send it because the characters for the address are in Japanese.” First of all, I don’t know why I didn’t get this email a couple days after I made my (very expensive) order. Second, I haven’t heard back after responding saying I don’t need it shipped anymore but would like it to be refunded. The difference is night and day.

Also, coming back (literally just an hour ago, we’re sitting in LAX waiting for our connecting flight now), the first thing we noticed was how grumpy all the workers were. This is probably just because we’ve been in Japan for over a month, so the difference feels a bit shocking.

But, I wanted to thank the Japanese post. You guys are awesome. Even though they made a mistake they made it more than right, and I wish more people were like them.

About Koichi

Tries too hard to be a hoopy frood who knows where his towel's at. Wants to change the way people think about learning. Makes: Tofugu, TextFugu, and WaniKani. Follow him: @Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

http://www.facebook.com/caranoelboyett.little Cara Little

I totally agree! When I was stationed in Japan, a friend and I were traveling on the train trying to get to Tachikawa, just outside of Yokota AB, somehow we ended up 2 hours beyond our destination. When we finally found someone who understood our dilemma, they gave us return tickets, at no cost, and gave us exact directions back. I lived there for 3 years and can’t remember once ever coming across a rude sales person or someone who wasn’t willing to help.
DAVIDPD

I ordered some stuff from Rakuten. Never got it. But I did have a marvelous (no sarcasm) customer service experience in getting my money back. Simple, apologetic, and the seller owned all the fault. Now, Chinese customer service…that is what you call a one-eighty…
Inga

Every time I come back from Japan I’m always startled by the stark contrast in the attitudes of people in American airports and in Japan. It’s a difficult transition!
jimmylawrence

reminds me once Japanese postal service took a photo of my package and neatly pasted it on my package. They apologized and explained that the damage was already there when it arrived there from Indonesia. Couldn’t be more impressed.
Caitlin

Coming back to America through LAX, I didn’t notice how grumpy all the workers were, I noticed how friendly everyone was, asking me how my flight was, making conversation and things like that. I was really surprised because I was used to quiet, almost robot-like service. That has its advantages, too (like if you’re in a hurry, you’re feeling anti-social that day, etc), but it’s funny how you and I had two completely different experiences.
Jon

Holy crap! It’s almost as if they actually want you to use their service again and will do anything to make sure you’re a very happy customer to the best of their abilities!

In America, customer service is all like “What do you want?”, then “I’m sorry, I’m going to have to transfer you to someone who doesn’t exist without telling you they don’t exist”, then “No, we’re not going to uphold our end of our bargain deal, screw you”.
guyhey

I’ve had similar experiences in Japan where I was given way above, and beyond service. I had one girl go way out of her way to stop me from getting charged several thousand dollars, when I in fact should have been charged that much. After that she made sure that all my services were upgraded for free. Mind you I’m the one who made a mistake in this whole deal.

With American customer service I’ve had the exact opposite time, and time again.

Also, Americans are grumpy and rude compared to the Japanese. It’s shocking the first time you experience it.
Sillysamurai

The closest to Japan-level service I have experienced in the USA is Alaska Airlines.
http://www.facebook.com/cheenou.moua Cheenou Richard Moua

Saw the same quality of customer service when I went to exchange my cash at a local bank. Everyone is just so freakin’ nice and I LOVE that. All more the reason I want to go back.
guyhey

I know! I went to a bank in Japan, and they went out of their way to make every customer feel comfortable, and to help them. It shocks me how easy they made it look, and yet banks the US can’t be bothered.
Jesse Cadd

I’ve had several terrible experiences with customer service from Japanese companies…they are *not* all equal. BTW, if you want to buy some Rogue for a friend, you can always contact Phred Kaufman at http://www.ezo-beer.com as he is the official Rogue distributor in Japan.
http://www.spelmobilesoftware.com/ Drew Harris

I noticed the exact same thing when I came back to San Francisco. The airport workers were the first reverse culture shock. The difference is night and day!
Wise Wani

It is all nice and stuff but put yourself in their shoes. Smiling and humbling your way to serve customers. I don’t think most westerners could handle it. It feels good to be over-treated but I guess it must be soul-crushing to be the one doing the over-treatment.
guyhey

I think you’re forgetting one key thing. You are doing it, but everyone is giving you the same respect back. You give it out once, and you get it back many many times!

Also, in what world would it be soul crushing to be respectful of people, and to empathize with them?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Britt-Olinder-Stevens/100001695518468 Britt Olinder-Stevens

Oh man! That would be amazing if we, like overnight, had that kind of customer service be normal. Wow! Yeah, Japan knows customer service. It’s an ethic and an expectation. But here… a luxury. Nice, but you might be paying double. I’ve worked in customer service and patient care for years and know what it takes. I think it’s weird when other American customers don’t expect the minimum, but instead sympathize with the worker- never realizing the worker is not doing their job. America, you’re weird.
Chester

Well, part of it is confirmation bias. Japan has this hypnotic power over so many people, that they really buy all the myths about how amazing and perfect the country is. Weeaboos are going to naturally come back to America LOOKING for reasons to dislike the place, LOOKING for faults and flaws so that they can pat themselves on the back and say, “Yeah, Japan is SO MUCH BETTER.”

Your point is exactly spot on. It’s great to talk about how great Japanese service is – but it’s not always. And, yes, even when the service is amazing, the people doing it don’t get bonuses or extra pay or…well…any recognition from their companies because, hey, it’s standard! So, while we sit in America drooling over how amazing Japanese service is, a lot of these people are making crap wages and working themselves to death (“saabisu obaa” anyone?) all with intense pressure from their entire society to do things in the exact, perfect, 100% arbitrary way that people say they have to be done, knowing that one tiny misstep, one tiny mistake could cause them to be bullied and ostracized by every single person in their life.

And at the end of the day, like you say – it’s robotic and fake. All those smiles and apologies? Probably not sincere. All ritual. All formality. And it’s nice to talk about how great that is, but this is what I hate about weeaboos – you talk about how great is Japan is without ever truly considering the cost of all this. Some of you know it, but most of you just have no clue. Japanese people pay dearly for all this – bullying people into being perfect automatons – bullying people to DEATH – is the obvious consequence, but all throughout Japanese people’s lives, the damage that all this “service” and “manners” does to people shows through in everything they do. When you’re here for a week or a month, it all seems so magical – but if you LIVE here, if you really take time here and look around, you can see the damage that this does EVERYWHERE.

There are some days when I’d rather a service person just TALK TO ME like a human being without hiding behind wall after wall of formal speech and empty respect. I MUCH prefer the obaachans who run their little shops who will talk to you about the weather or openly marvel at how you survive as a foreigner in their little backward town.
Chester

One reason you never met a rude salesperson is because some of them (not all, but some – maybe a lot, it’s hard to say) refused to talk to you in the first place.

Japanese salespeople are VERY attentive – if you don’t notice them, then they are purposefully avoiding you. When my wife and I go shopping, it’s usually not a problem. But some days…some days she finds herself on the verge of tears, wondering, “Why won’t anyone TALK to us?!”

Sometimes being foreign works out for you – like you found on the train. But sometimes it means that the “superb service” people straight-up ignore you out of fear.
guyhey

You shouldn’t hate. It’s not healthy.
Jay Sanders

I think Americans are too use to being served to go out of their way to serve. That and everything must be scripted and automated and servers are helpless if asked to break from their script. And of course there’s the trouble they can get into by not following strict company policy, which are usually written by those who had their souls surgically removed at some point.
Sundakoto

SOMEONE’s never been to Softbank…
I live here too

Finally! A post from someone who’s lived here for more than a year!
http://www.businessdan.com Dan

I have also experienced the one of a kind customer service in Japan. We went to a restaurant in Yokohama where we ordered a sizzling plate, one of my friend accidentally touched the tip of the sizzling plate and the waitress saw it, when she came back with our other order, she gave my friend a plastic filled with ice for her hand that touched the sizzling plate, the best part is we didn’t even requested that! that’s what I call a very proactive customer service!
AD

I live here too….preach, brother, preach. :)
Savarra

Hmm, maybe instead of outsourcing customer service to India, companies should outsource to Japan…

That aside, I’ve been working in customer service for going on 13 years. Call me odd but I do like it a lot. I hold myself to a high standard to make sure people aren’t pissy and they come back again.
This actually makes things harder when I shop. I tend to not return to places if I don’t see at least some ounce of commitment to someones job. I don’t ask for much, a smile and a greeting, maybe a friendly goodbye. I try not to set the bar too high, because I don’t like the disappointment. It’s a terrible flaw in our society where someone can’t take pride in their work because it doesn’t pay a lot or the hours suck (or they just don’t like it for whatever reason).

Wise Wani I wish I could speak for everyone, but I can only speak for myself. Going that extra mile…well it feels good. I smile and humble myself for 8-10 hours a day, and it is not soul-crushing at all. (Telemarketing on the other hand is, at least for me.)

I wish more people in the US would go that extra mile and actually care about the customer. It might make for less grumpy mean people that take their frustrations out on low wage employees.
guyhey

Savarra, you may not speak for everyone when you say that, but I wish you could. ;)

I agree with everything you say. There is nothing more satisfying than making a customer happy.
hannabink

I agree with this post 100% My first visit to Japan was great, the servers impressed me because they were all so polite and sweet. I live in Canada and rarely do I get that kind of treatment. They don’t even greet you when you walk into the store and YOU yourself would have to chase after them if you wanted to ask a question.
Dave

Yes, it’s true. And it is infectious; when the Japanese are nice to me in a service situation, I’m more inclined to be nice back and compliment them on their shop, food, service, etc. As for shoddy American service, phooey! You should try coming back to Australia after Japan! I love living here and wouldn’t change for anything BUT I would not want to be a tourist here.
bacon22

Gotta agree that you should not confuse politeness with them loving you. It’s part of the job.Most of my experience with Japanese customer service has been pretty good (post office personnel correcting my errors filling out the form, store clerks giving me the tax refund form without asking, hotel staff spending a lot of time to help us ship our bags). However it seems the more workers have to deal with foreigners, the less polite they are. At my hotel in Shinjuku, the hotel clerk was yelling back at a rude customer. At my hotel in Osaka, when I noticed other guests had papers delivered to their doors. I asked if I could have the same and was given a straight “No!”.
guyhey

I think the important thing to remember, and the thing I tell people who haven’t been to Japan, is that they are people too. There are differences sure, but at the end of the day, deep down, they are people. That means they’ll have good days, bad days, etc.
shiroi

Yikes… I get what you’re saying, but it sounds like it’s about time for you to go home. Both Japan and America have their faults; no one country is perfect.

For what it’s worth the last time I went through LAX everyone was indeed grumpy, except for one guy. That one guy was fantastic, though, and he would make small-talk and have a real conversation with every customer in a way that would never happen in Japan.

Also, for how great Japan’s service really is – and I mean it really is! – my (Japanese) husband was still blown away when I was ‘allowed’ to order a different topping on my pancakes at IHOP. You just can’t do that in Japan. So there you go. Pros and cons to both!
Kate

Ohh man the customer service in Japan. One of the first things I noticed too, upon returning, was how grumpy and minimalist the workers here are. It really stood out.

In Japan? We got walked places, we got given free stuff (at least once a day for a month–it became a bit of a joke towards the end), discounts, and sorts of extra things which were the kinds of things I wouldn’t expect a *very* close family member to even consider, let alone a person who’s probably on minimum wage. Hell, when we asked which train line was best to get to the aquarium, the receptionist at our cheap hotel in Osaka offered to *drive* us there personally – a good half hour for her at least.
http://www.myjapanesegreentea.com/ Ricardo Caicedo

Interesting tale. The best customer service I experienced in Japan was a Mitsubishi bank. I had to deposit money in the ATM, and a bank employee took me through all the steps, even though he barely spoke English.
In other countries I’m sure most people wouldn’t have cared.
guyhey

Shiroi Agreed.

Also, I have to confess that airports in the US are miserable places. As such the unhappiness level of employees and passengers alike are a lot higher. This also increases the rudeness levels of all parties.
guyhey

This isn’t even a tale of customer service, but the generally awesome attitude most Japanese people I’ve encountered have.

I was lost on at a train station, and unsure how to find the departure gate, and I was running out of time to figure it out. I raised my hand, and people ran up to me to help. They weren’t employees, just random people. I felt guilty for abusing their politeness.
Chester

Basically this. The whole idea that this is some kind of miraculous thing bugs the hell out of me. I have Japanese step-kids. I see what this shit does to them. I see them get bullied just for having me (a foreign step-dad) in their lives.

It is most certainly not time for me to go home, let me assure you of that. I just hate seeing people wallow in the fantasy that Japan is some kind of miraculous land.

Especially all this fawning over how polite they are – they aren’t, actually, very polite when you get to know them. The veneer of customer service is just that – a veneer. Japanese society is, in fact, a brutal and cruel one.
Chester

Gee, thanks, I had never imagined that there might be pros AND cons. How novel and new an idea. (You might notice that this article was a long list of pros that I provided some cons to. I kind of get how that works.)
Chester

Japanese people assume all foreigners are man-children who could never possibly understand the intricacies of chopsticks, so, you know…

What you did is what I call a “gaijin smash,” from a blog I used to read called…Gaijin Smash. You put out minimal effort and Japanese people rushed to help you because you were foreign. You COULD have done it yourself, but Japanese prejudices allowed you to ride it out in ease.

Ask anyone who’s lived here about the NHK man and you’ll see. Don’t feel guilty – you’re using their prejudices against you to your advantage. That’s fair play, as I see it.
Chester

900% sure that stuff like that happens in other countries. Except, in OTHER countries, their ATMs would be open past MFing 7PM.
Chester

Hate? You mean, hate the intense bullying that Japanese people lay on each other? Hate the concept of “サービス残業”? Of unpaid overtime? Of ブラック企業? Hate the idea of mindlessly fawning over Japanese service without thinking of the actual human costs involved?

You do realize that this is a country where unpaid overtime is so common that they have a word for it? Here’s the funny thing: that word? サービス残業. Literally, “service overtime.”

So, yeah. Kinda hate that.
Tsuyunoinochi

I think most Westerners could handle such a task, but the question is–would they?

Although I tend to be a little absent-minded, I do my best to provide customer service just as sufficient as the Japanese have done in this example. I tried to encourage the other members of my office to do the same, but they pretty much refused to do much more than say ‘hey man–whatcha need?’, help them, and promptly push them from the office. I, as a parallel, would walk people through various processes step-by-step, answer any questions they had, research things, and try to balance my own workload (which was not a small task by any means!).

I worked an average of 12-16 hours a day doing that. After a year, I’d burned myself out–not to mention, none of my bosses paid me much attention until the day I left that job, when I got a fantastic goodbye speech. I was in the military at the time, so obviously the concept of overtime did not exist. Not to mention the fact that the customers I helped out often did not remember my name, my rank, nor most of the information I gave to them, and I rarely received more than a distracted ‘thanks’.

I don’t know many people who would want to burn themselves out like this for little actual payment–not in the American culture. Too many of the people that surrounded me only cared about finishing their jobs and going home, and since their paycheck is generally guaranteed, the concept of working for it was generally nonexistent.

I think what I’m trying to say is that yes, it’s definitely soul-crushing to put yourself out there if people don’t appreciate your effort.
guyhey

We have a word for it in the US as well. It’s called “Salary”. Many Americans work on a salary. (Or are underpaid in other ways.)

I’m not trying to start a flame war, I just noticed you have some negative feelings, and they’re likely making things harder for you.

To give you a sense of my perspective, because we’re probably closer alike than you might guess. I don’t think everything in, or that comes out of Japan, is perfect.

At the same time I think it’s important to look at the positive. I’m not saying pretend negatives don’t exist, but it’s easier to improve things when you don’t wear yourself out on the negative.

I’m not certain I know what a “weeaboos” is, but if I am one then you hate me, and that’s unfortunate I’m a nice guy. :) I suspect weeaboos in general are decent people as well.
guyhey

That’s a fair point. I don’t mind that the article focused on the positive, but I have to admit if it was an article that focused only on the negative, then people (including myself), would be up in arms.
guyhey

Bullying sucks. I had a few when I was a kid as well. I feel for you, and them. It sounds like you agree with me that the Japanese are people just like everyone else, and as such some will be jerks. (Although, not all.)

Maybe that’s not what you’re going for, but I can’t help but hear that you’re seeing, and experiencing some bad stuff that’ll happen anywhere, maybe for different reasons, and acted out in different ways, but at it’s core the same.

I think the people who like, or love Japan, are fine to do so. They look at the good, and the bad in Japan, compare it other places, and pick Japan as the best choice for them. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. I hear you saying that there are downsides they aren’t aware of, and in some cases it’s probably true.

That said, I don’t think those downsides can or should erase the good sides.

I hope I’m making sense, and my tone is coming off positive. I know messages boards are notorious for leading people astray with tones.

I guess the question the other poster was putting before you is, does the bad outweigh the good for you personally? If so, then you may want to move someplace else. If not, then you’re good. I think they also are saying even if the bad outweighs the good for you, it might not for others.
guyhey

Hey, I’m starting to feel like I’m spamming this message board with this conversation. Want to PM me if you want to keep talking?
Jason B.

I read somewhere on the Internet recently… it might have been travelandleisure.com… that LAX is indeed one of the worst airports in the USA. So it wasn’t just you, and it wasn’t just reverse culture shock. (Though I also see other comments with different experiences.)
walker

an elderly tokyo railway worker once chased me and a friend almost 100 metres, to give us the station map he couldn’t locate earlier. i almost felt guilty for bowing in thanks, since his horizontal reply made me fear for his old back.

the guy at the ticket office of my local station in australia couldn’t tear himself away from his paperwork when i tried to buy a ticket, with a train imminent, forcing me to use the vending machine and enjoy a pocketful of coins in change.

i know which attitude i prefer.

oh, and speaking of train tickets, i miss SUICA cards, too. among about a billion other things.
Chiisana_Hato

I must do business with another country called Japan.

One always hears about how great the customer service is in Japan. Only one of the companies I deal with has any sort of acceptable customer service.

“Oh, your item broke during insured shipping? You know it will be a big hassle for us to file a claim. The item didn’t cost THAT much. Can we just let the subject drop?”

This kind of thing just goes on and on with these companies. Maybe people who can’t cut it in Japanese customer service are hired by these companies to deal with online customer service. I just dread even having to ask a question because I know I’m going to get a big runaround.

I’ve was an American customer service rep for years, and professionally speaking these people suck.

I’m glad someone has actually experienced this mythical Japanese service. ;-P
EskimoJo

I definitely could do it, especially if everyone else was doing it and most especially if it was supported by higher powers. If I ran from my post on the job at my previous places of employment to return a forgotten item, I would be in trouble. If I instructed people of special discounts and ways to save money (unless it was a way that caused them to buy more than they intended or almost guaranteed that they would come back again) then they’d find an excuse to fire me. I’ve seen loads of people, myself included, pretty much get away with coming in late over and over again. And sure, in the West we can customize our toppings or ask for something that’s not the norm, but you also have people complain of unfairness or sue because something wasn’t exactly how they felt it should be. Here, if someone apologized to me over and over, I would think they were taking the piss, especially if *I* had made the mistake. And it’s especially hard to be polite and humble to people who are rude to you.

The culture is different here, so you’re right, it’s hard to do the whole ‘humbly at your service’ thing here, but it’s not hard to do *full-stop*.
http://www.youtube.com/user/YAMAstudios Jon Walmsley

Tell me about it, their Customer Service is fantastic. Here’s my own little story, though technically I was no ones customer; they still helped!

I asked two receptionists at an Art Musuem in Tokyo if they could tell me what time another smaller private museum in the city closed (it being 5pm already) and they spent a good 10 minutes finding out for me (they never having orignally heard of it), as well as telling me where it was (though I already knew, I didn’t know how to say such in Japanese). Then, when I got to the correct station I had no idea where to actually go so I stepped into a kouban and boy, did the officer on duty go all out for me! He paged through files, looked over maps and rang two people all to find out where exaclty this place was. He then drew a basic map for me and sent me on my way. I wanted to tell him it wasn’t necessary to go to all this trouble, but a) I didn’t know how to say as much in Japanese, b) I was fascinated by the process he went through and c) I did want to get to this gallery. Alas, after all that trouble I never did find the place, though I searched high and low not wanting the receptionists’ and officers efforts to be all for nothing. I swear, next time I’m in Tokyo, I will find the Mizuma Art Gallery!
Misty

Wow, reading this I’m starting to doubt that Russia exists.