The Retail Experience: JAPAN - The Zenith of Customer Service

I've been back for well over a week now from our trip to Japan and in addition to the terrible jetlag (which is finally wearing off), there seems to be something going on in me besides terrible jet lag. It's a sort of melancholy I get when I go into a store here in the United States. Any store... grocery, boutique, big box... you name it, it doesn't matter. I haven't been able to properly put my feelings around this emotion until today.

It was a sudden jolt... a moment in which I needed help and none was to be found... standing stranded in a dressing room half-undressed waiting for help and hearing the staff person chatting with another associate for a good five minutes while I stood... waiting and waiting and waiting... what I wanted at that moment was my JAPAN-LEVEL CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

What is Japan-level customer service (or JLCS for short) you ask? Well, if you have been to Japan, you know exactly what I mean. There is a pervasive spirit focused on simply meeting the needs and desires of the customer.

It's the going to the hotel lobby needing a battery charger for your camera at 7 o'clock at night.. and the concierge ensuring that by the next morning you not only know what store carries the battery you need (it's Bic Camera, by the way...), but that it will be held for you, you will know what train you need to take to get it, AND the proper Japanese translation for the request will be written out for you to hand to the store employee. Yes... that's JLCS.

Now you might say... "That's only if you have a concierge in a fine hotel...right?" No. JLCS is anywhere and everywhere. From the ubiquitous combini (convenience stores) to drug store to high-end boutiques in the Ginza, service is SERIOUS business and they all seem to know that and deliver on it. As a customer, I would never know if one of the people that took care of me was having a bad day or that they thought my request was over the top. Every shopping experience came with a sense of anticipating my need and a true desire to fulfill it. Though I haven't yet been to EVERY country around the world, Japan is hands down the one country so far to which ALL retailers should aspire in terms of service.

As operational efficiency and product assortment become the norm throughout the industry, retailers have to find new ways to stand out and make money... and they should be looking to service. This, my retail friends, is the one area where the customer can be king, and you can make more profit.

I would like to share with you two examples. I could give you HUNDREDS, but these two truly stand out.

EXAMPLE #1. Giorgio Armani, Ginza.

We spent a great deal of time in the Ginza looking at department stores as well as the upscale fashion clothing flagship stores. This area of Tokyo is recognized as one of the most luxurious shopping districts in the world. I personally am in awe of their splendid-ness, but honestly am not a customer (though of course, I would be if I could...). However... in terms of brand... my heart belongs to Giorgio Armani. Always has, probably always will. So now that I've outed my bias toward the brand, I want to call attention to what I never expected.

I walked into this 5-story store (Surprisingly an entrance from the Ginza station as well as street level.) and expected the same type of service greeting I get when I've been in most luxury stores... ignore me OR make me feel somehow like I might lift something and run. Neither make me all too comfortable... ;) Anyway... I went in to look around and made my way to the second floor women's fashions where I was warmly greeted. I then quietly began my appreciation (okay, it was worship) of all the beautiful suits and gowns. At one point my hand must have lingered a bit longer on a raincoat. (I recall I basically touched the top of the coat at the hanger.) I moved to another room never having been pushed or made to feel suspect and as I motioned towards leaving it was at this point where the sales woman approached me and said in Japanese (I speak Japanese, but definitely look like a "gaijin"...) "It seems you may have liked the blue coat, would you like to try it on?" to which I expressed my fondness for the coat, but that I needed to leave due to a meeting we were heading to. Long story short, she encouraged me to try on the coat and after I did (and graciously declined to purchase it, thinking perhaps the purchase would require the sale of at least one of my kidneys) she thanked me for taking the time with her and trying on the coat despite my busy schedule. Then she rushed off to get me an Armani bag compete with a copy of the newest Armani catalog and DVD. As she escorted me to the glass elevator with my "parting gift," I was thinking how I didn't feel bad for not getting the coat, but how impressed I was by how gracious and attentive she was. As the doors closed to the elevator taking me down, I watched her maintain a deep bow even after it was quite clear I was no longer really able to see her. In summary... I left the store blown away.

OK so now you could argue... "yeah, but that's how the high end fashion experience is SUPPOSED to be. Right?" Now mind you I have had great service at luxury stores before, but this was a whole new level: a combination of the style and quality of the Armani brand with warm and welcoming service unlike that in other shopping hotspots like 5th Avenue, Oxford Street, and the Champs Elysee.

EXAMPLE #2. Fujiya Confectionary Store, Ginza.

Fujiya is one of Japan's better known candy brands and I decided that my 6 year old daughter's sweet tooth just might be satiated with the gift of a candy or two. The small store was teeming with shoppers, but one of the associates made sure to tell me immediately that she knew that I had entered the store with a "irashaimase" followed with a direct comment letting me know that she would be right with me after she finished with the customer in front of her.

Once it was my turn she helped me to navigate through the myriad of sweets and select just the right ones. Never once pushy or acting put out by my questions. At the end she held out my purchases, showing me the expiration date on each packaged cake/candy making sure that I still wanted to purchase them being that they were perishable. She also inquired as to whether the items were gifts and immediately took to wrapping each item exquisitely and point out any items that were fragile so that would arrive to their recipient intact.

At the end of the purchase, she came around from cash wrap, bowed, thanked me for my patronage and handed me my parcel. Now I know that some retailers in the US are taking to this idea of coming around the cash wrap and handing the bags to their shopper, but it hasn't caught on fast enough as a common practice.

I could go on and on... Examples abound: fast food restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, bakeries, pharmacies, and even a 100 yen store... all delivering consistently exception service, at least by the "are you SURE you don't want the extended warranty with that?" standards we Americans are accustomed to. Certainly there are exceptions here, but the opportunity to embrace service as a differentiator quite a "greenfield" in many areas outside Japan, and the return from exquisitely packaged sweets to the casual jumble of my first grocery shop on my return left me pining for even a little taste of JLCS...

(And ironically, JLCS extends to "self-service" as well, embracing state of the art vending systems... a subject we will be exploring soon in this blog...)