Customer Service Culture
July 11th, 2009 | 0 Comments | Customer Service |
Japan’s customer service culture may well be the most advanced in the world. It certainly is drastically different from that which prevails –if it is assumed to exist at all– in Costa Rica.
Last weekend my wife and daughter took a trip with my little one’s best friend and her mother. As is customary in this society, they bought small presents for relatives and close friends. On Monday my wife was about to mail a small bag of kinako (黄な粉) –soy flower– to a relative, but she realized that the flavor expiration had already passed three days earlier (in Japan edible products have both flavor and product safety expiry dates).
My wife called the mom and pop shop where she bought the kinako to ask where she should send the flower for a replacement. The person that answered the phone apologized for the inconvenience it caused and told my wife that she only needed to give him the date and time of purchase, both of which could be found and the cash register’s receipt. The store called back five minutes later to thank my wife for informing them about the product expiration date problem, apologizing yet again for the trouble the store had caused her. Mailing the expired product would be unnecessary (i.e., an additional burden on the customer), they would simply send a new kinako package immediately.
The flower arrived yesterday. As is usual in Japan, it came with a small “apology” present. The original kinako package had cost ¥210 (about US$2.27). The new packet’s shipping cost was ¥500 (US$5.40) plus whatever monetary value the apology present may have had.
This brief example of customer service culture may seem trivial, but it illustrates the gulf that separates Costa Rica and Japan. In Costa Rica, both the private and public sector act as if they understand customer service to entail nothing more than denying customers’ complaints and petitions, or even attributing responsibility for product or service defects to the customer, so long as a calm tone and phony politeness are used when addressing the customer.
