Aug 1, 2013
Dale Carnegie Training Japan: http://japan.dalecarnegie.com/
Often, the issue is the structure of the service model. Employ
the cheapest hourly labour, provide the barest minimums of
training, have non-professional management and count the money. In
the case of Japan, they can also exploit high levels of basic
politeness.
Hot milk is a by-product of coffee shops, but try getting a glass
of hot milk if it isn’t on the menu.
When my wife was pregnant with our son, she avoided coffee and tea,
but wanted something warm to drink. She became pregnant while we
were based in Sydney, Australia (during a temporary posting) and
there was no hot milk on the menu, but flexible Aussies and so “no
worries”.
The same coffee shop would charge her a slightly different amount
each time, depending on the serving staff on that shift. They would
just decide what they thought it should cost, as it wasn’t already
specified.
Back in Japan, there was a sea of hot milk everywhere in coffee
shop land, but staff always gave a firm “no”. And that was that. It
wasn’t in the manual.
Order or request something outside the “manual”—beyond the narrow
range of orthodox procedure—and the easiest answer is “no”. The
politeness of the Japanese language masks a lot of service sins.
The act of having to “think” often seems “outside the manual”.
“Beyond my pay grade” is an expression I absolutely loath as it
exemplifies a total lack of interest in being accountable for the
success of the business, or for taking any responsibility for the
sanctity of the brand.
I have never heard the equivalent expression in Japanese, if such
an expression even exists, but the mentality can sometimes be
familiar.
In the case of foreign retail businesses, there are not so many
here in Japan. For those that are here, I am sure a lot of effort
goes into not just ensuring the quality of the goods or service,
the delivery logistics, and the brand integrity, but also getting
the team to be flexible around “not in the manual” situations. If
not, give me call!
Call centres are usually great for examples of inflexibility, as
the low wages, high turnover, short hold time imperatives, and poor
management cocktail really packs a nasty punch.
My credit card was receiving a lot of work and was wearing out. To
receive a new plastic card with the same number, I had to lose
access to my card for two weeks (I would send the old one back in
order for them to send me a new one). After severe hand-to-hand
combat over this, a solution was found (they sent me a new card and
I sent the old card back).
At the end of this struggle session on the phone, I wondered, Why
was that so difficult? I was reminded of John Cleese’s line in the
Monty Python’s “dead parrot” sketch: “If you want anything done in
this country you have to argue until you are blue in the
mouth”.
Why couldn’t that simple solution have been offered at the start? I
cannot be the first customer in the firm’s long retail history here
who wanted a new piece of plastic with the same number. Why did I
have to dynamite an acceptable outcome out of them?
I recall recently being advised to “go to a competitor” by the
person taking my call, because of her total inflexibility to
resolve my issue.
I won’t labour the point, but it was a simple issue around a
preferred starting time. Her fateful words got my attention though.
I thought, this person is killing the brand and losing the business
money. Why is that necessary? Well actually it isn’t. However, it
is often easier to be inflexible than flexible in Japan, so that is
why we often get such service.
My experience has been that there is also the inability to
articulate sufficiently well the “why” it can’t be done. In fact,
there is usually no articulation, just a polite but firm
refusal.
This seems more like a training, rather than a cultural, issue to
me. Reality check: are your team members successfully articulating
the “why” when it can’t be done?
The more difficult to perceive service sins are in the corporate
B2B areas. These are not low paid hourly workers, but are the
relatively well-paid, lifetime employment, almost impossible to
fire, types. They sometimes lack accountability for the business,
and brand integrity is a concept totally outside their mental
frame.
Mistakes usually make themselves apparent at some point, but this
inflexibility that is killing the business and the brand is much
harder to ferret out.
You, as the boss, probably won’t ever be told about it. It is
almost invisible and like a “brand cancer”—ignore it at your
peril.
So how do we build that “go the extra mile” flexible mentality in
our team members?
Leadership and management are key factors in setting the tone of
service delivery. Ask yourself, “when was the last time I made any
mention about the need to be more flexible in our thinking about
solving customer’s issues?”
Or ask, “when was the last time anyone who works for me, in a
leadership or management position, said anything to the team about
winning more share of the pie by being more flexible than our
competitors?” If the answer is “never”, or close to it, then
perhaps it is time to raise the issue and explain why this is
important to the brand.
Another tool often overlooked is “values”. Whenever you ask
Japanese teams to compile a list of their personal values, a lot of
wonderful words come up—all the usual suspects (integrity, trust,
honesty, respect)—but rarely do you come across flexibility.
I do this a lot with client’s teams and have never seen it. What
this says is that we need to consciously add this as a value.
Articulate why it is important and provide stories and examples to
“prime the pump”. It needs to be constantly referred to as a
differentiator of the brand—“a powerful means of delighting
customers”.
Get the team focused on this and pray your competitors embrace
inflexibility well into the future. Make a plan to go after their
clients in the meantime!
To finish on a positive note, I was recently pleasantly surprised
by the flexible attitude of a Japanese staff member of a mid-sized
Japanese hotel.
Due to a sudden heavy snowfall in Tokyo, drivers couldn’t negotiate
the hill near my home. I was one of these drivers, and had to leave
my car overnight in the car park of this particular hotel, located
at the bottom of that very snowy hill.
Picking up the car and bill the next day, the car park vending
machine had never seen such a spine-chilling sum and couldn’t deal
with it, thus help was needed.
After explaining why the car was there, the male staff member in
his mid-twenties said something very significant: “Thank you for
not obstructing the road outside our hotel during the snow storm. I
will take responsibility and waive the parking cost”.
Wow! I wasn’t dreaming after all!
Related article by Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan: "Flexible Japan - Stop Dreaming!"
Related video by Dr. Greg Story, Presidet of Dale Carnegie Training Japan: THE Leadership Japan Series # 1 - Flexible Japan - Stop Dreaming