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Genba shugi

Home / Posts Tagged "Genba shugi"

Tag: Genba shugi

Europe could really use a dose of Japanese-style customer service

I have to admit that I always suffer from reverse culture shock when I return to the UK after business trips to Japan. Arriving at Heathrow Airport I find my shoulders hunching up, ready to face the fact the inevitable headaches and the fact that at best I may get some cheery but incompetent service – and at worst, downright hostility – from the people delivering my “transportation experience”.

I know from the training seminars I do for Japanese expatriates who are working in Europe that they too put “bad customer service” near the top of the list of things they find most challenging about living here. In Japan you become used to a consistently high level of competence in customer service, delivered politely and gently, with immediate and unreserved apology should things go wrong. Most British people, even if they have never visited Japan, will agree that customer service standards are poor in the UK. Other Europeans, on hearing our criticisms, will usually add, “Try my country – it’s even worse!” European service is uneven in quality, often delivered with a bad attitude and when things go wrong, you get excuses rather than a straightforward apology.

The question Japanese expatriates ask – and the question I often ask myself, is – “why?” Why is customer service so bad in Europe, and if most people agree it is not satisfactory, why isn’t anything done about it?

I have been doing some research on the differences in Japanese and British corporate cultures recently, and I’ve realised that the key features I have identified can also be used to explain the different customer service outcomes. For example the corporate mission of British and Japanese companies and their historical roots has led to more “stakeholder” companies in Japan compared to more “shareholder” type of companies in the UK. This in turn has had an impact on the employees’ sense of belonging to a corporate group and collective responsibility.

Some of the more traditional – some might say “outdated” – aspects of Japanese companies also impact customer service. These would include seniority based promotion, with its roots in Confucian acceptance of unequal power in society and the obligations that go with different ranks, alongside respect for elders and higher ranked people. And although status is unequal, Japanese companies do not have a huge differential between the pay of the senior executives compared to the junior ranks, unlike British service companies where the junior person is notoriously badly paid and chief executives earn millions of pounds.

Finally, even in service sector companies in Japan there is the gembashugi factor or a focus on the actual place where the work is done. Senior managers should have worked their way up the organisation and be prepared to go out onto the shopfloor. There is even a kind of monozukuri or craftsmanship – pride in the physical aspects of delivering service well.

Perhaps, if the key elements in Japanese service excellence can be identified and made explicit, customer service can be Japan’s next big export industry?

This article by Pernille Rudlin originally appeared in the Nikkei Weekly.  This and other articles are available as an e-book “Omoiyari: 6 Steps to Getting it Right with Japanese Customers”

For more content like this, subscribe to the free Rudlin Consulting Newsletter. 最新の在欧日系企業の状況については無料の月刊Rudlin Consulting ニューズレターにご登録ください。

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Customer visits key to sales success in Japanese markets

I was recently shown around the offices of one of Japan’s largest recruitment agencies. There was the bustle and hum you would expect of a successful company in one of the fastest-growing industries in Japan, but the sales department was empty and silent.

The director explained to me that any salesperson found in the office during working hours would be poorly evaluated and their bonus would suffer. It was tough on the sales people, who are often shown the door when they cold-call on clients. But the company strongly believes in gemba (or genba) shugi, literally ‘on-the-spot-ism’ as part of its sales strategy.

I am not suggesting that everyone selling in the Japanese market should door-step their customers, but before you pick up the phone or send an e-mail to a client, it is definitely worth considering whether you could arrange a face-to-face meeting instead.

I was first introduced to gemba shugi in the 1990s when I was working at a major Japanese trading company in Tokyo, selling granite to a Japanese stone wholesaler. Samples would arrive at my office from around the world, but instead of sending them off by courier to the customer, as I might have done in the UK, I called customers and arranged appointments. I did this not only so I could see their reaction with my own eyes, but also because most companies would try to make such a visit worthwhile by spending an hour talking about their business and swapping industry news, which often led to sales leads. One time, after a customer had given his opinion of a sample, he mentioned to me, as we chatted over a cup of green tea, that an architect had visited, looking for blue granite. Of course this was exactly the kind of lead that I was hoping for, so as soon as I got back to my office, on the other side of Tokyo, I sent off a request to all my contacts around the world, asking them if they had any blue granite. It led to several thousand dollars worth of business for us.

Gemba shugi is normally used in the context of a manufacturing operation, in the sense of it being important that managers go out on to the shopfloor, to see for themselves, or even ensure that decisions are made at the shopfloor level. But I believe it is the secret of success in Japanese sales and customer service, too.

This article by Pernille Rudlin originally appeared in the Nikkei Weekly.  This and other articles are available as an e-book “Omoiyari: 6 Steps to Getting it Right with Japanese Customers”

For more content like this, subscribe to the free Rudlin Consulting Newsletter. 最新の在欧日系企業の状況については無料の月刊Rudlin Consulting ニューズレターにご登録ください。

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Last updated by Pernille Rudlin at 2022-12-09.

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