Bows as you enter a gas station, group enthusiasm for work--this is a country where the customer is always king



One of the most distinct impressions I took away from our just-completed shoot of two shows in Japan (“Tokyo” and “Kyoto”), was this: I never encountered one employee who didn’t seem completely invested in his or her job.

From hotel employees to gas station attendants to shopkeepers, Japanese workers appear fully dedicated to what they are doing. There was no employee talking on a cell phone when a customer was in sight. No one standing around gossiping with colleagues. No one too busy to focus immediately on any need a guest or customer might have.

The Japanese work ethic, attention to detail, and apparently enthusiasm for working displayed itself in numerous ways.

• Pull into a gas station in downtown Tokyo, and you’ll find it immaculate. Employees will bow as your car approaches a fuel tank and bow again as you depart.

• One night, while shooting after hours at Toto--the famous bathroom fixture manufacturer whose toilets with heated seats, “washlet” features, and warm-air drying apparatus are commonplace in Japan—I watched several employees open a box containing a new sink. As soon as the wrapping was pushed aside and the sink came into view, the employees gave the product a round of applause.

• Near midnight, in an ultra-modern skyscraper complex, I could see through the big window of a chic hair salon about nine staffers standing in a circle holding hands. After a few moments they broke out in to wild applause. I could imagine they were discussing how tomorrow, they would do even better for their clients.

• The famous bullet train that links Tokyo with Kyoto pulls into the station every ten minutes. Exactly on time, every time. Two women in pink and white outfits with cleaning supplies strapped to tool belts flank each door and bow to each passenger as he or she disembarks. When the car is empty, they sweep through it, reversing the direction of the seats and replacing the doilies on the seats’ headrests. They also pick up any trash—if there is any trash. Unlike the Acela train I took between Washington, DC, and New York City a week ago, the bullet train isn’t littered with used newspapers and empty water bottles when passengers exit. Oh, and when the conductor enters each car to punch tickets, he stops and bows to all the passengers.

Now, I’m hardly suggesting the United States become Japan, which has an unusually homogenous society that translates into a shared consensus on mores, customs and even habits that few countries can duplicate.

But there’s a lesson to be learned about customer service. Maybe I’ve just had a bad run of experiences, but with few exceptions these days, I encounter lackadaisical employees at stores and in other service industries. Many US employees seem as if they’re just passing through for a few weeks because they need to pick up some spare cash.

I don’t know whether that’s their fault or the failure of management to infuse employees with an esprit de corps. But everyone from the airline industry to the neighborhood gas station could take a page from the Japanese and ratchet up a commitment to the customer experience. If it's a rough time in the economy, and if the consumer is watching his or her dollars more carefully, service may be the distinguishing difference that could set a business apart from the competition.