Mysteries from the Customer Service Promised Land

This article originally appeared on Inc.com

We hear about customer-centric companies all the time. From Amex to Zappos, we follow and study and praise the innovators, especially here at StellaService.

But halfway around the world--a 15-hour flight from New York, to be exact--there's a place where the quality of customer service shocks and awes in ways you wouldn't imagine, even from the most customer-obsessed companies on American soil.

I'm not talking about any particular company. I'm talking about the entire country of Japan.

The Trip I Did Not Think I Was Taking

I recently got back from my first trip to Japan, and as you may be able to tell, I was blown away. It completely changed my perspective on the industry I work in and the opportunities for the companies I work with.

I booked the trip last-minute, and I knew very little about the country or culture beyond the superficial qualities most Americans pick up from restaurants and movies. This was my first proper vacation in years, so I was excited to simply unplug.

However, what I thought was going to be a week-long excursion of leisurely eating great food, touring famous temples and learning about Japan's ancient history instead turned into an intense captivation and bewilderment with Japanese culture--specifically their culture of mind-blowing customer service.

Given my professional (and personal) interest in the world of service, I was constantly stopped in my tracks taking note of both big and small things that make every consumer experience in Japan so appealing. Despite realizing that it was unlikely I'd be able to escape and unplug from the topics that dominate my day job, the trip turned out to be one of the most interesting and enchanting weeks of my life.

The Way It Works in Japan

The day-to-day life in Japan contains a mountain of customer experience lessons. Here are a few of my favorite examples of how people, companies and society in general provide such an unbelievably pleasant experience.

1. The physical environment feels incredibly organized, clean and efficient--always. You know that feeling of walking into a clean hotel, or someone's house right after it's been cleaned? That's what it is like everywhere in Tokyo, one of the largest and most populated cities in the world. Everything appeared to have a perfect order to it that made me feel comfortable, safe and welcomed.
2. People are impossibly polite. If you live in New York like I do, this is especially jarring. My friend and I walked in and out of dozens of local restaurants, bars, stores and other establishments, and we unintentionally made a mess of just about everywhere we went. Not knowing how things are done, what customs to observe or how to follow the rules (most signs are in Japanese, a language we unfortunately didn't speak), we bumbled our way through the entire country. And in every instance, we were approached with courteous smiles, nonstop apologizing (for some reason they were apologizing!) and gratuitous bowing that appeared to mean some combination of "welcome", "don't worry", "we will take care of everything" and "thank you". In New York, if you stand in the wrong line for a hot dog you will likely hear obscenities shouted at you that you didn't even know existed, and it will happen before you even realize you are in the taxi line and not the hot dog line.
3. High quality is the only option. When you see that a product is "Made in Japan", it is typically the most reliable and high quality version of that thing. Cars. Knives. Architecture. Electronics. Sushi. Gardens. Japanese culture takes the idea that anything worth doing is worth doing right to a new level. The phrase "Japanese quality" even has its own Wikipedia page!
4. Presentation is paramount, and everyone puts on the best version of himself / herself all the time. A close cousin to the country's focus on high quality, Japanese culture demands excellent presentation. Whether it is someone's physical appearance or the basics of packaging an item purchased from a store, the attention to detail for outward presentation is unlike anything I've ever seen. Taking the day off from work and running errands? In Japan, you're dressing your best to do so. Of the approximately 130 million people in Japan, I'm guessing less than 1% own anything that resembles sweatpants. If you've ever seen the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi you know how important presentation is for food and how it's elevated to a Japanese art form (if you haven't seen this movie and you have any interest in Japan, you need to watch it asap).
5. There's no tipping in Japan--it's inappropriate to NOT provide outstanding service. Servers and bartenders give their best efforts and do it with a smile every time, not because they want an extra few hundred Yen but because it's the right thing to do. When a person decides to do business with your establishment, it is your obligation to go all out making it the best experience possible. Period. At first this sounds like a humbling social construct, but the more you think about it the more it makes sense. And it rubs off. Once you become immersed in this structure and experience how taxi drivers and waiters approach their work, you start treating people better....just because it's the right thing to do. The virtuous cycle of pleasantness continues.
6. Trust is off the charts because everyone follows the rules. While walking down a quiet neighborhood in Kyoto around 10pm, there were no cars or pedestrians on the street other than a young woman who appeared to be walking home from a grocery store. She approached a crosswalk connecting two tiny streets, and the light was red. With no one in sight, she stood there for a full 60 seconds before walking once the light finally turned green. I was watching from a block away and was so shocked that I thought I was being punk'd. Since everyone knows what to expect from everyone else, it creates a sense of trust that facilitates a completely different mindset about how you view the people and businesses around you.
7. Honor and discipline are everything. The most incredible example of Japan's service culture was illuminated to me by what most Japanese people would have considered a non-event. I saw a janitor hand-scrubbing a tile on the floor of a subway station (re-read #1 above if this seems weird to you). The janitor was wearing a perfectly clean, finely pressed janitorial uniform, and he was aggressively working the imperfections out of the floor tile in the middle of a crowded commuter walkway. The concept of "mailing it in" does not exist in Japan. Every aspect of every job, no matter how big or small, is approached with the same sense of honor, discipline and self-respect. As a result, the rest of the culture recognizes and appreciates the contribution of everyone else. So as this janitor continued to scrub, every passing commuter went out of his or her way to walk completely around the work being done, giving the janitor the space and recognition he deserved for his work. Imagine if everyone in your organization had this perspective.

There are so many different things about the way life is organized in Japan and the way people interact with each other that I can't imagine what Japanese tourists think when seeing the U.S. for the first time. They must think we live in an uncivilized, pushy and disgusting state of chaos. Even worse, imagine the face of a Japanese tourist when he gets off a plane and walks into the heart of a street market in Mumbai--after flying there on Japan Airlines, of course, in all its glory! Yikes. When's the next flight back to Tokyo?

The defining characteristic of Japanese culture is service. It's wonderful in every way to be a part of it, even if I couldn't understand how or why it works.

(As an aside, it's often discussed by Western tourists who visit Japan that there's an intangible, impassable wall that prevents us from genuinely understanding the inner workings of Japanese culture. I, like most, came back blown away by everything I saw in Japan, but I also came back with a thousand questions about what makes it all possible).

The elements that make up the surface layer of Japanese culture will keep my mind occupied for a long time.

There is clearly a tailwind for the idea that organizations and companies should do right by the people they serve and work with. Smart businesses are increasingly placing their customers--and the all-encompassing experience for their customers--at the heart of their strategies. If you agree that this is where the world is headed, take a quick trip to Japan to catch a sneak preview at what the future holds--it's a delight.