{"id":1537,"date":"2023-02-13T11:27:45","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T16:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/?p=1537"},"modified":"2023-02-13T11:27:52","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T16:27:52","slug":"zen-customer-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/zen-customer-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Zen Customer Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I spent most of January 2023 in Japan.  It was a business trip, but there was opportunity to travel as well, so I wasn&#8217;t stuck in Tokyo the whole time.  I also visited Hakone, Nara, Kyoto and Yokohama.  This was my fifth time being in Japan, and I got to see some new places (<em>like the deer-filled streets of Nara<\/em>), ate some different food (<em>like the black eggs in Hakone<\/em>), and met some new people.  Do you know what DIDN&#8217;T change?  What has <em>never<\/em> changed since I first started travelling to Japan in 2008?  The super-high level of customer service and client care.  It&#8217;s so consistent and it&#8217;s so refreshing.  As a traveller, a visitor, it&#8217;s the best experience.  People are so polite not just with their words, but with their non-verbal communication as well.  Soft voice, respectful eye contact, small arm gestures, calm voice.  Definitely a few things the West could learn from.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However even a rose has thorns.  I&#8217;ll leave you with this counter-thought from a Tokyo guy:  &#8220;yes the customer service in Japan is high level, but it&#8217;s scripted, it&#8217;s mandatory and therefore fake.  The customer service you receive in Canada (or elsewhere) may not always be top-notch, but at least it&#8217;s genuine.  When you receive great care in Canada, you know it&#8217;s 100% real, and it leaves a special feeling.&#8221;  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interesting point.  So is the key to great customer service the overall experience, and ease, or is it the genuine heart of the experience?  Maybe it&#8217;s simply how the experience and people involved <em><strong>made you feel.  <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Customer service in Japan is excellent.  What do they do differently?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[544,536,535,534],"tags":[548,597,856],"class_list":["post-1537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-body-language","category-customer-service","category-esl-cultural-communications","category-professional-communications","tag-customer-service","tag-japan","tag-zen"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Nara_Japan.jpeg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1539,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions\/1539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}