Compares Japanese customer service to British customer service, looking at historic roots, stakeholder versus shareholder orientation, monozukuri of customer service. Presented to Hosei University students and alumni, December 2009

1. The difference in customer service between Japan
and the UK and its roots in national corporate
cultures
Pernille Rudlin
Director, Rudlin Consulting
European Representative, Japan Intercultural
Consulting

2. British customer Japanese customer
service service
 Resentment  Pride in doing a good
job
 Incompetence
 Consistently competent
 Often rough, crude (mostly)
 Unwilling to accept  Refined/gentle
responsibility or say  Highly ritualised
sorry  Collective responsibility
 Lack of interest in  Empathy with customer
customer  Customer is “god”
 Can be helpful,  Unable to deal with
exceptions,
egalitarian, genuine? bureaucratic

3. Roots
1. Shareholder versus stakeholder
2. Egalitarianism versus Confucianism
3. Monozukuri and gembashugi of service
4. Compassion versus principle-based

4. 1. Shareholder versus
stakeholder

5. Shareholder Stakeholder
 Company should be  Company should be
managed to maximise primarily managed for
returns to the benefit of
shareholders through stakeholders such as
dividends, capital gain employees,
etc customers, society
 Assumed to be more  Usually seen as more
short-term, profit long-term, growth
oriented oriented

6. “Amongst those dark satanic
mills”

7. Exceptions in the UK
 Joseph Rowntree - confectioner
 Cadbury – chocolate manufacturer
 Joseph Fry – chocolate manufacturer
 William Hesketh Lever’s Port Sunlight village
(Unilever)
 Robert Owen – cotton mill owner
 Provided pleasant houses, schools and a co-
operative shop.
 Had a shorter day and good wages.
 No child under ten was allowed to work in his mills.
 Supported the 1819 Factory Act.
 Set up the Grand National Consolidated Trades
Union (1834) for workers.

8. Matsushita’s Seven Principles
 Contribution to
Society
 Fairness and Honesty
 Cooperation and
Team Spirit
 Relentless Efforts for
Improvement
 Courtesy and Humility
 Adaptability
 Gratitude

9.  Japanese companies have roots in Meiji
Restoration or post war rebuilding of Japan
 Has led to strong ethos of contribution to society
 Pride in serving the customer

10. UK in the 1970s and 1980s

11.  UK had lifetime
employment traditions,
but restructuring of
British industry in 1970s
and 1980s has caused
the British to lose faith
in their employers
 Large proportion of
steel, coal mining,
heavy industry closed
down
 Mass redundancies
 Increase in service
sector jobs perceived as
insecure, badly paid,
demeaning

12. 2. Egalitarianism and
Confucianism

13. Egalitarianism Confucianism
 “the doctrine of the  “The superior man does
equality of mankind what is proper to the
station in which he is;
and the desirability of he does not desire to go
political and economic beyond this. In a
and social equality” position of wealth and
honour, he does what is
proper to a position of
wealth and honour. In a
poor and low position,
he does what is proper
to a poor and low
position.”

14. John Lewis

15. Japanese shacho Western CEOs
 CEOs at Japan's top  American CEOs
100 companies by earned $13.3 million
market capitalization and European chief
earned an average of executives earned
$6.6 million at
around $1.5 million companies with
 Income mostly from revenues of higher
base salary than $10 billion
 Take large pay cuts in  Income mostly from
bad times stock options,
bonuses
 Big bonuses even

16. 3. The monozukuri and
gembashugi of service

17. The monozukuri of service

18. Monozukuri
 Requires educated customers, who can
appreciate well executed services
 Japanese children (and adults) learn origami,
martial arts, shodo, dance, ikebana – kata,
process is all-important
 Confucian emphasis on ritual and etiquette
 Can get good service in the UK where knowledge
and enthusiasm is mutual between staff and
customers (for example, Majestic Wine retail
chain)

19. Gembashugi
 There is a route from the most junior shopfloor
job to the top of the company
 You have to have worked on the shopfloor in
order to become a senior executive
 Senior management regularly go onto the
shopfloor
 Rapidity in dealing with complaints, necessary
improvements

20. 4. Compassion and principles

21. Compassion Principles
 Buddhist emphasis on  Christianity also
compassion for others teaches compassion,
but also “moral
 Truth changes, so
autonomy”
don’t say truth if it will
 Truth is absolute and
hurt others
unchanging
 Follow the rules and
 Integrity = stick to
processes without principles
much questioning of
 Rules should be backed
principles
by principles, need to
 Break rules if key know “why” in order to
relationships are at obey rules.

22. Conclusion

23. Can Japanese customer service be
exported to the UK?
1. Stakeholder mentality – Japanese multinationals
need to bring overseas staff into “seishain” group
 Lifetime employment?
 Use partnerships, profit sharing, trust structures?
 Secondment to Japan
2. Egalitarianism and Confucianism – if there is
more of a stakeholder ethos, will not resent service
sector status so much
3. Monozukuri – need more respect for skills
education in UK schools. Training at work –
secondment to Japan?
4. Gembashugi – ties into lifetime employment,
seniority based promotion
5. Compassion – probably the most culturally “bound”
issue. Cannot teach compassion. Japanese
companies need to be more explicit, and explain,
principles behind expected behaviours