Last week I was having a bit of trouble finding a station in Osaka so I asked a lady for some help in finding the station. She didn’t speak much English but gestured for me to follow her and started walking, assuming she was getting to a better position to point out the station I followed her. However, to my surprise she was not simply pointing me in the right direction, after a few minutes of walking (through some impressive underground shopping centre) it became clear she was actually talking me to the station. She walked me all the way to the station as if it was her duty to do so, accepted my thanks, smiled and walked back the way we came.
Now that’s some great service and definitely went above and beyond my expectations. Consequently from this one event, I was given an extremely positive feeling about Osaka, and Japan. This feeling was not just towards the people and their behaviour, but to the country as a whole. This single event had largely defined my opinion on the personality (or brand) of Japan. If I was to have left Japan that day that’s the experience and opinion I would have taken with me and shared with other people.
The point here is that just one event can define a person’s attitude to all that event represents or can be associated with. When it comes to brands, just a single customer service situation could determine how people define your brand. Customer service tasks are not just a box to be ticked, but a real opportunity to exceed expectations and benefit the brand as whole. Exceptional or unexpected levels of customer service will alter the perception of the individual involved, but it can also alter and determine the view of others. Word will spread (particularly quickly these days) and if it’s positive it can provide some very powerful promotional material.
Getting back to Japan, I’m glad to say that this was not an isolated incident, the people of Japan are some of the nicest and most helpful people I’ve ever met. Just the other day someone offered to cycle round part of the city to look for our hotel!
