It took the good folks at Updater, a relocation technology company that seeks to take some of the pain and tediousness out of moving, to teach me a bit about Omotenashi. If you’re like me and have never heard about Omotenashi before, then you may want to check out Updater’s slide deck prepared for the American Moving & Storage Association:
http://get.updater.com/amsa-education-session.html
The Japanese term relates to a way of treating a guest. In Japan, there is no distinction between customer and guest. Omotenahsi speaks of anticipating a guest’s need before they ask for it. The aim is to exceed the customer’s expectations and perhaps surprise and delight them with the service experience. The good news is that not only are industry service partners like Updater helping us understand such aspirations but that many of us are actually implementing such service practices.
The bad news is that we still struggle with an embedded culture of risk avoidance that colors the public’s perception of our industry. For those that are relatively new to our business, a little history lesson may help our understanding. You see, our heritage stems back to an age of regulation where Federal law mandated that common carriers must adhere rigidly to published tariff rules without exception. Back then, our rates were the same, we all had the same tariff. While service was the competitive differentiation, the rules of service engagement were very exact. Not only were those rules in writing, we were taught that going above and beyond service requirements was actually a violation of tariff guidelines.
As an example, when I was learning the business in the late 1970’s, I was told that adjusting a claim for more than the carrier’s maximum stated liability or paying an inconvenience claim beyond what was allowed in our tariff could be construed as a rebate and was against the law. In those days, anticipating a customer’s needs and delivering beyond their expectations was not common practice.
As a salesperson, I was taught to review the legal terms of the contract for carriage with my customer with special emphasis on liability and responsibilities. We needed to obtain customer acknowledgement in the form of initials and signatures at all the critical places on our Order for Service. I am reminded of flight attendants who state that their utmost priority is our safety, and by inference that service is not a real priority. In our business, compliance to the legal terms of the contract was the priority. If we got the customer to initial the clause, then we were covered. In my opinion, that is where we inherited this vestigial tail of risk avoidance which is still too prevalent in our business.
So, how do we evolve? Imagine what delivering beyond customer expectations with an aim to delight looks like? Contrast:
– Point out that service will not proceed until the customer agrees to pay extra for failure to complete all the packing which customer has committed and signed for, to do.
+ Instead, we place a certain average cushion in our rates that allows us to complete the packing with a smile acknowledging that moving is a stressful time and we understand.
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– Apologize when the customer calls because our crew has not arrived per advised schedule.
+ Instead, we text the customer when the crew leaves the yard. We send a courtesy text when we are 15 minutes away. If there is a delay, we advise as soon as we realize it with a new estimated arrival time.
– Respond to an angry customer call regarding damages with instructions on how to obtain estimates that will support their claim.
+ Instead, we schedule an appointment for our claims specialist who is also a trained, well-equipped handyman. He will take pictures, document the claim and handle simple repairs or assembly on-the-spot, when possible.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. The great thing is that there are so many companies that have already implemented these practices. The industry is changing but are we doing it fast enough? Are some of us still hiding behind our compliance and liability-based business practices?
It may be time to examine that vestigial tail, does it actually serve no purpose or is it actually tripping us up and annoying our customers? The compliance-based, risk-averse contracts and business practices may need to be reexamined while we are at it.
“Omotenashi” is hard to define, but the Japanese use it to describe what they believe is their unique approach to hospitality. “Omotenashi” involves the subjugation of self in service to a guest, without being “servile”.
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