"...Just Can't Get Good Service from These Foreigners!"
Older Japanese men are not the most politically correct when it comes to expressing their opinions. After decades of managing younger people as top-level salarymen and getting what they want both during and after work, many become highly intolerant of situations in which things do not go the way they are supposed to based on social conventions and commonly understood protocols. Even as powerless retirees, they somehow continue to believe in their responsibility and necessity to help defend "the way things are," just as they have as career salarymen maintaining a stable corporate culture in major Japanese firms.
In this instance, the retirees find themselves buying things in a local convenience store. As retail outlets that many urban Japanese probably come in contact with most frequently, the convenience store, for many people, is the pinnacle of the Japanese service industry and its unique culture of customer service. More so than other retail outlets, the staff of convenience stores is educated to work fast, precisely, remember many services (from paying bills, cooking fast food, and sending out packages), and above all, put on friendly smiles to all customers.
The resulting concept of "omotenashi" supposedly defines Japanese attitude toward customer service but is gradually breaking down in recent years with an influx of foreign employees, not the least in the eyes of the older males hell-bent on preserving what they see as good tradition. As Japan depopulates, jobs manning convenience stores, often defined by lack of career advancement, low pay, hard work, and little public appreciation, is being shunned by the Japanese population and foreign residents with better employment prospects. Store owners are increasingly forced to rely on foreign part-timers earning some cash on the side before a proper career beckons.
With a rotating door of short-term employees with low motivation doing the day-to-day operations, convenience stores are suffering from unprecedented difficulties in staff training. The lack of enthusiasm among the foreigners taking the convenience store job out of financial desperation rather than choice or desire undoubtedly leads to low motivation to learn all the complex customer service concepts besides fulfilling basic operational needs. Increasingly, convenience store shoppers are greeted by a store staffed by jaded foreign students just mechanically doing their assigned tasks without smiles or warm verbal greetings.
The complaint of the old Japanese males upon leaving the convenience store, while xenophobic in nature, is thus not without justifications. Foreign employees in a convenience store already face the unfathomable difficulty of learning the proper honorific language to use with customers in every situation, struggling to understand their curt instructions on what they demand, and handling operational processes that are only taught in jargony vocabulary not found in Japanese language schools. What little remains of their self-confidence does not give them enough energy to partake in formulaic politeness and extra work requested of omotenashi.
But under the current circumstances, even with customer complaints piling up, it is difficult to see any changes in convenience stores becoming more dependent on demotivated, tired foreign workers. The reality is that the urban Japanese lifestyle has become centered on late-night shopping in 24-hour convenience stores, and low unemployment has made more and more of the ever-decreasing number of young people able to avoid the unpleasant work in a convenience store. Japanese shoppers are just too dependent on convenience stores that are just too dependent on demotivated foreign laborers.
At the core of the issue is just how cheap the convenience of a convenience store comes to the general public. At prices only slightly more expensive than a supermarket, shoppers can get pretty much anything they need at any hour of the day in a convenience store. The low prices paid by the shoppers translate to low margins for the stores, which then minimize wages paid out and the number of staff members in each store. The business model ensures that employees stay demotivated and keep turnover high through low wages for too much work.
It is high time that the entire business model of the convenience store is revamped. While ending the 24-hour operations, a hallmark of convenience stores is underway in more rural parts of the country, another option may just be to drastically raise both prices and salaries for employees. By really making shoppers pay premium prices for the convenience of buying stuff whenever they want, convenience stores can properly compensate foreign employees for doing the hard operations work and providing good customer service that satisfies picky Japanese customers. Only with such a revamp will Japanese customers finally understand that good customer service does not simply exist by social convention but needs to be compensated properly.
In this instance, the retirees find themselves buying things in a local convenience store. As retail outlets that many urban Japanese probably come in contact with most frequently, the convenience store, for many people, is the pinnacle of the Japanese service industry and its unique culture of customer service. More so than other retail outlets, the staff of convenience stores is educated to work fast, precisely, remember many services (from paying bills, cooking fast food, and sending out packages), and above all, put on friendly smiles to all customers.
The resulting concept of "omotenashi" supposedly defines Japanese attitude toward customer service but is gradually breaking down in recent years with an influx of foreign employees, not the least in the eyes of the older males hell-bent on preserving what they see as good tradition. As Japan depopulates, jobs manning convenience stores, often defined by lack of career advancement, low pay, hard work, and little public appreciation, is being shunned by the Japanese population and foreign residents with better employment prospects. Store owners are increasingly forced to rely on foreign part-timers earning some cash on the side before a proper career beckons.
With a rotating door of short-term employees with low motivation doing the day-to-day operations, convenience stores are suffering from unprecedented difficulties in staff training. The lack of enthusiasm among the foreigners taking the convenience store job out of financial desperation rather than choice or desire undoubtedly leads to low motivation to learn all the complex customer service concepts besides fulfilling basic operational needs. Increasingly, convenience store shoppers are greeted by a store staffed by jaded foreign students just mechanically doing their assigned tasks without smiles or warm verbal greetings.
The complaint of the old Japanese males upon leaving the convenience store, while xenophobic in nature, is thus not without justifications. Foreign employees in a convenience store already face the unfathomable difficulty of learning the proper honorific language to use with customers in every situation, struggling to understand their curt instructions on what they demand, and handling operational processes that are only taught in jargony vocabulary not found in Japanese language schools. What little remains of their self-confidence does not give them enough energy to partake in formulaic politeness and extra work requested of omotenashi.
But under the current circumstances, even with customer complaints piling up, it is difficult to see any changes in convenience stores becoming more dependent on demotivated, tired foreign workers. The reality is that the urban Japanese lifestyle has become centered on late-night shopping in 24-hour convenience stores, and low unemployment has made more and more of the ever-decreasing number of young people able to avoid the unpleasant work in a convenience store. Japanese shoppers are just too dependent on convenience stores that are just too dependent on demotivated foreign laborers.
At the core of the issue is just how cheap the convenience of a convenience store comes to the general public. At prices only slightly more expensive than a supermarket, shoppers can get pretty much anything they need at any hour of the day in a convenience store. The low prices paid by the shoppers translate to low margins for the stores, which then minimize wages paid out and the number of staff members in each store. The business model ensures that employees stay demotivated and keep turnover high through low wages for too much work.
It is high time that the entire business model of the convenience store is revamped. While ending the 24-hour operations, a hallmark of convenience stores is underway in more rural parts of the country, another option may just be to drastically raise both prices and salaries for employees. By really making shoppers pay premium prices for the convenience of buying stuff whenever they want, convenience stores can properly compensate foreign employees for doing the hard operations work and providing good customer service that satisfies picky Japanese customers. Only with such a revamp will Japanese customers finally understand that good customer service does not simply exist by social convention but needs to be compensated properly.
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