customer service

its occurred to me that ill never be able to go back to north american standards of customer service after being in japan so long.

2 examples:

when i went back to vancouver for the winter holidays i went into eb games to look at some video games. the 2 employees were this one guy who looked to be in his mid 30s with some rock band tshirt on, unkempt hair, bad facial hair, and spent more time talking to his coworker than helping the customers. i waited 15 seconds at the counter for him to help me while he was lecturing his buddy about the advantages of final fantasy over some other useless role playing game. the other guy was probably just out of high school and just sat on his stool either talking to the older guy or being rude to the customers. if i wasnt in such a hurry i wouldve asked them what they thought they were doing.

whereas here in japan, i go today to the immigration office for my work visa renewal, a government place where service is supposed to be notoriously bad. yet the people at the counter, even though they were very busy, asked kindly if i spoke english or japanese and then led me step by step through the process, no problem. always said please, always said thank you, always used polite words like could or may or kindly.

you could multiply this situaiton thousands of times over thoroughout places in north america and japan and the results would come out the same. some criticize the japanese over being too polite to the point of being fake. still, id rather take that than being overly honest and carefree to the point of being rude in my customer service experiences.