Japanese customers' high expectations nurture your brand! / Luxury Retail Excellence In Japan

Perfection is the norm. Brands are trained by customers.

Luxury brand staff often says to me, "Japanese customers are especially meticulous.

As a luxury brand, it is a prerequisite that products are inspected, stored, and handled with the utmost care and in accordance with the rules, without a scratch. The white gloves used for customer service symbolize this in a sense.

However, it is not the case that there are products that are free of wrinkles and scratches.

To me, it is a matter of taste that each piece is different, and if you take down a new piece of leather and use it once, it will get scratched anyway," but many Japanese people are particular about the quality of leather.

The staff, who also want customers to feel good about using their products, will compare them with other products in stock and show them carefully until they are satisfied.

They are also trained to make sure that the wrapping is perfect, so that customers can take the merchandise home feeling great.

Just like at Disneyland, this is an important production to ensure that customers enjoy an "extraordinary and luxurious time and space".

"Japanese hospitality" is often the subject of praise, but in fact, the "detail-oriented customer base" is also particular about the "little things" done by the staff.

Repair team that firmly supports the brand behind the scenes

On the other hand, it is actually when a product is damaged that we see the "bottom line" of a brand.

This does not mean that they are selling defective products (many brands have surprisingly low defect rates), but defects occur while customers are using the product.

Since it is not an inexpensive purchase, it is not surprising that many customers are willing to buy a new product after they have managed to get the broken one back to its original condition, and then simply throw it away.

And what would they think if a customer asked them to repair a broken product after using it for a while?

In fact, for sellers, "replacement" is a better business opportunity because new products are launched one after another.

Repair services often involve complicated interactions between the customer and the repair shop, which takes time for customer service and operations. In return, the amount of money paid to the repair shop for repairs for a fee is not particularly profitable. On the contrary, if a mistake is made, upon completion of the repair, "It's not what I imagined!" and there is a risk of receiving a claim. And then there is the risk of claims.

In addition, the lineup of repairs varies widely, and the symptoms vary as well. Materials and manufacturing methods are also unique depending on when the product was made. When creating a "repair system" based on these factors, a lot of time and effort is required for a series of processes, including confirmation of symptoms, estimation, ordering necessary parts, manual work of craftsmen, and testing.

If you watch the video of the actual repair process, you can see that the craftsman carefully disassembles the product down to the smallest detail (to avoid scratching), polishes it, replaces a few millimeters of parts, and reassembles it with the utmost care as the customer receives it. This process requires more energy than making a new product. For this reason, there is only a limited number of companies and personnel in Japan who can be entrusted with this task.

However, from a different perspective, designing a customer experience that "most people don't want to do" or "it's not easy to do," including a repair system, and working hard at it, actually contributes greatly to the credibility of the brand. The company's foresight lies in the fact that it invested systematically and established a repair system more than 30 years ago.

Rather than a business model of "sell it and be done with it," the company has created a cycle whereby the products are used with care for a long time, people realize their true value, people pass them on to family and friends with the realization of their value, history proves the strength of the product, and the product continues to shine over time.

Although they are not always on the front lines, every day they are quietly immersed in their work, facing products that have become a bit tired, breathing life back into them, returning them to their parents with a renewed sense of beauty, and anticipating the excitement of the customers when they are returned. This is a skill that has been passed down from generation to generation. This is the pride of the repair team.

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Contributor Profile (Yasuko Fukuroi) Tokyo, Japan

Consultant at Service Design Institute. Through consulting and training for various luxury brands, she has seen the transition of the brand business, "creating brand value" and "how to build brand worldview" from many real voices.