01 March 2009

Attention to detail

One of the things I love about the Japanese is their attention to detail. In our world, we are usually too busy or too cool to pay attention to small things. Here it`s different, it`s not just efficiency and the big picture that counts. Customer service is attentive to the extreme and while this can be labelled as inefficient, it is very warming from a human point of view and I feel much better treated as a customer here, despite the language barrier.
An example for this attention to detail was my visit to the nearby post office today. I wanted to send 2 letters off and on one I had not put enough postage. In Switzerland you would just pay the difference and they`d put one of those neutral printed stamps on it. Herre, the guy at the counter showed me some cute manga stamps and asked me to choose the one that I liked best. It just put a big smile on my face!
That would never ever happen back home, even if the post office was completely empty and the employee not busy at all. We consider ourselves too adult, too reasonable to mind things like that. But truth is, it is very nice and sweet when somebody actually does care. I love it.

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