Hagakure of Customer Service

"When one has made a decision to respond to a customer service complaint, even if it will be very difficult to succeed by advancing straight ahead, it will not do to think about doing it in a long, roundabout way. One's heart may slacken, he may miss his chance, and by and large there will be no success. The Way of Customer Service is one of immediacy, and it is best to dash in headlong.”

“Meditation on inevitable anger should be performed daily. Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one should meditate upon being yelled at for duplicate transactions, acts of God, misunderstandings and mistaken assumptions, being confused with one's competitor, being thrown into the midst of a long customer line, supply line failures, misprints in advertising copy, traffic jams, full parking lots, crying children, or committing seppuku at the death of one’s supervisor. And every day without fail one should consider himself as completely at fault.”

"Among the maxims on the General Manager's wall there was this one: 'Small incidents should be treated as complete disasters.' The Shift Supervisor commented, 'Complete disasters should be treated as small incidents.'"

“There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with an angry customer, you try not to get yelled at and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing the buck and not answering emails, you still get yelled at. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same tongue lashing. This understanding extends to everything.”

"Even if one's head were to be suddenly cut off, he should be able to make one more apology with certainty. With customer service valor, if one becomes like a contrite ghost and shows great determination, though his head is cut off, his eyes should not roll."