Wednesday, July 01, 1987
Professionalism is a Service
In 1986 and 1987, the SWET Newsletter published a series of essays on the subject of professionalism. Five of these were later collected in Wordcraft (1990). Mark Schreiber contributed this one.
Writers, editors, and translators in Japan should not forget that, in our individual capacities, most of us are also considered an integral part of what is known as the service industry.
The term saabisu in Japan carries with it a number of connotations not found elsewhere (that may be understating things somewhat!). We of the writing trade are often called upon to perform tasks not necessarily consistent with our own self-image as professionals but which are, nonetheless, as much a part of playing the game as the physical chore of putting pen to paper.
The biggest impediments to providing clients with good service, in my mind, tend to occur when we let our egos become inflated. An overly developed sense of self-importance is anathema to forming a professional attitude toward service. Look at the successful people around you: are they not the ones who have also mastered the intricacies of our host nation's notion of saabisu?
There is a perception gap at work here, because by its very nature saabisu in Japan means more than just the selling of one's professional abilities: it means extending those abilities to the customer in a package which can be contracted without any sense of dissonance. This particular situation also helps explain why some of the gaijin professionals who come to this country do not succeed. I present the followng story to illustrate my point.
Jalpak (Japan Airlines Package Tours) is the sort of firm that prides itself on exceptional customer service. The care extended its customers on overseas package tours is applied with a precision bordering on the Teutonic—this in a country with a service industry reputed to be the most customer-oriented in the world.
Several years ago, a multilingual European who claimed to be an experienced professional tour escort asked me for an introduction to Jalpak. The introduction was to be made thorugh the manager of the company's tour conductor division, a man who at that time happened to be a close associate.
As tour conductor kaichō, my friend ran his section of 40 or so subordinates in a manner not unlike that of the prewar Japanese army. Without an enemy to confront, their mission in life became a near-total dedication to customer service and esprit de corps. In full view from anywhere in the tour conductor office was a carefully lettered poster upon which was inscribed what this man demanded of his staff. His "five basic traits of a good tour conductor," by which each employee was regularly evaluated, were sei-i (honesty), taido (proper attitude), jikan no genshu (scrupulous promptness, fukusō (appropriate dress, and shigoto no kibishisa (taking one's job seriously).
Knowing that few gaijin, if any, could be counted on to assume thje gung-ho attitude demanded of the Japanese staff, I felt my European acquaintance's chances of being hired were rather slim, and I agreed to make the introduction only with great reluctance. My reservations proved well justitfied.
You will note that promptness is the third of the above five tenets; as it turned out, my acquaintance was late for her appointment. Quite late. Although she had promised me she would appear promptly for her job interview at 1:00 p.m., I waited until 1:43 before, embarrassed at her failure to appear and anxious to return to my own work, I left. I later learned that she showed up about 10 minutes afterwards, furious at me for not having had the manners to wait for her arrival.
Now, I suppose most people read the above and shook their heads, agreeing that such a person is unlikely to be deserving of any tour escort employment worth of the name. But how many of us can claim we have never, never been late for business appointments? On the contrary, it happens pretty often. Doesn’t it?
Of course, we all have good excuses—man, do we have excuses! "You know how hard it is to get a taxi when it rains." "I had to run back out of the station to get change for a ¥10,000 note and missed the train."
And what about deadlines? Don’t let distractions or a false sense of time keep you from meeting them. Learn to anticipate when and where the foul-ups may occur, and make allowances for untangling them. (One reason professionals are respected is that they always seem to know how to handle things when they don’t go as planned.) By holding up your end of any arrangement, you retain control over the situation.
The world of business would gain immeasurably if someone began giving lessons in accountability. In being reliable. In keeping one's word. In being punctual and considerate to those who wait. In being, in a word, professional.
That, at least, is how I view the connection between my writing work and the service industry to which it belongs.
I thank my lucky stars that I'm a writer, not a tour conductor. But Jalpak conductors are service professionals, and their model is one to which I can heartily subscribe. If you can perform your work in the no-nonsense manner expected of a Jalpak tour conductor escorting groups around the world, then you already have the right attitude to be a professional; the only other thing you need is the skill necessary to perform the work.
From Newsletter No. 31 (July 1987)
Reprinted in Wordcraft, 1990.