Japan to mandate protective steps for firms against abusive customers

The reason clients or customers become abusive is because of poor service.

Poor service results from lack of pride in one's position,which in turn results from how one is treated by one's company ,for example in salary, benefits or paid vacation.

Can noone see the connection?

The reason clients or customers become abusive is because of poor service.

Frequently this is not the case, and even if it was it is not a justification. Lots of cases have been described (in the news and other sources) where the customers are unreasonable and abusive even with perfectly reasonable service.

And if there is a case where an employee is not providing at least the minimum quality of service what the client can do is to complain to a supervisor or chief of that employee or even to a third party in charge of customer protection, the option of becoming abusive is always invalid.

The reason clients or customers become abusive is because of poor service.

No, in most cases customers become abusive because they need to take out the frustrations of their lives on people they consider beneath them. This is especially true in Japan.

Customer abuse because they think they can get away with it, being 'gods,' as the saying goes. Service may not always be perfect but never justifies abuse.

Improve the quality of your staff and probably get less angry customers. Service in Japan is so poor now in the city area.

This is a good step, but I hope they are able to study this experiment very closely. Japanese employees are very reserved and will try not to escalate things to protect the harmony of others. There was an article on this the other day regarding this:

https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/how-do-japanese-companies-handle-conflict#comment-4636794

So I feel many victims won't report the client's abusive behavior and will gaman. On the other hand even if they do report this, the likelihood that the company will take action towards raising awareness of the client's abusive behavior and report them will be slim. They'll likely have someone else step in who can tolerate it, rather than risk losing a potential customer over what they would call "disrespecting the client" by reporting them to the central government of all places. It will be a cycle of the OBs who have to step in and complain that the younger generation can't handle their clients like they did back in their time.

This type of unacceptable client behavior wouldn't happen as often if those who were providing services had competent supervisors who can deescalate the situation instead of bowing and apologizing to every demand instead of fixing the issue at hand.

""The legislation will also task companies with establishing policies against the sexual harassment of students interviewing for graduate jobs and broaden the scope of firms required to disclose gender pay disparities.""

Make the justice system more accessible to the general public so VICTIMS can seek and get the help they need, it costs an arm and a leg to hire a lawyer, then the victim is victimized for filing the lawsuit.

Get a big Pacific Island bouncer...problem solved

Abusive customers are often cowards who can only hit someone when they know that that “someone” is not allowed to or has no intention to hit back. Maybe they are unhappy at home and at work.

The reason clients or customers become abusive is because of poor service.

"Abusive" is the problem word here.

It is quite acceptable to complain civilly if a business provides substandard service. Having worked in some service industry jobs before, I can tell you from personal experience that a business is far more likely to respond well to a complaint if it is phrased firmly but without excess emotion - and if it is proportionate to the perceived error on the part of the service provider.

Abusive behaviour, however we are defining it, is never acceptable, and shows poor self control on the part of the customer or client. It also means that they're usually using the purported poor service to blow off frustration about something entirely unrelated.

Customers often forget that dealing with a business is a two way street, and if the business considers the customer to be more trouble than they're worth, they can easily stop dealing with that customer. It works both ways.

Over-reliant on 'Smartphones' and other devices for communication, resulting in being unable to have a face to face conversation.

carnegie had inscribed on his mantle:

he who can't reason is a fool

he who won't reason is a bigot

he who dare not reason is a slave

it would be unreasonable to abuse the first, a waste of time to abuse the second, and very difficult not to abuse the third.

Well it doesn't help that Japan has always perpetuated the idea that customers as "gods" and can do no wrong. The customer isn't always right; in fact, many of them are very often wrong. Japanese customer service also isn't all it's cracked up to be. I find it superficial, inflexible, and somewhat robotic.

These abusive customers......are they only Japanese?

There are a couple of "cultures" that have a chip on their shoulders against Japanese and may use business meetings to harass Japanese employees.

I guess company abuse of employees is A-OK.

I work in the city hall in my city in southwest Japan. I am the only non-Japanese employee here, and we have very few non-Japanese people come to the city hall for services, so my observations are of Japanese citizens. I have watched a few people who walk in the front door already annoyed and ready to confront the first person they think they can push around. Some are repeat customers who are known by their confrontational reputations (not Yakuza). Many are retired people who seem to have nothing else to do but come to see us to complain. It does not seem to be anything to do with the quality of service at the city hall; rather, it seems to be the disposition of these few citizens. No matter what section of the city hall they come to, they are soon raising their voices, using unrespectful language, and harassing whatever employee they are talking to.

 it doesn't help that Japan has always perpetuated the idea that customers as "gods" and can do no wrong. The customer isn't always right; in fact, many of them are very often wrong.

Yup. This is often the case that becomes the harassing case. I feel sorry for the person who first handles the case. Sometimes it is a new employee who gets first crack at the client. After a few minutes, a senior officer steps in. The best ones are those who do not get ruffled easily, who dont raise their voices, who can keep straight faces, and who don't let harrassing behaviour get under their skins.

Sometimes I have stepped in to handle annoying clients because I can often calm them by asking innocent questions that seem to take the wind out of their sails - can you explain your problem more simply so that I can understand? why do you think this is a problem that the city can solve? what have you done to try to solve this yourself? how can I help you? what do you think the city can do about it? When I hear unrespectful language, I usually say, I'm sorry, I don't understand (some unrespectful word), what does it mean?

Some probably harass anyone they meet. Some seem to have forgotten how to speak in a non-confrontational manner. I wonder how they survive in everyday life. Some seem to be harassing until they get something off of their chests, then they calm down.

Abusive behaviour, however we are defining it, is never acceptable, and shows poor self control on the part of the customer or client. It also means that they're usually using the purported poor service to blow off frustration about something entirely unrelated.

Yes, and when it is that they are frustrated about something entirely unrelated, it helps to have an experienced person handle the client to get them to the point where their frustration takes its course. We have posters throughout the city hall discussing customer harassment. They are there both for the customers and for the city hall employees. Until two years ago I never heard the term customer harassment, so when I first saw them, until I read them, I thought there was a problem of city hall officials harassing customers, and not the other way around.

I was a chunky young rugby player when I was about 18 years old, working as a dishwasher in an upscale restaurant.

Whenever a waiter would tell the Chef of a customer complaint , Chef would say in a mock Italian mafia accent..."Do you want me to send Mick in to deal it...?"

"Under the amendment, customer harassment is defined as behavior by a guest, business partner or facility user that goes beyond socially accepted norms, harming the working environment. Municipalities will also need to take steps to address the issue."

Well and good the employees need protection but needs and complains from industry to industry differ how are we going to deal with it?