At this year’s Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI), I was given a chance to give a short 5 minute presentation during the closing program of the convention.  Together with 19 other presenters, the first ever Photographers Ignite was a smashing  success! If you want to find out more about Ignite presentations and what they are, please click here.  Kevin Kubota is the man behind Photographers Ignite and I’m thankful to him and his staff for giving me a chance to share about the country I love: Japan!  My talk focuses on Japanese customer service.  Please watch the video below to hear more about the best customer service in the world!  After the talk, please feel free to download the PDF to stories of Japanese customer service I provided on a recent blog post here.  Please watch the other presenters as they rocked the stage with their talks.  I’m watching now as I write this post

First of all, a big “Thank you!” to everyone who came out to attend and support the first ever Photographers Ignite at WPPI.  It was funny, practical, and inspirational.  Like others have already expressed, I hope that this event will become an annual event at WPPI.

At the end of my presentation, I shared that I have compiled a list of stories of people and their experience of Japanese customer service.  At the end of this post, you will find a link to a PDF file.  I have also included the four core concepts (with notes) which I shared in my presentation.  The stories are from friends and I did not “clean” it up to present a perfect picture of Japanese customer service.  In fact, you will read some negative things from some of the commenters.  Japanese customer service is not perfect BUT it is great (IMHO).

After reading through it (and please do) I hope it will allow you to pause and reflect about how you service your clients.  I hope my talk and the notes below will generate a storm of ideas on how you can give excellent customer service in 2010 and beyond.  It’s been often said that we, as an industry, need to raise the bar in producing excellent images.  I think it is also equally true that we need to raise the bar in how we serve our clients.

By the way, if my 5-minute presentation has inspired and encouraged you, would you be interested in hearing me share more about Japanese customer service principles and how to apply those in your business?  If you are, please leave me a short comment.  Thanks!  Have a great 2010 rocking it out with mind-blowing customer service!

Click here for the pdf file called Japanese Customer Service.

This image was my first lesson in off-camera lighting.  The vision for this image was created and inspired by Scott Robert Lim.

This image was also created and inspired by Scott Robert Lim.  It was a photoshoot on a double decker bus of all places!

The master at work.

This vintage Hong Kong diner was great!  So many shooting possibilities but the owner was a bit of a grump.  LOL!

The background for our last shooting session.  To my Japanese friends, notice the Yoshinoya; it’s taking over the world!  Ha ha ha!

This image was actually a test shot but I kinda like its moodiness and how it turned out.  What do you think?

And the best shot of the night goes to my roommate: The amazing and situational vegetarian….drumroll please…Anwar Torres!!!