Why must we stand? The clerk's "sitting service" in trend! Nearly 200 companies have introduced it, and Japan's Don Quijote and LaLaport have responded

This year, "Customer harassment" (カスハラ) has become one of the hot topics in the Japanese media, which refers to customers' violence, threats, abuse and other behaviors. This trend has swept across the department store, supermarket, furniture and catering industries. From Japan's Takashimaya, LAWSON, Nitori to Yoshinoya, all walks of life have begun to pay attention to the problem of customer harassment and take measures to deal with unreasonable customers.

In the past, there were many hidden rules in the Japanese service industry, one of which was "standing service": service industry employees must stand to serve in order to implement the concept of "customer first." Nowadays, Mynavi Baito, a Japanese job search platform, has launched the "Chair-Sitting Service Project" (座ってイイッス PROJECT), which has attracted widespread attention from the society and won the championship of the year's Japan Public Relations Award (2024 Public Relations Award, the highest award).

Japan's Service Industry Revolution: Challenging the "Customer First" Concept! Let employees "serve while sitting" has become a new trend

There are many unspoken rules hidden in society. Some rules are not absolutely necessary and will not cause trouble even if they are broken. However, just because they seem "natural", people rarely question the rationality of these rules and the impact if they are not implemented, so the unspoken rules are retained. Without sustained counter-votes, it will be difficult to overturn the established rules.

When promoting the "Chair-Sitting Service Project", Mynavi Baito released the "2024 Part-time Staff Standing Work Situation in Customer Service" survey, interviewing 300 employers and 300 part-time employees in Japan. Found from the survey results:

• 65% of part-time employees want to sit down and serve customers
• 73.3% of employers believe that part-time employees can sit down and serve
• 79.7% of part-time employees feel that the person serving them as a customer can sit down and serve them
• 19.7% of part-time employees said that being unable to sit down and serve was one of the reasons for leaving their jobs

According to the "2024 Standing Work Situation of Part-time Staff Customer Service" released by Mynavi Baito, 73.3% of employers believe that part-time employees can serve while sitting down.

65% of part-time employees want to be seated while serving customers.

The "Chair Service Project" was successfully introduced to 196 companies, adding 1,125 chairs to front-line sites

It can be seen that employers, employees and customers generally agree on the concept of "service staff can sit down". Cooperating with the announcement of the survey results, Mynavi Baito has sufficient data support to implement the "Chair Service Project", which is one of the important factors for the smooth implementation of this project.

According to official Mynavi Baito statistics, as of December 13, 2024, 196 companies have recognized and introduced the "Chair Service Project", and a total of 1,125 part-time chairs have been installed so that waiters can sit and serve customers.

What's more, the "Chair Service Project" also expands the possibility of part-time positions.

For the elderly, silver-haired people, pregnant women and other groups, if they can complete their work in a sitting position, it can effectively reduce the physical and mental burden (such as cashiers in fresh food markets, etc.); for employers, it can not only attract more people to apply, but also The turnover of employees may also be reduced as a result, effectively solving the problem of manpower shortage.

19.7% of part-time employees cited the inability to sit down for service as a reason for leaving their jobs.

Really launch a "physical" chair! Taking into account ergonomics and not taking up too much space, the project is more than just talk.

The driving force behind the "Chair Service Project" is Mynavi (マイナビ), a large Japanese human resources and advertising company. Mynavi mainly provides employment, job transfer, further education information, manpower dispatch, talent introduction and other services; its website Mynavi Baito focuses on assisting job seekers in finding part-time job opportunities, so it has also accumulated a large amount of data on the pain points of part-time job seekers.

Usually consciousness reform projects mostly rely on delivering messages to achieve promotion purposes. However, the "Chair Service Project" goes a step further. In addition to online promotion, it also actually creates a physical chair suitable for "sitting and serving customers."

The existence of physical seats is actually very meaningful. In terms of actual work situations, the chairs used by part-time workers at work need to be designed with both functionality and convenience in mind to avoid taking up too much space or hindering existing operations. If there is no suitable chair, the "chair service project" may be aborted because the size of the chair used does not meet the actual situation.

In order to meet the needs of modern workers pursuing dynamic office work, Mynavi cooperated with SANKEI, whose main business is making folding conference chairs, to jointly develop the Mynavi part-time chair (マイナビバイトチェア), a seat that is both functional and beautiful.

The Mynavi part-time chair not only allows users to stand or sit easily at work, but its lightweight design makes it easier to move and does not take up too much space. It also pays special attention to the ergonomic design of the seat, allowing part-time workers to maintain a good sitting posture. Able to maintain a professional and confident impression.

More importantly, because of the Mynavi part-time chair, retailers such as fresh food markets can contact the "Chair Sitting Service Project" and bring this chair back for testing, thereby improving the success rate of project implementation.

To date, the "Chair Service Project" has achieved significant success, including Mitsui Fudosan's LaLaport, Don Quijote (DON DON DONKI), ABC MART, McDonald's, West Japan Railway, AEON, All Nippon Airways (ANA), Tomod's and Nogami (乃が美), more than 190 Japanese companies have begun to introduce experiments, allowing employers and employees to cooperate in a more flexible work model and create more new retail in the future. possibility.

Mynavi, which assists part-time workers in finding jobs, also provides secondary services to corporate customers through the "Chair Service Project" to create additional value and enhance brand image. Not only does the part-time staff have a deep impression of Mynavi, which indirectly increases the possibility of using the platform to find jobs, the part-time staff also become the best marketers to promote the "Chair Service Project".