Understanding Japanese customer service and how to reply

Level B1

Understanding Japanese customer service and how to reply

In a Japanese restaurant or pharmacy, staff speak in very respectful forms you may never have used. You only need to recognize them. To reply, the polite Japanese you already know works well: your name with です, お願いします to accept, and いいえ、大丈夫です to decline. In this lesson, the staff's respectful lines are for listening, and the customer's lines are for using.

Review: asking again, going and coming, passing on what someone said

Four things come back here. すみません、もう一度お願いします (sumimasen, mō ichido onegai shimasu) asks someone to repeat. 駅に行きます and 駅から来ます say where you're going and where you're coming from: に marks the destination, から the starting point. 先生は、テストは月曜日だと言っていました passes on what someone said, with だ before と after a noun. And 少し待っていただけますか is a careful request: “would you mind waiting a moment?”

Words at the counter

These are words you'll meet at a counter: 予約 (yoyaku, reservation), 名前 (namae, name), 荷物 (nimotsu, luggage), 医者 (isha, doctor), 薬 (kusuri, medicine) and 食事 (shokuji, meal). Staff often put お or ご in front of things connected with the customer: お名前, ご予約, お荷物, お薬. It's a mark of respect, and the word itself stays the same. The models also use 風邪 (kaze, a cold).

Model: arriving at a restaurant

Listen once without reading. Ana arrives at a restaurant where she has booked a table. The person at the door uses several respectful forms, and Ana answers in short sentences: あります, her name, お願いします. Notice that she doesn't repeat any of the respectful words.

Who the respect is for

This is the key idea of the lesson: staff use respectful forms when they talk about you, and you answer in ordinary polite Japanese. おっしゃいます (osshaimasu) is the respectful form of 言います, “to say”. The respect goes to the person doing the saying, and here that's you, the customer. So when you hear お名前は何とおっしゃいますか (“what's your name?”), you answer アナです, without おっしゃいます.

The same goes for 様 (sama), a very respectful title after a name. Staff say アナ様, but you say アナです: you don't add 様 or さん to your own name.

English can show this kind of respect with “sir” or “madam”. Japanese changes the verb itself, so you'll hear different words for actions you already know. This isn't cold on your part: です and ます are polite, and they're what a customer normally uses. You need to recognize these forms, not build them.

Giving your name: name + です

When someone asks your name, say the name and です. The question changes, but the answer doesn't: お名前をお願いします (“your name, please”), お名前を伺ってもよろしいですか (“may I ask your name?”) and お名前は何とおっしゃいますか all ask for the same thing. At a counter you don't need 私は: 田中です (Tanaka desu) is a complete answer. If your name is called in a waiting room, say はい、アナです. The same short answer works for other details: 何名様ですか (nanmei-sama desu ka, “how many in your party?”) gets 二人です (futari desu, “two people”).

名前です

Accepting with (はい、)お願いします, declining with いいえ、大丈夫です

〜ましょうか offers something: 袋にお入れしましょうか (“shall I put it in a bag?”), お荷物をお預かりしましょうか (“shall I take your luggage?”). This お〜します form is humble: it presents the speaker's own action modestly, and here the speaker is the staff member. You don't need to build it yourself. You already know お願いします from requests like お水をお願いします: it has the same shape, but it's a set phrase that customers use all the time. Here, お願いします or はい、お願いします simply accepts what was offered. To decline kindly, say いいえ、大丈夫です (iie, daijōbu desu), “no, I'm fine”; it doesn't need a reason. Keep the いいえ, because 大丈夫です alone can be taken as yes or no. The full system is in the reference lesson “Respectful and Humble Verbs in Japanese”.

はい、お願いします

Model: at the pharmacy

Ana is now at a pharmacy. The pharmacist calls her name, asks what the doctor said and explains how to take the medicine. When Ana doesn't understand, she asks to hear it again, and the pharmacist says it more simply: お飲みください becomes 飲んでください. 食事の後に means “after meals”. Ana answers each time with Japanese she already knows.

Two verbs to recognize

いらっしゃいます (irasshaimasu) stands in for three verbs: います (to be somewhere), 行きます (to go) and 来ます (to come). The situation tells you which. In アナ様、いらっしゃいますか it means “is she here?”. In どちらへいらっしゃいますか (“where are you going?”, with どちら, a more polite どこ) it's “go”. In どちらからいらっしゃいましたか (“where have you come from?”) it's “come”, and ました still marks the past.

おっしゃいます stands in for 言います: お医者様は何とおっしゃいましたか means “what did the doctor say?”. Here the respect goes to the doctor, not to you.

In your answer, go back to the ordinary verbs and keep the particles: 駅に行きます, 駅から来ました. To pass on what someone said, 言っていました is fine here: 風邪だと言っていました, with だ before と.

More signs of service language

いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) welcomes people into a shop or restaurant, and the customer doesn't usually need to answer it. ございます (gozaimasu) is a more formal あります: to ご予約はございますか, answer はい、あります. かしこまりました (kashikomarimashita) says “understood” more respectfully than 分かりました. 少々 (shōshō) means “a little”, like 少し.

お + the verb without ます + ください is a more respectful “please do” than 〜てください: 少々お待ちください corresponds to 待ってください, and お飲みください to 飲んでください. Listen for the verb inside it (待ち, 飲み): that tells you what you're being asked to do.

If you don't catch it

Missing a respectful form isn't a disaster: just ask. すみません、もう一度お願いします asks to hear it again, and ゆっくりお願いします (yukkuri onegai shimasu) asks for it more slowly. Staff will often repeat it in simpler words, as the pharmacist did. If you need time, use the careful request you already know: 少し待っていただけますか. A clear request is more useful than trying to imitate keigo (敬語), the respectful language.

Your turn and summary

Listen to each staff line and try to answer before you read the reply: say you have a reservation, say 二人です, give your own name, answer when you're called, then accept the bag with はい、お願いします. Then go through it again and decline the bag with いいえ、大丈夫です.

In short: recognize いらっしゃいます, おっしゃいます, ございます, 様 and お〜ください. Answer in the polite Japanese you already know: name + です, お願いします, いいえ、大丈夫です. If you don't understand, ask to hear it again.

Practise this lesson

Next lessons