What a Call Center Script Says About Who the Call Is For

A case where a Japanese company's call center script clearly wasn't managed.

I'm currently building out the customer support structure for a client's franchise headquarters, so small customer support details have started catching my eye a bit too easily these days.

The Call

I'd downloaded a company's resource, and got a phone call. I picked up, and it went straight into a long explanation of their own service. Called my mobile during business hours, barely any preamble. Honestly, not a smooth call.

This feels like something training and a better script could fix pretty easily.

One Line Changes the Tone

Something as small as this changes the tone entirely:

"I wanted to share some additional materials that might be useful for you."

Even if it eventually leads to the same pitch, opening with "this might help you" instead of "let me tell you about us" changes how the whole call lands.

Who Is the Call For?

Whether the first line of the script signals who the call is actually for — that alone seems to change the impression, even when the content underneath is identical.

For companies following up on leads in Japan, it's worth reviewing the opening of every call and email with that question in mind: does this start from the customer's side, or from ours?

Natsuki Suzuki is the founder of BANTO, which provides back-office support — accounting, HR and payroll, and administration — to overseas companies and their Japan entities. She spent 15 years in Europe and brings both sides of the cultural equation to every engagement.