A Vietnamese national recently surpassed over 2,000 other contenders to claim the top spot in a customer service contest in Japan.

As Nikkei Asia reports, 7-Eleven Japan held an annual competition for staff in the country to demonstrate their expertise in customer care. This year was the second time the konbini, the Japanese term for convenience store, chain has organized the unique event.

A total of 2,476 employees from 7-Eleven stores across 47 prefectures participated, though only 22 advanced to the final round, which took place on June 19. The winner was Lê Thị Phương Thảo, who was also the first foreigner to claim the top prize.

Photo via NHK.

Eight years ago, Thảo started taking Japanese lessons and also her job at 7-Eleven after being introduced by a language school. This year, she represented the Kobe Sannomiya Station Minami store in Kobe, Japan’s 7th-largest city.

In the final event, contestants competed in two four-minute tasks live on stage: tending to a customer at a checkout counter while engaging in banter, and recommending products to a regular. Their performances were reviewed by a panel of judges comprising members of franchise stores and affiliated companies on five pillars including “first impression,” “flexibility and conversational skills,” and “heartfelt experience.”

Apart from her sunny disposition and warm attitude, Thảo’s competition entry was particularly praised for her thoughtfulness and ability to connect to the customer. She complimented the customer’s baby and wove in short anecdotes about her family in Vietnam.

A snippet of Thảo's award-winning hospitality.

In recent decades, many Vietnamese have chosen Japan as a place to work and study, so much so that Vietnamese has become the second-largest group of foreign nationals in the country, just behind Chinese. This has resulted in the proliferation of “Little Vietnam” enclaves in large metropolitan areas, such as Tokyo’s Takadanobaba.

[Top photo via Nikkei Asia]