Customer Satisfaction
Enhancing Customer Satisfaction
Aiming for Customer-Oriented Services
The Customer Assistance Center responds to a wide range of product-related inquiries from customers—approximately 1.66 million annually—so that Sharp can provide customer-oriented support. To this end, the center meets periodically with product development departments to give them feedback in the form of customer inquiries, which leads to the development of improved and new products.
We are also enhancing the customer support website to make it more user-friendly in line with the spread of smartphones.
In October 2018, we started providing chatbot-based automated responses. In November 2020, we started an operator chat service for customers who were unable to resolve their issues using the chatbot. In this way, we have been expanding support channels in order to respond to diversifying customer needs and achieve its goal of always serving in a customer-oriented manner.
Number of Calls Received from Customers in Japan
Reasonable Accommodations
Since April 1, 2024, in accordance with the revised Act for Eliminating Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, we are gradually working to improve web accessibility so that all customers can use the support site operated by our Customer Assistance Center.
We also take part in seminars on the telecommunications relay service*, which is used by people with hearing or speech difficulties, to deepen our understanding of issues such as how to make phone usage easier for people with hearing or speech impairments. We are committed to operating a people-friendly Customer Assistance Center so that no customer who needs support is left behind.
- A service that allows people with hearing or speech impairments to communicate by phone with people who are not hearing impaired by using an interpreter operator to translate the conversation between them via sign language, text, and voice.
Main Examples of Web Accessibility Support
Reliable Operation
The Customer Assistance Center must be able to provide customer support even in challenging times, such as during natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons.
Our business continuity plan (BCP) ensures the continued operation of our customer support services even in emergency situations. Our support offices are distributed across multiple locations and are connected through a system that makes them ready to complement one another.
Improving Response to Customers
As the face of Sharp, customer consultants study products and learn how to interact properly with customers before they start their jobs. Even after they have begun their jobs, consultants periodically undergo training and study sessions to boost their skills.
The department that runs the Customer Assistance Center improves person-to-person dealings with customers by having consultants take periodic qualification upgrading tests to brush up their customer service and quality control skills. It also uses text messaging to conduct questionnaires that will help better respond to customer wishes and improve the support site.
Skills Training and Qualification Upgrading
Improving Accuracy in Accepting Repair Requests
When a customer has an issue with a product he or she purchased, the details taken down by the Customer Assistance Center when accepting the repair request will have a significant impact on the subsequent repairs performed.
Our consultants use a knowledge system to diagnose product faults and provide the repair technician with accurate information based on the results so that repairs can be completed in a single visit.
Fault Diagnosis Example (Refrigerator’s Automatic Ice Maker Not Working)
Enhancing Customer Satisfaction through After-Sales Service
| Fiscal 2023 Objectives | Fiscal 2023 Achievements | Self-Evaluation | Priority Objectives for Fiscal 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
★★★ |
|
- Self-evaluation：
- ★★★ Achieved more than targeted /
- ★★ chieved as targeted /
- ★ Achieved to some extent
Basic Stance on Customer Satisfaction
Providing Products and Services That Offer Peace of Mind and Satisfaction
Sharp always thinks from the customer’s point of view and, as a rule, develops and provides products and services with the customer in mind. To ensure that customers can continue to use Sharp products for many years with peace of mind, Sharp strives to improve its products and its sales and after-sales services by reflecting the opinions of customers.
Sharp will continue to pursue customer satisfaction (CS) so that customers choose Sharp now, next time, and every time.
After-Sales Service System
Sharp has an after-sales service system that can handle all kinds of customer inquiries, whether it’s instructing them how to use products or repairing products that are not working properly.
Centered on Sharp Corporation’s Customer Assistance Center and after-sales service departments at Sharp sales companies, the entire Sharp Group worldwide collaborates to provide high-quality, fast, accurate, and friendly service that truly satisfies customers.
Flowchart
Repair and Servicing System (in Japan)
Repair of Sharp products in Japan is carried out by Sharp Marketing Japan Corporation, Customer Service Company. Service engineers, who work out of more than 90 service bases*1 all over Japan and are familiar with local customers, provide repair service that truly satisfies customers. The entire company works together with a user-oriented mindset to satisfy customers and realize its slogan: “A customer’s smile makes my job worthwhile.”
Service inquiries are accepted every day of the year*2. The company puts special effort into prompt response to problems with home appliances that are indispensable to daily life, such as washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners.
- As of May 2024.
- Business days vary from region to region.
Service That Gives Customers Peace of Mind Striving for Greater Satisfaction through Customer Questionnaires
Service engineers of Customer Service Company, Sharp Marketing Japan Corporation get opinions straight from customers through questionnaires conducted during repair visits.
These questionnaires result in compliments, concerns, and other opinions. Comments, both good and bad, about products are relayed to the quality departments of the relevant business units. At Sharp in-house training sessions and other such meetings, questionnaires are discussed to examine customer opinions about how Sharp handled requests for repair visits and how service engineers conducted repair visits. The aim is to constantly raise the level of after-sales service.
We strive to provide customers with service that is prompt, exacting, and that brings them peace of mind so that they will want to buy Sharp next time and every time.
Nagoya Service Center, Customer Service Company,
Sharp Marketing Japan Corporation
Customer Questionnaire
At Sharp, all customers who are visited by service engineers are asked to answer a questionnaire covering the entire service process, from initial inquiry and appointment to product repair. More than 100,000 customer opinions are received annually via this questionnaire.
To improve convenience for customers and to speed up response, the traditionally postcard -based questionnaire has also been available on the Sharp website since fiscal 2017. Starting in fiscal 2022, the survey is completely web-based
Sharp will continue to pass on customers’ valuable opinions to relevant company departments, closely analyze problems, and use the information gathered to improve service mechanisms and manufacturing.
Percentage of Customers Giving Satisfactory and High Marks to Service Engineers (postcard and online surveys)
Leaflet Message: “Be Ready for Summer by Trial-Running Your Air Conditioner”
When Sharp service engineers make repair visits to customer homes, they distribute leaflets educating them on the importance of a pre-summer trial operation and filter inspection of air conditioners. This is important in ensuring customers don’t suffer from heat stroke when summer is in full swing.
