Sustainability
Enhancing Customer Satisfaction
Basic Policy on Customer Satisfaction
Fuji Electric tailors its research and development and manufacturing activities in response to customer needs and commits its full effort to delivering safe, secure, and high-quality products and services. In addition, we approach our customers from a position of earnestness, incorporating their feedback to refine products and services in order to improve customer satisfaction.
Systems for Enhancing Customer Satisfaction
Each business segment caters to different customers. Accordingly, service divisions have been established in all segments. We are also developing global service systems to ensure that we are equipped to satisfy our customers.
The scope of our service operations is being expanded beyond traditional after-sales services. Specifically, we are implementing customer satisfaction promotion activities to create solution services that address the issues faced by customers with Fuji Electric’s products and services. We thereby aim to improve customer satisfaction.
Strengthening the Global Sales and Service
Under the management policies of expanding energy and environment-related businesses and promoting globalization, we are working to strengthen overseas businesses by building foundations for completely localized businesses.
The field service division is working with the global service department within Fuji Electric Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd., which is the hub of the field services in Southeast Asia to expand our overseas services. We have begun our first overseas safety training program in fiscal 2023, and plan to expand the target area in fiscal 2024.
Starting in fiscal 2023, we have been strengthening our overseas services by integrating with component services and expanding the scope of component service areas outside Southeast Asia (China, South Korea, Taiwan, and India). We plan to begin expanding our service digital transformation overseas from fiscal 2024.
In the Power Generation business, we bolstered our sales and technical service systems through bases in the U.S.A, the Philippines, Vietnam, the Middle East, and Indonesia. This move was aimed at allowing for after-sales services pertaining to overseas thermal and geothermal power plants to be more closely coordinated with customers. Fuji Electric is utilizing the strength of its insight and experience as a turbine generator manufacturer along with the expertise of its overseas after-sales business companies to promote the onshore and on-site provision of services.
In the Semiconductor business, we set up call centers in China (Shenzhen) and Germany to provide faster global services. The purpose of our overseas call centers is to address overseas customer inquiries and trouble-shooting requests in a timely manner in cooperation with our sales bases and factories. The Chinese call center checks and analyzes power semiconductor modules for industrial applications, including small capacity IPM products, and our European call center checks and analyzes power semiconductor modules for automotive applications in addition to industrial applications. These call centers help us strengthen our region-based service capabilities.
In the Food and Beverage Distribution business, we have been promoting the development of the vending machine business mainly in Thailand. Against this backdrop, to localize our service structure, we introduced a system that allows us to manage repair and maintenance histories and have been improving CS by utilizing the results of repair and maintenance history analysis to enhance service quality and speed up service responses.
Enhancing Customer Satisfaction Initiatives
Responses to Customers Inquiries
Fuji Electric Call Centers respond to customer inquiries about plant systems in general. To ensure that customer inquiries reception operations do not cease even in the event of a disaster, we have call centers in two locations—Tokyo Factory and Kobe Factory. These centers respond promptly to customer requests for emergency responses via telephone and website, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
All operators of Fuji Electric Call Centers have taken contact center exams to improve their dialogue quality, so that our customers can contact us with trust. In addition, we have introduced a voice recognition system into our call center system and are working to improve the quality of our customer services by streamlining call center operations using AI. Furthermore, with the aim of reducing initial customer contact time, our Call Centers cooperate with field service divisions across the country to ensure smooth customer service.
In fiscal 2023, our Call Centers received a total of 8,245 inquiries, up by 323 inquiries year on year. In addition, the number of inquiries from overseas (via website only) is 1,210 inquiries from 110 countries.
In the Power Generation business, we can easily identify customers and the destinations to which deliveries were made. Accordingly, we have established a framework for communication between customers, sales divisions, and technical divisions to furnish swift responses to sudden occurrences. In addition, responsibility for each model has been assigned to multiple individuals to facilitate responses to technical inquiries or requests regarding equipment or products from general customers.
In fiscal 2023, the call centers received a total of 500 inquiries, up by 102 inquiries year on year.
We have centralized the contact point for all inquiries about components, including inverters, servo systems, HMIs, and PLCs, at the Technical Service Center, and we are working to improve customer services by strengthening the process from pre-service to after-sales responses.
The Technical Service Center publishes frequently asked questions (FAQs) on an external website to reduce customer time and effort required for inquiries.
In fiscal 2023, we added 90 inverter Ace (E3) items and 40 other products items. As a result, the number of accesses to the FAQ has increased 4.15 times compared to phone calls, while the number of calls for technical consultation is on the decline, demonstrating the effectiveness of the measures.
To further improve customer satisfaction, we will aim to expand FAQs coverage and improve the level of FAQs and promote the provision of high-quality services by utilizing DX technologies such as updating the current call center system and introducing AI content.
In the Semiconductors business, we use an internet-based system for customer inquiries (technical investigation requests) to facilitate prompt responses by sharing information between the sales divisions that serve as inquiry venues and factories. The details of inquiries are shared with related departments and used to improve manufacturing processes and product quality. The information is also compiled into a database and used as a reference for responses to similar inquiries, which helps to shorten response times to customers and improve the content of responses. To reduce the number of incoming inquiries, we analyze inquiries regarding product usage and reflect our findings in application manuals, which are made available on our corporate website.
A total of 1,836 technical inquiries were received by the call centers during the fiscal 2023. We are targeting a 5% year-on-year decrease in inquiries in fiscal 2024
Discrete Devices: Power ICs, Automotive Power ICs, Pressure Sensors, MOSFETs, IGBT Discrete, Bipolar Transistors, Diodes, etc.
Semiconductor Chip Products: Automotive IGBT Chip, etc.
The venues for repair requests and inquiries for the Food & Beverage Distribution business have been consolidated into the Hatchobori Office in Tokyo and are being handled by a call service. In particular, initial responses to repair requests and inquiries are provided by call center staff. Technical consultation has been available via web inquiry since April 2021 and our field service section staff continues to respond to inquiries by sending materials and keeping records of email correspondences with customers.
Furthermore, Fuji Electric has developed a unique knowledge database system that enables the expertise, knowledge, and information held by individuals to be shared for the purpose of call responses. In addition, certain actual products are supplied to call centers in order to enable staff to provide responses while discussing with on-site staff based on a similar level of understanding. We introduced our technical support tool “Chatbot” in September 2021 and have been improving it daily with additional data. We aim to provide prompt on-site recovery support through explanations using photos and videos.
In fiscal 2023, the call centers received a total of 657,033 inquiries regarding vending machines, store equipment, and currency handling equipment. Of these, 614,533 were repair and inspection requests, and 42,500 were technical support inquiries, including 9,599 inquiries via technical web support services handled by our field services section.
Currency Handling Equipment: Change Dispensers, etc.
Store Equipment: Showcases and Other Store Equipment
Customer Satisfaction Improvement Initiatives
The Fuji Electric Call Center has acquired Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification since 2005 as a division that handles customer information so that customers can feel confident in making inquiries. In fiscal 2023, we underwent a renewal audit, and our ISMS certification was renewed. We are working to maintain and improve ISMS while improving daily. In addition, we hold regular liaison meetings with each contact point in the Fuji Electric Group to share information on customer responses and issues, thereby strengthening cooperation. We are working to improve reception quality by sharing information on customer service and related issues.
In the Power Generation business, to respond to the various requests of our customers, our sales, engineering, and manufacturing divisions work together to promote initiatives such as labor-saving, life-prolonging, high efficiency, and improved operating rates for our customers' facilities. In addition, we provide a diverse service menu, such as degradation diagnostic and life expectancy diagnosis, to improve facility operation rate, and we have established a system to ensure swift and accurate responses to equipment troubles, earthquakes, storms, or floods.
The role of our Technical Service Center is to address component-related inquiries from customers through dedicated primary operators and secondary technical staff operators. Its response rate (number of responses/correspondences received), an indicator of ease of connection, was 99.0% in fiscal 2023. We are also working to further improve customer satisfaction by enhancing in-house training to ensure that operators respond promptly and carefully to customer inquiries.
In the Semiconductor business, we work to improve customer satisfaction by promoting product and service improvement activities based on customer requests through technical meetings, quality meetings, audit responses, etc. with customers, by manufacturing and sales working together.
In the Food & Beverage Distribution business, we hold training sessions for members of the call centers and customer service staff and share information with them.
Information is promptly shared regarding matters for which inquiries are expected to increase or have already increased, including those pertaining to new models. In addition, regular training sessions are held to ready them to provide swift and accurate responses to customer inquiries.
For staff training, we provide group training, online training via the web (educational tools such as product and training video distribution), and also small group training (held multiple times).
Promoting CSR together with Customers
Initiatives with Sales Partners
Fuji Electric is promoting CSR throughout its sales operations, encompassing sales partners as well as in-house divisions.
For sales agents, who play a crucial role in Fuji Electric’s value chain, we are promoting CSR throughout its sales operations to outline the concept of CSR and deepen sales agents’ understanding of Fuji Electric’s approach to CSR and the importance of applying CSR throughout the value chain. We hold Fuji Electric’s policies meetings, product workshops, and information exchange meetings. These activities helped foster an understanding regarding Fuji Electric’s quality assurance measures and manufacturing activities, which have a low environmental impact, thereby enabling sales agents to recognize that selling the Company’s products can contribute to society.