Service Advancement Meeting 2008

Our Customer Support Division held its Service Advancement Meeting for 2008 (SAM 2008) in a seminar room at Hitachi Maxell over three days from October 21 to October 23, with the aim of enhancing customer satisfaction. Twenty people from seven group companies from twelve countries around the world participated. The participants were managers and staff working in customer support: the core people for implementation of measures to raise customer satisfaction in their home countries.

The Division gave the participants prior assignments to read over again the Hitachi Construction Machinery Group Brand Book, the Kenkijin Spirit Handbook, the Kenkijin CS Mind Book (book written plainly with short sentences, explaining the ideal customer support for Hitachi Construction Machinery), and to think about measures to raise customer satisfaction from the aspects of the four service elements (1. Services relating to products , 2. Personal services, 3. Services relating to the service, 4. Services relating to facilities and the environment ).

The first day of SAM 2008 started with an opening speech by Mr. Uchibayashi, vice president and executive officer (General manager, Customer Support Division), followed by explanations of the purpose and outline of SAM 2008. Then, Mr. Noguchi from Nissan Motor made a presentation titled "Nissan brand communication", explaining how Nissan Motor is enhancing its brand with the keyword "shift". In the afternoon, the participants explained the state of customer satisfaction in their areas. Then the Division explained the results of a customer satisfaction survey conducted in Japan and measures to raise customer satisfaction at business premises in Japan, and showed a schedule for the implementation of customer satisfaction measures after returning to their own countries.

On the second day of SAM 2008, participants were separated into five groups for workshops to devise customer satisfaction measures to implement at their business premises after returning to their own countries. Workshop discussions included "CS behaviors to add regarding "machine condition inspection for repairing based on standard operation flow chart" as a common theme and "routine service" or "reacting to complaints" as an individual theme. In the evening, the Division held a welcome party to deepen friendships between participants and Japanese staff and for participants to relax.

The participants of SAM 2008 are required to implement measures to raise customer satisfaction at their companies, making the most of what they learned at the meeting. We will make further efforts to increase customer satisfaction all over the world by providing support and through follow ups.

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