Customer Relationship Management

Management Approach

The Kawasaki Group offers a vast variety of products to a wide range of domestic and international customers. The Group's products range from mobility, such as ships, rolling stock, and aircraft, to energy-related products, such as gas turbines and gas engines, as well as industrial equipment, such as robots and industrial plants, and also leisure products, such as motorcycles. We are well aware that it is extremely important to reflect our customers' demands in our products and services as quickly as possible. Each business segment handling our businesses and products has built its own customer relationship management (CRM) structure, and they share information among themselves so as to reflect this information in product design and after-sales services.

The Kawasaki Group handles a highly diverse product lineup and engages in both B-to-B and B-to-C business, and consequently, we conduct CRM tailored to the specific characteristics of each business. Specifically, each business segment implements online surveys, questionnaires, and interviews relating to customer satisfaction, has established contact pages on the Company website, and collects opinions from stakeholders including customers. In addition, since fiscal 2013, the Marketing & External Affairs Division conducts annual follow-ups to the measures implemented by individual business segments for enhancing customer satisfaction in an effort to share information from a company-wide perspective and raises awareness of CRM. Through these activities, the Group as a whole strives to raise customer satisfaction and provide prompt feedback to requests.

Initiatives to Strengthen Relationships with Customers

Since the Kawasaki Group supplies a wide range of products to customers, and since customer characteristics and business practices vary widely depending on business and product, each business segment strives to understand the level of customer satisfaction using the most appropriate methods. Business units with many regular or ongoing customers conduct customer satisfaction surveys over time to monitor changes in satisfaction and use these findings to make necessary improvements.

The main customers of Kawasaki Motors, Ltd. are ordinary consumers, and accordingly, in addition to direct interview-style questionnaires, the company also obtains responses from large numbers of customers around the world through online questionnaires in an effort to measure customer satisfaction with the products that they have purchased. In the customer satisfaction surveys administered to customers who purchased products in Japan, the U.S., and Europe in fiscal 2023, the combined total of “excellent” and “good” responses was 96.0%. In addition, Kawasaki Motors Corporation Japan, which sells motorcycles, jet skis, and other products, received “extremely satisfied” responses from 85.4% of respondents to its customer satisfaction surveys conducted in 2023. By sharing information on survey results and customer opinions with relevant departments throughout the Company, we are able to use this information to improve product specifications and develop products.

After the completion of field service work, Kawasaki Robot Service, Ltd., which engages in maintenance service and service support for industrial robots, conducts field service work completion questionnaires of customers to check the degree of satisfaction with the service engineering quality. These questionnaires, which began in fiscal 2020, show that customers highly evaluate satisfaction the company's services, with more than 90% of respondents consistently replying that the quality was “very good” or “good.” In the fiscal 2023 questionnaires, the combined total of “very good” and “good” responses reached 95.1%. The questionnaires also have a free comment section, and receiving feedback in the form of customer opinions leads to improvements in services, and the company endeavors to increase response rates by taking advantage of opportunities that make it easy for customers to respond. Going forward, we will continue to make improvements and work to receive opinions from even more customers.

Since customer characteristics and business practices vary widely depending on business and product, each business segment responds to customer feedback and demands in ways best suited to their businesses. Kawasaki Motors Corporation Japan, which is a domestic sales company for the products of Kawasaki Motors, Ltd., operates Kawasaki Riders’ Club KAZE, a social group for the benefit of motorcycle and jet ski users and also conducts regular programs to support the motorcycle and jet ski related lifestyles of customers, such as organizing new product announcements and social events and holding safe riding classes in various regions as part of its contribution to traffic accident reduction efforts. Kawasaki Motors Corporation Japan also has a customer contact point to centrally respond to comments, requests, and inquiries about products from customers in Japan, manage inquiry-related information in a uniform manner, and analyze the information to inform product development. Similar systems are operated overseas as well. In the event of a recall of vehicles or other products, the relevant information is quickly posted on the company’s website.

Customer support for products delivered to customers is provided by a variety of methods through the use of online tools in each business segment.

To provide even better service to customers, Kawasaki Robot Service, Ltd. has established a 24-Hour Help Desk, which accepts inquiries and consultations about problems at nighttime on weekdays and on non-business days. At the help desk, specialized service engineers directly listen to inquiries from customers, provide information and technical guidance, and support stable operation of customer equipment.

By providing K-COMMIT^® Kawasaki Robot ANSHIN Lifecycle Support, a total service package, Kawasaki Robot Service, Ltd. is building strong relationships with customers that use Kawasaki robots. Through TREND Manager^®, it continuously monitors the condition of robotic equipment via the Internet and conducts predictive maintenance. The company obtains real-time information about the operation of robots, inputs it into a database, and analyzes the trend management data, thereby accurately predicting any malfunctions. In the event of a robot error, it provides various services, including speedy support through automatic email transmission. The company optimizes the lifecycle cost of robotic equipment and delivers ANSHIN (peace of mind) to the customer. Furthermore, Kawasaki Robot Service, Ltd. quantifies all inspection results selected on the basis of its abundant inspections and maintenance-record database and conducts TREND management quantitative inspections to accurately diagnose the state of robots. Kawasaki Robot Service, Ltd. continuously improves K-COMMIT^® with the objective of achieving zero downtime.

Techno-Net is a system that performs 24-hour remote monitoring of gas turbine co-generation systems and gas engine generator equipment delivered to customers through Kawasaki Machine Systems, Ltd. If a problem occurs, a rapid response is made to identify the cause and quickly restore the equipment, contributing to improved customer equipment availability.

We created a system that enables monitoring of the operational status of waste to energy plants through communications between the central control rooms of each facility and a dedicated room established at the Kobe Works. As of April 2024, this system has been installed at 12 facilities. By grasping the operational status of each facility in real time 24 hours a day, we are able to quickly infer and identify the cause of a problem, and operation from the environmental remote monitoring room is also possible. As a result, effective and appropriate operational management can be performed, contributing to improved satisfaction by local government customers that manage waste to energy plants.

Each business segment provides services in ways best suited to their businesses. At the Group-wide level, we are using social media to provide information about the Group. Kawasaki Motors, Ltd. is working to increase customer satisfaction using services provided through RIDEOLOGY THE APP MOTORCYCLE, an official smartphone application that links to supported motorcycle models.

Responsible Corporate Promotion

The Kawasaki Group seeks to accurately communicate the content of our business activities, which are based on our corporate philosophy, to stakeholders. To this end, we carefully check information prior to disclosure from various stakeholder perspectives, including checks for factualness and potential legal issues. Furthermore, we endeavor to avoid using specialized terminology or expressions likely to be misunderstood. We utilize such media as press releases, Group websites, social media, and advertisements, selecting the form to use with due regard to how it impacts society. We engage in corporate promotion with a constant awareness of not only increasing the public awareness of the Group but also the need to communicate the Group’s contributions to solving social issues through our businesses and products.

There were no violations of laws pertaining to advertising in fiscal 2023.