Taking Customers' Voices Seriously and Reflecting Them in Business Operation

　Bearing in mind the philosophy of ASICS being "to provide products and services that offer value to every customer," we take customers' comments and requests seriously, responding promptly as well as reflecting them in our business operations.

　ASICS' Customer Support Center has a total of sixteen staff stationed in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe to attend to customers' inquiries, comments, requests, etc.
　In 2006, the total number of inquiries and comments received via telephone, e-mail, and conventional mail was 29,150, exceeding the 27,220 mark for the previous year.
　Currently, the Customer Support Center is undertaking a project to create a system that enables us to pick up the latest trends and perspectives from the information received.　

　The customers' voices submitted to the Customer Support Center are an indispensable asset to the company. Each customer who contacts us deserves by right to get an immediate, accurate, and courteous response. From ASICS' perspective, all comments submitted by customers, in addition to reports on product defects, are seen as a gold mine. We are determined to collect as many responses as we can, and create a system through which we can send to the respective departments in the organization.
　A voice of customer (VOC)* may be an observation of an ASICS product that has been purchased and used by the customer or an inquiry from a customer who cannot quite make up his/her mind on a purchase. The latter can be viewed as an "expectation of ASICS". The Customer Support Center is in a position to interact with those customers directly and is prepared to play the role of "creator of new values" by compiling customers' voices, utilizing collected information in the development of new products and services, and ultimately attaining a higher customer satisfaction rating.　
* VOC represents a series of activities to improve customer satisfaction (CS) rating by collecting and analyzing the opinions of customers.

　A defect was found in some models of the long running model "tsunahiki shoes" caused by an erroneous mixture of materials (the rubber sole wears off rapidly) and the company made an announcement for a product recall with free replacement.
　In addition, there were two models of basketball shoes (TBF088 and TBF645) recalled in FY2007. We apologize to the customers who bought these products for any inconveniences. We hope such problems will not be repeated in the future as we continue striving to provide quality products and services to all customers.