“Building Close Relationships with Our Customers” It’s what we do to be a long-cherished and trusted company.
Here we present a new form of customer support, nurtured by listening attentively to the customer voices that we treat as valuable assets.

Having transferred to CS Headquarters from the Housing Division, Naoko Kurihara was impressed. “It was amazing how the people engaged in CS were so meticulous and earnest in their approach to each owner.”

Kurihara had been tasked to promote housing products and brand building for condominiums. The question was how to add an extra bit of value to the safety, security, and comfort demanded by home owners and communities, and how to create good, sellable products. This was a natural perspective in carrying out business activities, but she had no idea about CS beyond that. “Why is it that within the company, myself included, there is no awareness of CS activities?”

The CS division made the motto of “treating each customer as an individual,” where we took the standpoint of each owner. “That was the same!” said Kurihara, who in the past had independently come up with the concept of “focusing on customers as individuals” in caring for their attention to detail and sense of values, and applying that to product development. Business and CS were inseparable, and for Daiwa House Industry, two sides to the same coin.

At its essence, the spirit of the Company’s founder lives on. “Think about what will please and be useful to people in the world, not what will make you money.” The answer to the question posed by the founder, “What will please people?” can be found among the voices of owners.

An issue for our CS division, Kurihara felt, was the lack of PR capability targeting audiences within and outside the company. So how could the important voices of owners be conveyed to our business sites in an easily understood manner? After struggling to answer that, we launched “Voice Yes,” a new intranet page. It offers as its concept “one home made from the voice of owners.” The page takes dispersed information and systematically organizes and displays it by office and division. It is also able to list up cases of complaints and failures, such as “I wish there was a switch for ‘that lighting’ here,” as well as solutions and ways to work around problems.

However, resolving a complaint is only a way to turn a negative into a zero. Our preferred goal is to raise the bar from a zero to a positive. Fortunately, customer surveys contain many words of praise for employees. Feedback for one employee in the Customer Support Center stated, “Every time I’m impressed that during regular checkups they fix everything, no matter how small.” A comment for a sales representative was “I think they can be a sales person who will be my lifelong asset.” A designer was praised with the comment, “Their stance is ‘the customer is always first,’ and that was a great relief.” For an engineer, the comment was “Not a ‘no,’ but in the line of ‘it’s possible’ and I appreciated that forward-looking attitude.”

From a zero to a positive. Just as with these cases, we also want to share the secret to exceeding owners’ expectations and receiving “very satisfied” customers. Therefore, as one of the contents of “Voice Yes,” we started “Compliment PROJECT,” which features outstanding employees and analyzes and introduces their ideas and practices. Our standard for selecting individuals is not their sales performance or position, but rather the degree of enthusiasm that emerges from surveys.

The Customer Center is comprised of a call center and a business center. Call center duties are entrusted to a reliable specialized company, and responses to queries, reports on progress status, and other communication are handled over the phone or SMS. In the event of a disaster, the center also stays in contact with business site employees and makes calls to check in on owners to confirm building status. The adjacent business center is staffed with dedicated Daiwa House Industry employees. State-of-the-art equipment such as HEMS* supports a one-stop response within the call center by providing instructions remotely while viewing on-site images and preparing and distributing necessary materials.

The business center’s Hiroko Nakanishi said, “Both centers are on good terms, and as it’s possible to exchange frank opinions, we can work to even further improve service.” Operators in the Customer Center in the Kansai region have long years of experience, and are highly skilled, learning to operate housing exhibits and equipment at exhibitions. When they receive a call, they can search for problems by reviewing building blueprints, and with straightforward issues they work to provide one-stop solutions over the phone.

Naturally, there are also times when callers voice complaints. The call center’s Junko Yoshimoto keeps in mind that “A complaint is an owner’s ‘grief.’ It’s a sad thing when there’s a problem with a home that should last a lifetime. So, in any case, it’s important to listen attentively.”

Meanwhile, the Customer Support Center conducts periodic inspections post-delivery and makes ad-hoc visits upon request. The Kobe Customer Support Center, just by itself, responds to 300 requests for such visits every month.

Mai Yoshikawa and Ai Maeba handle regular inspections, and on this day they are heading to a home to conduct an annual inspection. In tandem with building and equipment inspections, they provide advice and demonstrations on how to perform upkeep. As one owner mentioned, “I consult Daiwa House for anything, such as support for replacing a water purifier cartridge or to have them tell me how to open the side cover of a toilet.”

To live up to this trust, Yoshikawa and her teammates are on a daily quest for knowledge and information related to building materials and equipment from dozens of manufacturers, as well as pertaining to construction. If they notice scratches or that something is broken, they can ask questions like, “Is this door the only one with a loose hinge because a small child is trying so hard to open it?” which even extends to how people are living. While being cautious to not overstep the bounds of privacy, they keep their antennas up to get a sense of how a resident lives.

Owner satisfaction will likely be even higher if, in addition to after-sales service staff, those engaged in sales, design, construction, and even interior coordinators all pool their wisdom and experience after construction is completed. The main part of a home’s story begins after construction is completed, and Daiwa House Industry’s role is to continue its support over the long term.

*Home Energy Management System. A management system that enables visualization of energy usage and optimal control of equipment.