Improving Customer Satisfaction Sustainability
Basic Concept
At Goldwin Group, we build and maintain relationships of trust with customers even after they purchase our products. This is achieved through running stores that maximize brand value, holding events, and operating our Customer Service Center and Repair Center, with a focus on dialogue with customers. In addition to taking all customer feedback seriously, we are also deeply interested in unspoken feelings as we aim to provide the ultimate customer experience.
Promotion Framework
The Goldwin Group has created a framework for managing safety and quality in every process, from development to production, and from sales through to customer use. Our Sales Headquarters oversees operation of our stores, while our E-commerce Department is in charge of the Customer Service Center and other operations. In collaboration with all relevant departments, including the Merchandise Department, Quality Assurance Department, and Goldwin Tech Lab, we employ the valued opinions of our customers in subsequent product development and service improvement.
Stores that Maximize Brand Value
We believe that our stores are the frontline in communicating brand value to our customers. We operate a range of shops in different styles according to the area and the customer demographic we are addressing, from highly specialized shops to family-oriented shops, and lifestyle shops. Our aim is to create shops that make customers feel comfortable, and where they are happy to spend time, by focusing not only on our product ranges, but on appealing to the senses of our customers through store interiors, textures, music, and smells.
Opportunities to Communicate with Customers
We are also focused on developing new sales formats that help us improve two-way communication with customers. Last fiscal year, we opened THE NORTH FACE Yakushima within the Yakushima Environmental and Cultural Village Center as a field shop based in a World Heritage site, and through our products and activities, such as activity suggestions and introduction of outdoor tours and events, we are promoting the nature, history, and culture of Yakushima. In Tokyo, we also operate THE NORTH FACE/NEUTRALWORKS. KICHIJOJI, which offers customers an opportunity to connect with nature and rediscover the nature around us, as well as the PLAY EARTH PARK WONDER STORE Meiji Park as a place space for both adults and children to have fun.
Through these directly managed stores, we are also exploring new sports-related value and offering associated products and services.
Sales Convention (Sales Staff Training)
The Goldwin Group provides a range of information directly to customers through our directly managed stores, from the functions and applications of planned and developed products to usage scenarios and cautions. We are focused on two-way communication as a new customer experience.
We hold a Sales Convention every year where we run a customer service role-playing contest to improve the customer service skills of our sales staff. In FY 2023, 11 sales staff were selected from stores throughout Japan to compete in the contest.
Communicating with Customers
Our stores are also places that proactively show the attraction of sport, providing customers with opportunities to experience different sports. They are not only places to offer our products though. They are also where we hold various events and workshops, providing opportunities for valuable communication with customers.
In FY 2023, three of our brands— Goldwin, THE NORTH FACE, and HELLY HANSEN—took part in “DO REPAIRS,” a joint event aimed at maintaining and repairing clothes, shoes, and gear so that consumers can continue to use them with love and care. Held in May and September 2023, the three themes of the event were: repair service by specialist staff, experience repairing and upcycling yourself, and professional maintenance advice. The event provided a variety of content for consumers to enjoy using a product with care for a long time, and was an opportunity to communicate with many visitors. We also hold repair services and other events for our customers at each of our stores.
We are also strengthening two-way communication with customers, not only in our stores, but also via the Internet. We are promoting online-merge-offline (OMO) retail, providing optimal purchasing experiences and information at all points of contact with customers, including our stores, website, e-commerce sites, social media, blogs, and e-newsletters. We believe that providing customers with the same information at the same time will lead to customer trust.
We also offer extra added value in the form of experiences, discoveries, and adventures, such as at the PLAY EARTH PARK event where participants create new ways of playing. The knowledge we gain from such communication with customers is fed back into the company and constantly linked to developing new products and services.
Events and workshops
Stores host a variety of events and workshops. The valuable insight we gain from interactions with our customers is used as internal feedback.
Customer Support Services
We have established the following three channels for responding to customer inquiries, depending on the nature of the query. In addition to responding in good faith to customer comments and requests, we are also deeply interested in their unspoken feelings as we work to build relationships of trust with customers. We employ the valued opinions of our customers as internal feedback to improve our products and services.
| Support service | Overview |
|---|---|
| Customer Service Center | Inquiries, comments, and requests about brands and products |
| Goldwin Online Store Support | All inquiries about the Goldwin Online Store |
| Repair Center | Queries about product repairs |
| Support service | Total number of inquiries | Number of telephone inquiries | Number of email inquiries | Details | Number of inquiries |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSC | 12,715 | 8,391 | 4,324 | Inquiries | 6,103 |
| Complaints | 140 | ||||
| Comments and requests | 1,411 | ||||
| Praise | 13 | ||||
| Stock inquiries | 3,433 | ||||
| Other | 1,615 | ||||
| EC | 23,846 | 4,270 | 19,576 | Order-related inquiries | 12,638 |
| Website and ID inquiries | 1,907 | ||||
| Product arrivals | 2,360 | ||||
| Product-related inquiries | 3,553 | ||||
| Product complaints | 3,388 | ||||
| Repairs | 20,733 | 3,628 | 17,105 | Checking possibility of repairs | 8,915 |
| Repair application procedure | 4,975 | ||||
| Checking details and delivery | 6,012 | ||||
| Other | 831 |
Improving Customer Service Quality
We record customer support service calls. Those taking calls from customers listen to the recorded conversations, share what areas were good and what areas need improvement with their trainers, and implement the improvements in their services next time.
Mechanisms for Utilizing Customer Feedback
Once a month, details of inquiries received by our customer support services are digitized and compiled into a report, which is shared with all department managers. We also provide feedback on product quality-related issues to all relevant departments, including the Merchandise Department, Quality Assurance Department, and Goldwin Tech Lab, for use in efforts to prevent recurrence and improve quality.
Main Improvements in FY 2023
Product: THE NORTH FACE Mountain Down (ND91930)
Details: We received complaints about down blowing out. We made improvements by changing to a material with lower air permeability.
Product: THE NORTH FACE Baltro Light Jacket (ND92340)
Details: We received complaints about the front Velcro rubbing against the fabric causing it to fluff. In the current product, we have changed the Velcro to a softer material to reduce friction.
Product Improvements through the Repair Center
Growing concern for the environment and other factors has led to a trend of products being used for longer periods of time. Consequently, the number of repair requests at our Repair Center has also increased. In 2004, we received around 3,500 requests per year, and in FY 2023, this had increased to 23,743. Customers who have requested a repair are asked to complete a questionnaire once their product has been repaired. The results of the questionnaires are provided as feedback to the relevant employees and used for new product development and improvement.
Renewal of our e-commerce website, Goldwin Online Store
On February 20, 2024, we renewed our e-commerce website. More than just selling products, our goal is to create an online store that communicates diverse ways of enjoying sports and provides opportunities to connect to new experiences. Considering that the website is also an opportunity for consumers to experience the various brands we offer, we are pursuing usability features that make it easier for visitors to navigate around the website, such as enabling them to transition to other brand pages from the e-commerce brand home page or to narrow down their favorite items from a specific brand. In an effort to improve the quality of the purchasing experience, seasonal features and 16 activity-specific pages not only offer suggestions by specific brands, but also propose cross-brand items and coordinates that are better suited to different occasions.
Employee Education on Improving Customer Satisfaction
Recognizing that our employees are the first point of contact in customer satisfaction, we continuously provide various education programs to our employees.
Call Quality Training
Call quality training is provided every year at our customer support services. Each of the 10 staff members listen to about 40 minutes of randomly selected recordings of their phone calls, and together with a trainer, share what areas were good and what areas need improvement. Improvements are then implemented.
Style Photography Training for the Goldwin Online Store
More and more customers on our e-commerce website are making purchases after viewing “Staff Style” photos of our store staff wearing Goldwin products. We provide staff with training sessions on how to take more intuitive styling photos and videos. In FY 2023, training sessions were held at stores in western and eastern Japan, and were attended by a total of 80 employees. In FY 2024, the program will be expanded nationwide, with employees from 180 stores expected to take part in the photography training.
Future Issues
To grow the Goldwin fan base, we will focus our efforts on activities that arise from dialogue with our customers. In particular, we will listen to the valuable opinions of our customers and continue to improve the quality of customer service in our stores, e-commerce website, and customer services, which act as customer contact points. As for our e-commerce website, we will continue to reflect customer feedback after the renewal in order to improve usability and satisfaction.
We will also revise our internal systems to enhance information sharing, including with management, so that we can use the valued opinions of our customers not only in improving quality but also in developing future products and services.