Acting on user feedback to improve customer satisfaction and the quality of our servicesApplying universal design principles to our services, shop layouts and R&DOffering business continuity solutions based on our expertise in providing communications servicesKeeping our customers satisfied
The NTT Group believes in putting its customers first, and so
pays close attention to user feedback to improve its operations
and develop new services.
For example, in addition to standard helpdesks for handling
product, services, and repair inquiries, NTT EAST, NTT WEST,
and NTT DoCoMo have also established customer consultation
centers to field the opinions and requests of consumers.
These centers handled 500,000 calls in fiscal 2005.
Each of our group companies has also introduced mechanisms
for promptly acting on customer feedback to improve its business
operations and practices. For example, NTT EAST's "Smile
Committee" and NTT WEST's "Customer First Activities
Working Group", and NTT DoCoMo's Customer Satisfaction
Promotion Committee are all companywide initiatives for studying
and implementing improvements in their respective organizations.
As part of its daily efforts to improve its operations,
NTT DoCoMo has also established a system to promote and
support customer satisfaction activities by collecting customers'
opinions into a database that can be used by the entire company
to pinpoint problems and identify market changes early,
implement and verify the effect of improvements, and incorporate
them into business operations as quickly as possible.
Initiatives
Improving customer satisfaction
The NTT Group is implementing a range of measures designed
to enhance customer satisfaction (CS). For example, a Hikari
(optical fiber) Support Center was established at NTT EAST
in February 2006 as a centralized facility for providing prompt
response to inquiries, requests and technical support calls for
Hikari Denwa IP phone subscribers.
NTT DoCoMo conducts training seminars for personnel dealing
directly with customers aimed at improving customer satisfaction.
It has also compiled best practice examples from the
most highly regarded DoCoMo Shops and other companies
together with lectures by customer satisfaction consultants into a "CS Report" that it has distributed to employees to foster
a customer satisfaction mindset.
NTT FACILITIES Group too has launched a groupwide program under
the slogan Honki de CS! (Getting Seriousabout CS) to create
posters for inhouse display, and hold regular seminars and other
activities aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction.
Quick response system for inquiries on lead time to start of optical fiber services
NTT WEST designed its AQROS (Administrative Quick Response for Optical Service) system together with NTT COMWARE as part of its efforts to change its business processes through fundamental business process reengineering (BPR). Starting in December 2004, this system has now been deployed in all NTT WEST branches in western Japan, maximizing business efficiency by enabling the linking of data between systems. AQROS also allows NTT WEST to provide a one-stop service to customers calling to apply for optical service, advising them on the spot of the earliest dates when service will become available in their locality.
Improving the quality of our services
As a leader of Japan's information and telecommunications
industry, the NTT Group recognizes its responsibility to provide
customers with the highest quality products and services
based on the latest available technologies. Research and
development of technologies for the stable operation of
broadband optical fiber networks and quality management
based on ISO 9001 certification are just two examples of our
continuing efforts to provide safe and secure services.
Universal design in everything we do
The NTT Group recognizes that population decline and the aging
of society make it even more essential that communications
services are easily accessible to any and every user. To such
an end, we conduct R&D on universal design, and apply universal
design principles to our services and handsets.
Initiatives
Prototype dual-screen mobile phone
The dual-screen universal design mobile phone developed by
NTT DoCoMo offers a choice of menus to fit the needs of users,
be they first-time or long-time users. For example, novice users
can create onscreen icons for people that they call frequently
to enable one-touch calling. We have also developed phones
that enable attachment of external interfaces for those unable to operate
standard phones by hand, and we continue to implement plans and research
aimed at developing products that can be used easily by anyone.
Universal design guidelines
NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories has established JIS-compliant guidelines
for the application of universal design to the creation of web
content that is easily accessible to a wide range of users, including
the elderly and the people with disabilities. During fiscal
2005, we held several universal IT design symposiums to promote recognition of universal design concepts. The first of
these symposiums was for the NTT Group, while the second
targeted the general public in order to promote wider awareness
and understanding of NTT Group's efforts to implement
universal design. In fiscal 2005, we also developed checkUD,
a new application software designed to verify the accessibility
of web content based on these guidelines. This software
enables content developers to quickly and effectively identify
and correct accessibility issues in their content. NTT Cyber
Solutions Laboratories is committed to promoting the application
of universal design in the creation of web content so that
any and every user can enjoy the benefits of the Internet.
Shabelog: a voice browser that can read blog content
A voice browser is useful for people with weak eyesight or visual impairment as it can aurally present website information. It has, however, been extremely difficult to read and understand structurally complex websites such as blogs with conventional voice browsers. To solve this problem, NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories has developed a voice browser called Shabelog (a pun on "Talking Blog" in Japanese) that is capable of reading the menu, layout, and colors of blog content, fulfilling the needs of people with blindness, weak eyesight, color blindness, or other visual impairments. The results of a field trial that was conducted for some three months starting in July 2005 are currently being incorporated in ongoing development to create a Universal Design tool that can be useful to as many people as possible.
Ensuring business continuity for our customers
Management issues for businesses have come to include the
drafting of contingency plans that will enable a business to
maintain operations even in the face of natural disasters or to
recover functionality within a specified timeframe if operations
are disrupted.
We share our extensive experience and knowledge in ensuring
availability of communications services with others by offering
one-stop business continuity planning (BCP) solution
services to provide consulting, system configuration, and any
other services required to maintain the business continuity of
our customers.
For example, NTT EAST offers a Wide Area Disaster Recovery service
that backs up and enables the recovery of essential system
data contained in file and application servers. This is performed
from remote facilities in a seismically stable location.
NTT will continue to provide BCP solutions for protection against
a wide variety of potential threats, including natural disasters,
cyber attacks, information leaks, terrorism, and more.
Initiatives
Provision of disaster prevention solutions
While the NTT Group prepares its own disaster prevention business plan against disasters and emergencies, the Group companies also develop disaster prevention systems and solutions for our customers.
These include disaster prevention systems, disaster information management systems, environment and disaster monitoring systems, and mobile safety notification services that centralize user confirmation details and safety information at centers and distribute emergency information in the event of disasters in a reliable manner.
In March 2006, NTT EAST started an experiment in collaboration with government organizations and universities to provide an emergency earthquake news bulletin service for detached houses. This test will make it possible to assess the needs and behavioral characteristics of residents with regards to emergency earthquake bulletins. It will also be an opportunity to test the effectiveness of notification and warning systems using IPv6 multicast.
Development of Crack Scan, a scanner for the non-destructive evaluation of structure surfaces
While there is rising concern about the safety of office buildings, apartment blocks, and other structures, NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories has successfully developed Crack Scan, a scanner that uses millimeter-wave imaging technology to detect cracks on a sub-millimeter scale in concrete structures without stripping the wallpaper or paint. Ongoing efforts are being made to improve the resolution and downsize equipment, and its use in other fields such as non-destructive testing in structures and maintenance of aging social infrastructure facilities are also being considered.
Crack Scan is a penetrating scanner that directs millimeter waves at the object to discover cracks by reading the strength of the reflected waves.
