Basic Approach
The basic mission of the Maruha Nichiro Group is to be "a corporate group that contributes to people's affluent life and happiness by providing authentic, safe, and healthy 'food' that is needed by society" based on the Group's philosophy. The Maruha Nichiro Group made a voluntary consumer-oriented declaration in March 2018. The Maruha Nichiro Group will promote consumer-oriented management by firmly recognizing and acting on these three activities: "listening to and making use of customers' voices," "working for the future and the next generation," and "complying with laws and regulations and strengthening corporate governance."
Voluntary Declaration of Consumer Orientation (Japanese only)
Follow-Up Activity Report (Japanese only) (PDF: 208 KB/ 7 pages)
Management Structure
Based on the “Maruha Nichiro Group Quality Assurance Policy”, each company in the Maruha Nichiro Group has established a quality assurance system tailored to its business field based on a common approach. We also reflect customer feedback in our quality assurance activities.
Quality Assurance Structure
Main Initiatives
To Deepen Communication with Customers
Customer Service Office plays a role in communicating with customers even after products have been delivered to them. Specifically, as a BCP measure for the Corona Disaster and other disasters, we have enhanced our customer service by building a system that allows customers to answer phones at home and by providing information on a dedicated Customer Service Office website. The chatbot, an automated response function installed on the website that answers customer questions 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, has been maintained since February 2023 for all commercial products (8 categories) based on monthly analysis of customer questions in order to provide more accurate answers to customer questions. In addition, the “Chatbot” function is maintained by analyzing customer questions every month to provide more accurate answers to customer questions for all commercial products (8 categories). In addition, since December 2019, when we acquired an official corporate account on Yahoo! Chiebukuro, a Q&A site operated by Yahoo!
Furthermore, as an effort to utilize “customer feedback” in the improvement and refinement of products and services, we regularly hold “Product Improvement Study Meetings” attended by executives and relevant department heads, and 20 improvements and refinements were adopted in FY2024.
Customer Service Office (Japanese only)
Internal Integration of “Consumer-Oriented Management”
In order for all employees of the Maruha Nichiro Group to understand and act on “consumer-oriented management,” we have established an internal promotion system and continue to promote the implementation of awareness-raising training on “consumer-oriented management” and the enhancement of business activities based on “customers' voices”.
Since FY2020, we have been conducting in-house training on “consumer-oriented management” for Maruha Nichiro Group employees using an e-learning learning system; in FY2024, approximately 5,300 employees participated in the training to deepen their understanding.
In addition, during the month of strengthening the quality control reaffirmation campaign in 2024, we held a “Listening to Customers' Voices” meeting for all executives and employees of the Maruha Nichiro Group, which was attended by approximately 9,900 executives and employees, in order for each and every employee to recognize the importance of quality control and the crisis management status of the Maruha Nichiro Group.
The daily “Customer's Voice” is distributed to the President and all executives and employees, and we are striving to strengthen our system for making use of the “Customer's Voice” in our business operations. In addition, as part of our efforts to ensure safety and security, we identify potential problems in the “Customer Comments” and continue to distribute them once a week.
Communication with customers (until delivery of products) (Japanese only)
Dialogue Through the Customer Service Office
We organize and utilize a variety of information related to our products so that we can respond promptly and accurately to customers' opinions, requests, consultations, and suggestions. In addition, with the aim of further improving our services to customers and the quality of our customer service, we conduct questionnaires by letter to customers who have provided us with their opinions, and use the results in our group education and training programs.
Customers' Expectations of the Company (Results of FY2024 Questionnaire)
Initiatives for Product Improvement Utilizing Customer Feedback
Product improvement review meetings are held four times a year to apply customer feedback to the improvement and refinement of products and services. The procedures for improvement are as follows.
- Consumer-Oriented Management Department, Marketing Department, and Development Department of Maruha Nichiro Co., Ltd. serve as the secretariat, bringing together issues related to products based on customer feedback and examining the need for improvement.
- As a result of the examination, the business divisions and the secretariat discuss the issues that require improvement and decide whether or not to make improvements.
- The effectiveness of the improvements will be verified.
- The results of the effectiveness verification are evaluated by the Product Improvement Review Committee and used as important data for further product improvement and development by each business unit.
Examples of improvements based on customer feedback (Japanese only)
Initiatives and Results for Improving Customer Satisfaction
Recognition of Current Situation and Significance of Efforts
Maruha Nichiro regards the “voice of the customer” as the starting point of its corporate activities and positions the improvement of customer satisfaction as one of the key pillars of sustainability. These activities are enhancing corporate credibility and contributing to building a relationship of trust with customers, which is indispensable for sustainable growth.
Specific Initiatives
Customer Service Office received 13,478 inquiries and complaints annually in FY2024. (Breakdown of categories of inquiries received*)
Customer Service Office continues to focus its efforts on a program to improve the quality of operator response. In order to evaluate the results of our efforts, we conduct an annual Customer Response Satisfaction Survey of customers who have made complaints.
As a result of the survey, the percentage of customers who answered “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with operator response reached 83% in FY 2024.
Award from the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs
The “Consumer-Oriented Management Excellence Awards” are conducted by the Consumer Affairs Agency to recognize outstanding initiatives by businesses in consumer-oriented management, aiming to promote such practices since FY2018. Maruha Nichiro was the first domestic food and fisheries company to receive the "Cabinet Office Minister's Award" at the "Reiwa 5th Fiscal Year Consumer-Oriented Management Excellent Case Awards" hosted by the Consumer Affairs Agency.
Reasons for the Selection of Award
Maruha Nichiro is working to reduce its environmental impact and protect marine resources through efforts such as the egg-to-harvest aquaculture of bluefin tuna (a “circular” aquaculture model in which eggs are collected from artificially hatched fish, hatched, and raised), which was successfully carried out for the first time by a private company in the world, as well as its plan to construct a land-based Atlantic salmon aquaculture facility to promote commercialization.
In the area of nursing-care food for the elderly, Maruha Nichiro is working to address the challenges of a super-aging society through efforts such as providing well-being value through ”small but satisfying meals" while exchanging information with healthcare and nursing care workers and contributing to shorter cooking and serving time for employees at such facilities.
Source: “Reiwa 5th Fiscal Year Consumer-Oriented Management Excellent Case Awards: Reasons for selection,” Consumer Affairs Agency
