Japan
Customer Experience Excellence report 2022.
Customer Experience Excellence report 2022.
As the world is opening up, following the mass closures of the Covid-19 pandemic, the top sector for customer excellence in the Japanese market in 2022 is Entertainment & Leisure, which tops rankings across all Six Pillars. Since 2021, Entertainment & Leisure has been gradually increasing its Empathy score, which is a non-negotiable for today’s customers – this investment in Empathy has helped Entertainment & Leisure widen the gap between its score and other sectors’ year-on-year.
Two leading entertainment resorts top the leader board this year for customer excellence, including Universal Studios Japan (USJ), which jumped two spots to land in second place. USJ is one of the largest theme parks in Japan, located in Osaka. It states its corporate vision as "to become a leading global entertainment company, providing our guests with World-class experiences exceeding expectations." By continuously creating new attractions and events that reinforce its brand philosophy, USJ continues to refresh its customer experience, and its enhanced digital strategy has streamlined in-park experience, by introducing a reservation system for attractions via smartphone.
In addition, the customer service of its cast members at each theme park has always been highly rated by many customers. Japanese consumers face ongoing activity restrictions in daily life and reduced face-to-face interaction in the aftermath of Covid-19, so attentive cast members have contributed to even higher Empathy scores for Entertainment & Leisure.
Although Value scores for theme park report brands in the region are lower than the Entertainment & Leisure sector average due to recent ticket price increases, their high Six Pillar scores indicate that they both offer a high-quality and unique service that many customers are willing to pay a higher price to experience.
Outside of theme park resort brands, this year’s rankings feature department stores Hankyu and Hanshin, who are committed to improving their customer experience while eliminating inconveniences caused by COVID-19 and leveraging strengths such as their traditions and high-quality customer service. Furthermore, the high-end retailer Dior and subscription-based digital content platform Netflix also featured as standout brands.
International travel has begun its return to the skies, and ranking in the top 10 this year, All Nippon Airlines and Japan Airlines are a testament to the resilience of the sector. Though the industry continues to navigate a turbulent time, the high ranking of those Airlines shows commitment to customer excellence against all odds – we can expect main players in the region to retain high rankings as business-as-usual returns to the sector.
Value remains an important factor for people when selecting products and services. This is because, in addition to the long-standing economic downturn, the Japanese market has been experiencing events that have fuelled consumer anxiety, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased job insecurity and decreased real wages due to rising prices. However, Value is no longer a sufficient condition, but a necessary condition for people, as evidenced by the fact that the top Japanese firms in this survey tend to score higher than average on all 6 Pillars, NPS, and Loyalty, but lower than average on Value. Above all, the tendency to emphasize Integrity and Resolution has become more pronounced.
2022 Top Ten
01. Tokyo Disney Resort
02. USJ (Universal Studios Japan)
03. Hankyu
04. Dior
05. Hanshin Department Store
06. ANA (All Nippon Airways)
07. Netflix
08. Yodobashi Camera
09. JAL (Japan Airlines)
10. Toko Rent-A-Car