June, 2005
The Customer Hotline is a telephone- and internet-based group that has been put into place to answer a wide variety of questions from customers regarding Eisai products. In FY2004, we received over 70,000 inquiries, creating a very important direct link to patients, consumers and healthcare professionals.
In looking at how to better improve the quality of our responses to such inquiries and how to better help our customers, consultation with our hotline specialists showed overwhelmingly that first-hand experience is the answer.
We decided to first focus on the segment from where we receive the most inquiries: pharmacies that accept the Japanese national insurance. We received the cooperation of a chain of such pharmacies allowing us to have all our hotline specialists visit the facilities and speak with pharmacists. This gave them a first-hand understanding of the background associated with the inquiries they handle and insight into what it is the customer really wants to know. This has greatly contributed to the quality of responses to customer inquiries.
It is also important for our hotline specialists to have a thorough knowledge of the products we make to better respond to product-related questions. We have thus been making a strong effort to give the hotline specialists opportunities to visit our production lines and research laboratories in person.
The role of our Customer Hotline goes beyond simply answering customer inquiries. Another important dimension of the hotline specialists' work is to listen to customers' concerns and comments - both positive and negative - and use this information to improve our business for the benefit of the customers. It is our hope to continually better our response to inquiries and to listen to our customers even more closely. Please don't hesitate to let us know what you are thinking by contacting our Customer Hotline!
