Yamaha plays a new (social) tune has been saved
Case studies
Yamaha plays a new (social) tune
Engaging customers through social channels
Social media has evolved from purely an entertainment medium to an important channel for people to connect with the brands they follow. As consumers are increasingly using social channels to tweet and post about products, Yamaha needed to find new ways to engage with its customers.
"Yamaha is built on customer support."
-Tom Sumner, Senior Vice President, Yamaha Corporation of America
If you’re not listening, you’re missing out.
“Our tagline is ‘Yamaha Listens’ and we really wanted to take that to the next level,” says Rick Williams, Manager of Customer Support, Yamaha Corporation of America. “We get inquiries from all over and social media is a channel that's getting larger.”
The world’s largest manufacturer of musical instruments, Yamaha is dedicated to providing superior customer support and uses salesforce.com to manage its 16 million customer contacts. Three years after the implementation, the company realized it was missing opportunities to build value through better customer care and looked to Deloitte to provide the leadership to help achieve their goal.
Impacts from transformation
- Greater collaboration
- Increased productivity
- Better customer engagement
View the infographic
“There are some great companies in the music industry and the social space, but we have yet to see anyone take it to the level that we have with Deloitte and with salesforce.com connecting all of these pieces.”
– Jeff Hawley, Director of Customer Experience, Yamaha Corporation of America
Social harmony
An initial assessment revealed that Yamaha was not using the full capabilities of salesforce.com. The company’s customer service system was hampered by unreliable handoffs and customer support teams were out of the social media loop. Deloitte recommended an integrated solution that delivered a complete view of the customer –one that spanned social, service, sales and marketing in a single, easy-to-use system.
“We needed to be flexible enough to get to people where they are. Deloitte gave us the ability to be flexible,” says Tom Sumner.
Deloitte’s ability to instill confidence and trust helped Yamaha transform and streamline its customer support function, enabling agents to more efficiently interact with each other and customers using salesforce.com. Everything an agent needs to know about a customer is available on one screen. And Salesforce Chatter allows agents to get instant input from peers to quickly resolve customer cases.
Not only is Yamaha listening, it’s also capturing what customers are posting about products on Facebook and Twitter. “There are companies getting almost half of their leads through social channels,” explains Rob Rose, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Deloitte is helping organizations engage with customers wherever they’re having conversations.” Since the new capabilities went live, Yamaha has improved collaboration and productivity, while driving better customer engagement.
