KDDI is Japan’s second largest mobile service provider and a leading global telco. It was established in 1984 and now serves over 59.24 million customers with over 45 Telehouse data centre sites. The company achieved a revenue of US$40 billion in 2021 with a YoY growth of +2.5%.
Integrating telecommunications and life design has been the company’s priority in their customer experience throughout the fiscal year of 2022. Emphasising these aspects has benefited the company tremendously, with the Life Design Domain recording a CAGR of 20% from FY19 to FY23.
Recently, KDDI plans on terminating its 3G services at the end of FY2022 while also rolling out and increasing its 5G penetration to 95% by FY2024. The strategy is to provide nationwide coverage, meet the demand from areas with high data traffic and cover blind spots such as mountainous regions and isolated island areas to improve customer experience.
In 5G network developers, Au (KDDI) is the recognised leader, driving innovation through new technologies and emerging IoT technologies. By utilizing Open RAN powered by vRAN, it became the world’s first 5G standalone Open RAN site embracing openness and virtualization.
Drive for CX
To further ‘the integration of telecommunications and life design,’ KDDI rearranged its four segments into the Personal Services Segment for consumer-facing businesses… the telecommunications business has driven growth to date. But in the future, KDDI aims to expand earnings on a total ARPA basis that integrates telecommunications and life design services – Makoto Takahashi, President, KDDI Corporation
twimbit conducted a detailed study to identify the top 10 telcos in APAC to ace customer experience, benchmarking them across four pillars, viz., digital experience, service experience, employee experience and brand experience.
In the analysis, au (KDDI) ranked 3rd with its strong drive for customer experience emphasising on digital experience. KDDI puts a focus on its service capability to cater to a wide range of needs while providing an immersive digital experience through its products. As a result, the telco scored above average in digital experience.
Key initiatives
Expanding life design services using emerging technologies
KDDI utilises new-age technology to strengthen its digital experience. The company uses 7 emerging technologies to create new customer experiences by unifying both cyber and physical space. The company initiated Accelerate 5.0, a vision where an individual’s life and economic development are compatible. Because of this, customers now have access to all their needs through the au KDDI application.
Fulfilling personalised needs responsibly
KDDI recognises the challenges of different age groups when experiencing cutting edge technology. Therefore, to enable top-tier customer experience, the telco released 3 different product series to tackle elderlies, kids and the disabled. These products merge with the latest technology providing specialised services to meet the customer’s needs.
Diverse working modes to match employee needs
The COVID-19 pandemic gave rise to different working modes for employees. To adapt to the changing environment, the telco implemented 2 initiatives to meet the employees’ needs: Flexibility and Lifestyle.
Flexibility: This initiative emphasises the freedom of choice for the employees. The work shift interval rule program sets a daily work limit for employees, capping their day to a maximum of 9 hours, which can be customised monthly, avoiding working overtime. Overall, this program aims to increase work-life balance. Furthermore, employees have the choice of working from home. To drive this, the company focuses on high performance in a short time for their employees.
Lifestyle: This initiative focuses on bringing convenience and empathy towards the employees. There are shorter working hours for caregivers, employees with relocation issues, pre-and post-childbirth programs and spouse accompaniment leave program.
Attracting youngsters by sponsoring sporting events
KDDI has leveraged event sponsorships as a path to attract the youth, and building awareness of their service offerings. They have sponsored the following sporting events / teams
Soccer: Japan’s national soccer team – the Samurai Blues (men’s team) and Nadeshiko Japan (women’s team)
Baseball: Sponsors of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars
Sport Climbing: Sponsor of the sport climbing category of the Japan Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Association
E-Sports: Sponsors of the Japan eSports Union (JeSU) and the pro team DetonatioN Gaming
How you can match up to au KDDI
KDDI’s life design services are built around serving a broader range of customer needs. It helps improve the overall engagement with the brand. The use of AI, XR and Robotics technology enables positioning as a leading adopter of technology. The programs to embrace inclusivity across the diverse demographics have helped improve attach rates of life design services. au KDDI differentiates by prioritising:
- the leverage of emerging technologies to build a lifestyle ecosystem for users
- providing multiple work style options to suit the employees’ needs
- combine branding with service offerings