Efforts to Improve Customer Satisfaction

To improve customer satisfaction, we strive to develop and manufacture products that satisfy customers’ needs, keeping abreast of market trends. In order to develop products that exceed customer expectation, we conduct appropriate design reviews in the process of product development including various departments; not only Manufacturing Division and Quality Assurance Division but also Sales Group, Field Service Group, Marketing Division, and other related departments who directly communicate with our customers. We will continue to serve our customers by quickly responding to customer needs as our customers deal with the ever-changing markets and the development of competitive next-generation technologies.

Basic Policy for Improving Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is the most fundamental principle underpinning Advantest's business.

Sales and Marketing Practices to Ensure Higher Customer Satisfaction

In the semiconductor market, where technology continues to evolve, our customers consistently take on the challenges of addressing environmental and social issues. Advantest believes that a proactive and speedy provision of comprehensive solutions is crucial in increasing customer value while our customers keep striving ahead for new challenges. As part of our efforts to increase customer value, we have been improving sales and marketing organizational structure. Advantest integrated marketing function of our business units, which was responsible for product strategy and new product planning, into our sales headquarters in December 2016 and we also integrated system solutions department, which provided semiconductor test system support, in June 2017. The integration of marketing department into the sales headquarters has enabled sales units to provide timely feedback to the marketing units on needs gathered through communication with customers, enabling more efficient development and delivery of products to customers. In addition, the integration of system solutions into the sales headquarters has also helped us to provide prompt technical support for our customers.

Furthermore, the sales and marketing units within the sales headquarters were integrated in March 2020 to create a system that can more speedily and accurately reflect customer needs in product development.
We aim to further improve customer satisfaction by taking measures in response to changing market and customer needs.

Sales and Marketing Activities to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Not only do we provide test solutions, but also keep our customers up-to-date on the latest technology and product information related to the market so as to stay committed in supporting our customers' technical innovations. Due to the impact of COVID-19, we held our conventional face-to-face exhibitions and customer events online; however, beginning in 2022, we are resuming in-person events while taking vigilant measures to prevent the spread of infection. In May 2023, we successfully held the VOICE - Advantest Developer Conference in Santa Clara, California, USA. VOICE is run by a committee made up of Advantest and voluntary customers, serving as an international community where users and strategic partners related to our product portfolio gather and grow together, and celebrated its 15th anniversary this year. The conference is also a place for participants to deepen their insights and build lasting relationships by discussing the efficiency and productivity of semiconductor testing and learning about the latest technology trends and applications.

Promoting Customer Support

The Advantest Group has established its basic policy for customer support with the aim of realizing the globally-oriented restructuring of the Group's service businesses.
Our basic policy is outlined as follows.

Basic policy for customer support

• We will propose total solutions in the form of support packages designed to deliver maximum efficiency to our customers in their device measurement operations.
• We will propose unified service support matching the customer's business model from development to the mass production environment.
• We will respond to customer demands by proposing service support packages that encompass total solutions.
• We will always take the customer's point of view and draw on our global organization in offering solutions.
• Our premium services and customer support will not only be efficient, but will also take the environment and safety into consideration.
• We will offer high-value-added professional services.
• We will strive to maintain our zero-accident record by thoroughly observing safety standards in field service provision and elsewhere.

Better Customer Support with a Global Focus

Advantest is building a global support framework capable of responding effectively to a variety of customer support requests and inquiries from customers. While responding to routine inquires through customer contact centers in each country, as well as by telephone and e-mail, we are also implementing primary support consisting of technical service and onsite repairs by field service engineers.

We place expert global support teams in product development bases to carry out secondary support, allowing us to respond appropriately based on the content and degrees of difficulty of customer support. This way, we are working to improve customer satisfaction while building relationships of trust with customers through a system that can provide high-quality services.

We have developed a global supply-chain network covering customer operations ranging from their development bases to mass production facilities. Moreover, we also operate a supply-chain control mechanism through which replacement equipment and parts at service centers in each country are monitored to determine inventory needs at respective locations worldwide.

We continue to run an engineer exchange program between overseas subsidiaries and our secondary support division, which helps field service engineers improve their professional skills and raises the quality of our support. This two- to three-year human resource development program aims to sharpen engineers' technical skills, develop cross-cultural competencies, and raise foreign language and communication proficiencies.

In the mass production facilities of customers, we offer on-request expert engineering consulting and solutions regarding productivity issues as well as training and proposal services regarding device measurement, aiming to increase customer value through collaborative creation with our customers.

Strengthening the Recycling and Remarketing Businesses

Advantest Finance Inc. (AFI) changed its name to Advantest Pre-Owned Solutions Co., Ltd. (APO) in January 2022. Therewith, the company marked its transition from its leasing/rental business and sale of pre-owned (used) Advantest equipment to one which focuses on business including after-sale services as a part of the Field Service BU (FS BU). This has enabled us not only to respond to long delivery times for new products but also to propose and provide purchase/resale services as a complete solution. Despite recycling being a domestic Japan-only solution, we will continue to consider its global applications and expand our activities.

Advantest will contribute to our customer’s test capacity management together with FS BU. One stop shopping, quick upgrade and End-to-End test cell integration expert support will be provided for all Advantest products.

*Remarketing business: Business that puts second-hand goods back on the market ("remarket")

• Product Recycling