At Roland group, in order to “Be the Best”, we have striven to not only meet but exceed the high expectations of our customers. Also, making this our goal has allowed us to drive music culture and at times create totally new markets since our founding in 1972.
While we respect tradition and lineage, we continue to push the boundaries in a manner that is beneficial for our customers and continue to add new value. Thinking that “it would be nice if something like this actually exists,” or “we wish we could surprise all the people in the world,” continues to drive us to create the game-changer products. We will continue developing our services to support our customers' hopes, such as “I wish to start learning to play a musical instrument,” “I wish to progress my enjoyment” and “I wish to relate to others through music.”
Put simply, we aim to provide optimum solutions and long-term customer satisfaction at every scene, not just at purchase stage.
Provision of Attractive Products
Roland has been engaged constantly in research and development in tandem with the progress in electronics technology. We are at the forefront of new technologies and constantly adding value to the musical instrument market. As a result, we have created new product categories and musical culture derived from our products, and we have also created a number of game-changer products which can contribute to the development of existing markets. We will continue providing new possibilities of musical instruments or new ways of enjoying, through constant development.
Aerophone AE-10
Based on the idea of electronic wind instruments, which had been posted in our internal SNS material, we built a project team aiming at realizing the product, the result was the development of our first electronic wind instrument of Roland. While it had originally been designed for practicing saxophone, its users have expanded to include all levels of players, stage-use, and the ability to allow people with breathing difficulties to enjoy the trill of playing a wind-instrument - thereby significantly growing the market.
A successor model AE-20 was rolled out in January 2022.
TAIKO-1
This is the electronic Japanese drum marketed in 2021 as a result of our new trial of making Japanese traditional musical instruments into electronic instruments. It was solved with state-of-the art technology and originality - tackling problems pertaining to the Japanese drums; the difficulty in securing places for practicing, influence of temperature or humidity, and the difficulty in carrying it. In doing so we opened new possibilities for Japanese drums, and as a Japanese musical instrument manufacturer, we are proud to convey the tradition of Japanese drums into the future, and sending out Japanese musical culture to the world.
Concept model to commemorate Roland's 50th anniversary
While reflecting on the past 50 years of innovation, we need to also look to the future to ensure we continue to define genres and push technology. With this in mind, we created concept models for the electronic piano, electronic drums, and synthesizer.
Our new electronic piano concept combined beautiful craftmanship with cutting-edge technology including un-rivalled immersive sound with the use of drone speakers, which was unveiled at CES 2023.
Please click the image to view the news release.
Product Quality and Safety
Ever since being awarded the quality management system certification, Roland Corporation has been engaged in thorough quality control as mentioned below, ranging from design initiation to manufacturing, in order to increase customer satisfaction. We place this as the fundamental premise for our products being supported long-term for our customers.
Date of ISO9001 series certification being granted: March 15, 1996.
Conforming standard: JIS Q 9001:2015（ISO9001:2015）
Quality Assurance System
The officer in charge of the quality assurance division sends out information on the policy for product quality each fiscal year and, based on this the head of the Quality Assurance Department sends out information on the targeted quality. Each division then announces divisional targets based on this. The Quality Assurance Department proceeds with continuous internal audits, in an effort to continuously improve our product quality. At the same time, we implement educational courses for members of the relevant divisions, with the purpose of increasing their awareness of product quality.
Product Safety
Safety and reliability are at the core of our new product development. In addition, we make sure that laws and applicable standards are compliant for all products we sell. Such compliance is assessed by the various types of measuring facilities installed within the company. If an irregularity should arise in our product in the market, the Quality Assurance Department will summarize the information and proceed with reporting to management and administration to prevent recurrence.
Strengthening the Relationship with the Dealers
In order to make our customers more aware of the appeal of our products, in addition to the strengthening of the direct ties between Roland and customers through our digital marketing scheme, we are proceeding with conversion marketing activities in cooperation with dealers. Also, through our Store-in-Store expansion, we have built up an environment which allows customers to interact with actual products and specialist advice at the point of sale.
Conversion Marketing
These are marketing activities carried out with cooperation of our dealers aiming at the creation of shared customers, and surpassing the conventional dealer relationship. Under the relationship with dealers, who are directly connected to our customers, we utilize digital marketing to drive purchases by these customers.
Store in Store
We have placed the space for exclusively displaying Roland/BOSS/V-MODA brand products in our dealers of major cities around the world. We have assigned well-trained specialist staff members in these Store-in-Store installations to provide an experience unique to bricks and mortar stores; [1] touching and trying the products, [2] discussing the customer's needs, and [3] understanding the products to purchase them. To drive footfall, we make promote the locations to our customers through digital marketing and guide them to actually try the products in a fully branded environment.
Maximization of Customer Satisfaction
Roland target to not only have customers select our products and services, but subsequently to deepen our relationship with customers by providing useful information and service through various points of contact. For this purpose, we are utilizing digital technology to provide a total solution to the customer through three activities including; pre-sale marketing, and post-sale support.
Digital Communication Channels Unique to Roland
“I would start learning to play a musical instrument, if such a thing is available,” or “I wish I could do something like this.” — In response to such real demands from customers, we reflect opinions obtained through the customer surveys, user interviews, as well as collection and analysis of comments and trends appearing online, in our products and services from their conception.
In our marketing activities, we indicate information most suited to customers based on keyword search on the Internet and, in addition, we provide those enjoying the video sites or social community sites with meaningful information highly connected with them. In these ways, we are pouring our energy in realizing highly-targetted communications, with less waste.
Our Website, in which we present the value of our products and services, is regionalized for 42 global areas. We are constantly updating and enhancing the content, so that customers know our USP's and are able to select our products with an enhanced understanding through reading stories about related people, culture, history and technology, as well as a connection with musicians, and more. In the SNS and video sites, we are striving for, in addition to increasing the languages used to better fit to the customers' environment, sending out information that best fits the area the customer is living in.
[Articles posted in our company's Website]
For customers who wish to know more about our products through face-to-face conversation, but cannot visit a real store, we have developed a virtual customer service "Roland Live" in Europe. Customer can connect one-to-one with a product specialist via video to answer their questions and even receive a demonstration direct in their home.
If a customer registers after purchasing a Roland product, we are able to deliver relevant information to make the most of their purchase. This includes ‘how-to’ videos, information on software updates, related articles, presentations of new products, and more, via a program of ongoing and timely emails.
[Quick Start Video]
Global Customer Support Platform
Customer Service Teams in each country are highly skilled and receive ongoing training on our products, technologies, apps, and services. A common global customer service platform supports the efforts of these teams, applying advanced technology to deliver efficient and effective responses to inquiries. Artificial Intelligence is used in combination with a vast and ever-expanding Knowledge Base to provide instant responses and a superior self-service experience. The Knowledge Base contains more than 15,000 how-to articles covering virtually every Roland and BOSS product in existence, with new entries being created daily by our Product Support experts globally. Finally, the Global Customer Experience Team (GCX) continually monitors and optimizes the quality and efficiency of our customer service efforts and systems in support of total customer satisfaction.
START: the First Step towards a Superior Post-purchase Experience
Most Roland and BOSS products contains an intelligent “START” card, which provides convenient access for owners to helpful post purchase online resources. Roland and BOSS START cards include a 2D barcode unique to each product, which when scanned with the camera of a mobile device, instantly transports owners “Backstage” to a personalized support portal. From Backstage, Roland and BOSS owners can quickly create a free Roland Account and add purchases to their personal “My Gear” virtual locker. Adding more gear is as simple as scanning another START Card- no additional steps are required.
The START card inserted in the product package.
As purchases are added to My Gear, Backstage provides quick access to online manuals, videos, software updates, apps, and more. In addition, Backstage is the doorway to personalized product support and pre-purchase consultations with Roland and BOSS product experts. And the same free Roland Account used to access Backstage can open the door to an expanded range of creative apps, services, and experiences offered via Roland Cloud.
Finally, information shared with Roland through Roland Account creation and purchase registration helps us to communicate in a more meaningful and personalized way with customers through stories, tips and tricks, online learning opportunities, announcements, special offers, and more. All of these efforts combine to create deepening ties with our fans and gain insights in support of a more personalized, inspiring, and fulfilling creative life.