Our Approach to
Customer Harassment

Background to
publishing our approach

At SoftBank (hereinafter referred to as “the company”), we strive to contribute to the happiness of people and aim to “become a Corporate Group needed most by people around the world” based on our group's common management philosophy of “Information Revolution — Happiness for everyone”.

Based on the valuable opinions and requests we receive from our customers on a daily basis, we are committed to providing services that satisfy our customers and building a network environment that enables them to use our services with peace of mind. However, amidst these efforts, although they are very rare, we have observed acts such as verbal abuse and excessive demands towards our employees or subcontracted companies*.

Maintaining a proper working environment for our employees is extremely important for the continuous provision of our services in the future. We believe that not only maintaining good relationships with our valued customers, but also protecting our employees from such acts and creating a work environment where they can work with peace of mind, is essential for providing better services. Therefore, we have created and published “Our Approach to Customer Harassment”.

[Note]
  1. *
    Employees etc. of the company or subcontracted companies
    • Employees of SoftBank, including temporary staff
    • Staff at SoftBank and Y!mobile handling stores such as shops, home appliance retailers, and mobile phone retailers
    • Call center operators, etc.

Actions covered

Based on the “Customer Harassment Prevention Company Manual” by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, we define the following actions by customers towards our employees as customer harassment:

“Actions or comments from customers that, according to the validity of the requests in those actions or comments, are deemed socially inappropriate means or manners, and by those means or manners, harm the work environment of employees.”

The main specific examples of customer harassment are as follows, but not limited to these

Violence or verbal abuse
  • Threats, intimidations, or corrections
  • Discriminatory behavior that insults or negates a person's character
  • Acts of violence
Excessive or unreasonable demands
  • Demands for excessive service provision beyond social norms
  • Demands for refunds or compensation beyond the scope of the terms and conditions
  • Excessive repetition of the same request or inquiry
  • Unreasonable demands for apologies or punishments towards our employees
  • Unpermitted visits to SoftBank offices
  • Demands for face-to-face interactions without valid reasons
Other harassment acts
  • Acts of privacy invasion
  • Sexual harassment, stalking behavior or comments
  • Defamation and slander on social media or the internet

Response to
customer harassment

If the company determines that there have been actions falling under the scope of customer harassment, we may refuse to provide customer support, among other actions. Additionally, in cases where the company determines the actions to be malicious, appropriate measures will be taken after consulting with the police or lawyers.

Main initiatives to address
customer harassment

  • Promotion of initiatives to prevent and reduce occurrences of customer harassment
  • Implementation of training on knowledge and response methods regarding customer harassment
  • Establishment of a consultation service within the company, as well as for our outsourcing or dispatching companies, in cases of customer harassment
  • Establishment of a mental care system for employees of our company, as well as for our outsourcing or dispatching companies, who have been victims of customer harassment