Catherine Ong heads up Sony’s customer relations operations in Asia, Middle East, Africa (AMEA) and India. It is a huge geography, she said, but her strategy provides reasonable autonomy and scope for localisation to Sony’s 13 customer contact centres across the region.

Sony’s contact centres in the region manage a significant number of customer contacts a year. Everything from product pre-sales to post-sales: telephone calls about product features and price; email requests to clarify setup instructions; a live chat to discuss product warranty; and product registration information funnelled from web forms. It’s a lot to consolidate and manage, drawing information from service partners and an ERP system.

“Social media adds another dimension and will eventually form a key platform in Sony’s customer support outreach,” said Ong.