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I'm struggling to find a way to phrase:

"Could you let me know what problem you are trying to solve with ${COMPANY_PRODUCT}?"

in a business email. The context is that we're offering a product that helps companies maintain high-quality products of their own, and we want to be proactive in offering support, and try to understand what they were hoping our ${COMPANY_PRODUCT} could do for them. In particular, it is not in a reply to a complaint. I admit it has been a very long time since I've used Japanese in a formal setting, and my keigo is a bit rusty.

My current guess is:

よしければ、${COMPANY_PRODUCT}でどの問題を解決なさいますのを理解させてくださいませんか。

But this sounds wrong to me, although I'm struggling to come up with something better.

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This may take a native to give a proper answer, but, I am not so sure you need to use so polite language, if you apologize sincerely in the beginning.

Not knowing the circumstances, the severity of the problem and whether it has been cause by the company who you are representing, I simply guess that the reason why you are asking about the problem is because you have e.g. sold the product or are providing e.g. maintenance services for it, and you are contacting the customer since he/she has raised a general complaint about some problem with the product. I.e. your organization has at least some responsibility in the issue.

After the apology, I would simply go for something like "欠陥についてもう少し詳しく教えていただけませんか。"

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  • 1
    Replying myself, sorry, writing before thinking, you could also have meant meant that the product had no problem itself but it was some "general purpose repair kit" that the customer is using to solve some problem you want to know about. As you know, contexts is pretty relevant. – Tuomo Jun 6 '19 at 13:17
  • Thanks for answering. It's not about any complaint at all -- the product is offering a solution, and we're reaching out just to see how they're finding it, and want to offer support if so necessary. The question is more to identify what problems they were hoping the product could solve for them, rather than identifying any problems they have with the product. – kinbiko Jun 6 '19 at 13:31
  • OK. That is a tough one, especially as getting feedback from Japanese customers for this kind of purpose is not so easy, I think. Hopefully someone with skills beyond me will be able to help. Just one additional think that might help those more capable in Japanese: At least I took the 問題を解決　so that I assumed it was more of solving a defect than solving a need. It may be good if you clarify if the product is to give a "firefighting fix" or a "solution that provides additional value". – Tuomo Jun 6 '19 at 13:39
  • Thanks, I've updated the question to elaborate on this point – kinbiko Jun 6 '19 at 13:52

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