"They are more than just a tool provider. They engage sincerely with the challenges we initially faced and work through them alongside us to deliver the ideal customer experience. We consider them an exceptionally dependable business partner."

These are the words of Mr. Sato, a team leader in the mail-order sales division of the Bike Life Planning Business Department and one of the members spearheading the use of “BOTCHAN AI” at Bike O & Company Ltd. With a nationwide network of stores, the company operates two seemingly opposing businesses—buying and selling motorcycles—and has been working to transform customer service around “BOTCHAN AI.”

This article takes an in-depth look at Bike O's use of AI, from the background behind its adoption and the steady, incremental improvements made to overcome barriers to increasing conversions, to its plans for future integration with core business systems.

Company Profile: Supporting Both Sides of Motorcycle Life—Buying and Selling

Bike O & Company Ltd. is a company that offers a diverse range of services centered on motorcycle purchasing and sales, guided by its purpose: “Creating experiences that have never existed before.” Through its nationwide store network and online sales channels, the company provides comprehensive support for customers’ motorcycle lifestyles.

The company’s business model once centered on wholesaling purchased motorcycles directly to other businesses. However, around 10 years ago, it made a full-scale entry into the B2C segment through in-store retail sales. Today, it provides an integrated range of services—from purchasing to sales and after-sales support—creating a one-stop system that meets a wide variety of motorcycle-related needs.

Bike O Service Website: https://www.8190.jp/

Meet the Team: Three Frontline Experts Leading the Way in Customer Service

We spoke with three individuals, each responsible for a different aspect of the business.

Kazuo Oishi, Manager, and Makoto Yoshida, Senior Leader, both in the Media Marketing Group of the Business Promotion Division, oversee a broad range of web marketing activities closely tied to lead generation. Their responsibilities include LPO (landing page optimization) through coordination with advertising agencies and development companies, as well as analytics implementation planning using GA and GTM.

Yudai Sato, Team Leader in the Mail-Order Division of the Motorcycle Life Planning Business Unit, oversees information sharing between store staff nationwide and mail-order service representatives. He is responsible for establishing systems that enable prompt and accurate responses to customer inquiries.

(From left) Mr. Oishi and Mr. Yoshida

(From left) Mr. Yoshida and Mr. Sato. Mr. Sato serves as a liaison between retail operations, connecting stores nationwide with the mail-order business.

Pre-Implementation Challenges and Context: The "Three Barriers" That Human Effort Alone Could Not Overcome

Before implementing BOTCHAN AI, the company faced three major challenges.

The first issue was a chronic staffing shortage that made it difficult to handle the high volume of inquiries, resulting in delayed responses. The second was that the evening hours, when customers had time to consider motorcycles carefully at home, fell outside business hours, leading to missed opportunities at the point when purchase intent was highest. The third was the psychological barrier customers felt when making inquiries by phone or email, as they were concerned that they might be subjected to a sales pitch.

Mr. Yoshida also reflects on the challenges related to the website's structure.

Mr. Yoshida:
"Previously, our policy was not to provide customers with too much information about their issues or go too far in resolving them, so our FAQ responses were kept brief. As customer needs became increasingly diverse year by year, we encountered more and more cases where our in-house development resources alone could not provide answers that precisely met those needs."

Discovering the Service and the Deciding Factor for Adoption: Embracing the Concept of "Bridging the Gap to Phone Calls"

According to Mr. Oishi, the company had previously received several proposals to “reduce inquiries and phone support by automatically generating FAQs.” However, these proposals did not align with its policy of “resolving customers’ issues by phone whenever possible,” so none were adopted. What set “BOTCHAN AI” apart was its design: rather than completing interactions through automated responses alone, it seamlessly guided customers toward phone inquiries that could lead to new sales opportunities.

Mr. Oishi:
"Precisely because we offer high-priced products, we needed a system to understand customers' needs in advance rather than immediately asking them to call or submit an application."

At the same time, the company had made AI adoption a company-wide priority. The proposal aligned both with its medium- to long-term AI strategy and with its business model, in which people ultimately make the purchasing decisions, helping to drive its implementation.

Implementation Process and Runtime Decision Criteria: Turn an 800-Article Owned Media Library into "Knowledge" and Launch in as Little as One Month

Development began with a demo bot built during the proposal stage, followed by iterative refinements through final delivery. By training it on approximately 800 articles from the owned media site “Bike Life Lab,” we achieved consistent conversational quality from the initial launch. The entire process, from order placement to publication, was completed in approximately one month.

They subsequently held regular meetings every two weeks and made more than 10 improvements to the conversation flow in the past six months alone. While the initial primary objective was to approach customers who had already expressed an interest in selling, they also focused on creating opportunities that would encourage customers considering purchasing a motorcycle to have their current motorcycle appraised, with the aim of maximizing the number of purchase requests.

More recently, it has also begun to be used as an FAQ bot for prospective buyers. The initiative originated from the client’s idea of leveraging the extensive FAQ data accumulated in “BOTCHAN AI” to handle initial inquiries, given the lean, highly skilled team responsible for the purchasing process.

Results and Value Delivered After Implementation: Conversion Share Increased by Up to 3x

BOTCHAN AI accounted for approximately 2–3% of total site conversions (CV) on a monthly basis at the beginning of the year (January). Following continuous improvements to its conversations throughout the year, this share has recently risen to 7–10%, representing up to a threefold increase based on monthly totals.

One specific initiative is the trade-in assessment scenario. To address the needs of customers who want to purchase a motorcycle while trading in their current one, we introduced a conversational flow that presents the effective purchase price after factoring in the trade-in value. This enabled us to identify users with a strong intent to sell among visitors to pages with a high concentration of prospective buyers, resulting in an improved conversion rate.

Its qualitative value is also recognized.

Mr. Yoshida:
"Dialogue data has enabled us to visualize candid customer feedback that we were previously unable to capture. We can now see where customers have questions or concerns, providing valuable insights for improving our FAQs and determining our next steps in the retail sector."

Mr. Li also highly praised the UI's increased flexibility resulting from the addition of image display capabilities. He also highlighted the significant value of being able to uncover customers' underlying feelings behind their questions, such as their reluctance to make a phone call.

Future Outlook and Key Initiatives: From Search to Conversational Agents

The company’s next goal is to move beyond a system that simply searches documents and provides answers, evolving into an “agent” that integrates with APIs and inventory data to generate dynamic responses. Integration with core business systems is expected to further improve customer convenience by enabling the system to provide information such as vehicle availability by area or dealership.

To help make this vision of the future more tangible, wevnal proposed a sales inventory search mockup that allows users to narrow down options by criteria such as manufacturer, budget, engine displacement, body type, model year, mileage, and region, as well as check whether a vehicle with a specific inventory number is still available for sale.

(Concept mockup of the future vision proposed by wevnal)

Mr. Oishi particularly values the collaborative approach, which allows them to move forward through close consultation rather than being presented with a predetermined solution.

Mr. Oishi:
"It is rare to receive proposals based on a genuine understanding of our complex business model. Many providers claim they can do anything, only for us to discover that their actual capabilities are limited. We trust them because they have developed a deep understanding of our business model."

A Message to Companies Facing Similar Challenges

Mr. Oishi:
"The usage-based pricing model allows companies to adopt the solution while minimizing the risk of a substantial investment with uncertain returns. This should provide significant encouragement to companies that have been hesitant to move forward."

Mr. Yoshida:
"I believe that the more challenges a company faces, the harder it can be to seek advice due to limited human resources. Through this project, we were able to objectively identify previously unseen issues and reassess areas where long-held assumptions had led us to conclude that things simply had to be a certain way. If you feel that in-house development or resource shortages are limiting your progress, I strongly recommend reaching out for an initial, no-obligation consultation."

Mr. Sato:
"If you ever find yourself wondering, 'Could something like this be done?' I strongly recommend consulting wevnal first. In our case, discussing what AI could do not only helped us identify a path toward resolving our challenges, but the implementation preparation process also gave us an opportunity to objectively review our internal workflows, leading to further operational improvements and team development."

BOTCHAN AI aims to be a partner that continuously evolves to address each company's unique challenges while navigating complex business structures and understanding customer needs.

Please feel free to contact us to discuss any customer service challenges your company may be facing.