"I was honestly worried about what exactly would change, and how, compared with our current inquiry form for materials."
Sharing these concerns about implementing a chatbot was Mr. Taiki Masuda, who is in charge of marketing for the cloud reception system “RECEPTIONIST.”
(Ms. Masuda, Marketing Representative at RECEPTIONIST Inc.)
While analyzing our website to improve its conversion rate, we identified an issue: a high number of users were dropping off at the brochure request form.
As a new marketing initiative to resolve this issue, we chose to implement a chatbot.
As a result, the number of information requests after implementation increased by 162%.
Record the highest number of leads ever achieved in a single month.
In this article, we interviewed Mr. Masuda about the background to the implementation and the results achieved after installing the chatbot.
I am Kaito Takayanagi, Customer Success (CS) Leader at wevnal Inc., which develops and provides the chatbot service “BOTCHAN.”
Feeling the limitations of existing measures and considering the introduction of a chatbot
(Takayanagi, CS Leader at wevnal Inc.)
Takayanagi (hereafter, ━━): Before you implemented BOTCHAN, were you carrying out any other LPO (landing page optimization) initiatives?
Masuda (hereafter, “Masuda”): We had implemented a heatmap tool on the site to visualize user behavior and used that data to revise the site structure and wording. Among those findings, I was concerned about the high drop-off rate on the request-for-materials form.
━━ It would be a real waste if, after going to the trouble of reaching the form input stage, users dropped off at that point.
Masuda: That’s right. But at the time, I felt there was a limit to what we could achieve just by improving what we already had. While I was thinking about whether there might be a new initiative that could lower the psychological hurdle for users, I became interested in BOTCHAN.
I had known for some time that BOTCHAN was installed on websites in business areas similar to ours. The fact that it continued to be used made me think it must be delivering results.
━━ Thank you very much. As you began to seriously consider implementing it, were there any concerns?
Masuda: I did have some concerns about how things would change compared to the inquiry form we currently use on our own website. To be honest, I wondered whether simply installing a chatbot would really make that much of a difference.
(The conventional document request form used on the RECEPTIONIST service page)
━━ In your company’s case, you didn’t have that many form input fields to begin with, correct? It’s true that, with respect to one of the key advantages of chatbots—namely, a one-question-one-answer conversational format that lets users respond quickly even to long questions—the impact may not be all that significant for you.
Masuda: That said, our company had the attitude of ‘if a measure looks promising, let’s at least give it a try,’ and considering that it would improve the CVR by at least 0.3%, we could recoup the implementation costs. So we decided to start by installing it.
Improving creatives increased document requests by 162%
━━ So you implemented it while still feeling a bit skeptical. How has it actually performed since you installed it on your site?
Masuda: We are still using the existing inquiry form in parallel, so this is ultimately a combined figure, but the number of document requests has increased by 162% compared to before we introduced BOTCHAN. Of course, I believe external factors and other initiatives have also had an impact, but as a result, we were able to achieve the highest monthly number of document requests in our history.
━━ When we first implemented it, we weren’t seeing the results we had hoped for, so I’m actually a bit relieved now.
Masuda: From the perspective of increasing options for users, I think it was a good decision to let them choose between the existing information request form and BOTCHAN, so they can enter their details using the form that best suits them.
━━ Right. And as an improvement measure after implementing BOTCHAN, we first made the BOTCHAN banner image larger so it would stand out more, which increased the activation rate.
BOTCHAN installed at the bottom right of the site (PC view)
━━ In addition, within the scenario we implemented improvements such as showing images from the materials so that users can more easily form a concrete idea. Being able to appeal using creative assets is one of BOTCHAN’s key features that clearly differentiates it from conventional document request forms.
(BOTCHAN after launch (smartphone view). We highlighted it in a way that makes the nature of the materials easy to understand through the image.)
Masuda: When we analyzed the conversion rate from document requests to business negotiations for both the “existing form” and “BOTCHAN,” we found that the rate via BOTCHAN was 8% higher. We are still at the hypothesis-building stage, but we suspect there may be some kind of attribute difference between users who use the “existing form” and those who use “BOTCHAN.”
━━ Oh, I see—that’s how it was! I’m very pleased that we were able to support you not only up to the point of requesting materials, but all the way through to actually leading to business negotiations.
As our services expand, the ways to leverage BOTCHAN are also becoming more diverse.
━━ Finally, I would like to ask about RECEPTIONIST’s future developments and how our company can contribute to them through BOTCHAN.
Masuda: To say one thing about future developments, in fact, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of client companies implementing our solution has increased by more than 1,000 in a single year. I feel this is because a new kind of demand has emerged that we had never seen before.
━━ Given the nature of your service, a “cloud reception system,” I had assumed that the fact people no longer need to go to a physical office might actually be a negative factor in terms of market conditions.
Masuda: That’s what I thought at first. However, because our goal was not only to cut costs but also to protect the safety of employees and customers while improving productivity, we ultimately saw an increase in inquiries from companies. Given the current circumstances, I feel that “the rarity of people meeting face-to-face is increasing.”
To make the most of those opportunities, we aim to create an environment with as little noise as possible, where people can focus on what only humans can do, and we hope that technologies such as RECEPTIONIST will increasingly take on the role of enabling that.
━━ Indeed, our company has also implemented RECEPTIONIST, and now that notifications go directly to the person in charge, it has become easier for other team members to stay focused on their work.
Masuda: Thank you. I’m glad I could be of help.
One more point regarding our future plans: from here on, RECEPTIONIST will evolve not only as a reception system, but increasingly as a product that streamlines external communication. Our existing “Scheduling Tool: Chousei Apo” will be significantly enhanced next fiscal year, and our meeting room management system “RECEPTIONIST For Space” will also be further strengthened.
Both in terms of our service name and how the market perceives us, I still feel the image of us being just a “reception system” is very strong. However, going forward, RECEPTIONIST will evolve into a product that streamlines all external communication in a one-stop manner and makes the working environment more comfortable, so please look forward to it.
━━That is very exciting. On that point, for example, I believe we can support you by doing things like “showing different images for each function within BOTCHAN’s scenarios to clearly highlight what each function does.” We would be delighted to continue supporting your business from various angles going forward.
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If you are considering implementing BOTCHAN and would like concrete advice tailored to your company’s situation and potential use cases, please feel free to contact us.
Our consultants will be pleased to assist you.
