Santenina Inc. reveals the challenges it resolved and the behind-the-scenes story of its success through the implementation of “BOTCHAN Keeper.” By partnering with “BOTCHAN,” Santenina, which had been struggling with the difficulty of preventing cancellations on the web and with scenario design, was able to solve these issues through a chatbot initiative.
We will delve into how they collaborated with Customer Support and the specific measures that led to success.

“BOTCHAN Keeper” CS Kurumi Furutake (hereafter, —)
To begin, could you please introduce your company’s business and then each of yourselves?

Mr. Sasaki of Santemina Co., Ltd. (hereafter, “Mr. Sasaki”)
Yes. Our company is called Santemina Co., Ltd., and we are a mail-order business that mainly handles health foods and supplements.
Within marketing, I am primarily responsible for the CRM area and new customer acquisition.

Mr. Sakaguchi, Sante Mina Co., Ltd. (hereafter, “Mr. Sakaguchi”)
My name is Sakaguchi. I am primarily responsible for CRM.

— Thank you. What challenges were you facing before implementing “BOTCHAN Keeper”?

Mr. Sasaki
Yes, that’s right. In terms of the issues we faced before implementation, the first was the cost of handling customer support.
Basically, we accepted all inquiries via a form, and many of them were sent as free-text entries, so we were responding to all of them manually.
I felt that if we had at least some predefined scenarios in place, the number of inquiries themselves could be reduced.
In addition, for other matters such as suspending or cancelling deliveries, we were already in a situation where customers could complete their requests automatically just by selecting the relevant items. However, measures to prevent cancellations were only being carried out through the call center, so I felt we needed to prepare a certain level of scenarios to improve the prevention rate.

— Since the product is sold on the web, it’s only natural that more and more cancellation requests are submitted online rather than by phone.

Mr. Sasaki
Exactly.
At the time, we were actually using our official LINE account with a step-based messaging sequence, but in the end we were only able to prevent cancellations among people who had registered with LINE.
Since we wanted to promote continued use across the board, we decided to implement it.

—Thank you very much. So that was the aspect of “BOTCHAN Keeper” you were counting on.
How did the process go from the time you decided to implement it through to full production operation?

Mr. Sasaki
For the very initial implementation scenarios, we first structured and prepared them on our side.

— Right, that’s correct. We were also making use of the expertise your company had originally accumulated.

Mr. Sasaki
Yes. I had prior experience managing an official LINE account, so I leveraged that while creating it. On top of that, I considered the different inquiry situations and the points where we would want to prompt additional actions, and set up things like an FAQ section. Because of this, it took a bit of time to complete the final build.

— In “BOTCHAN,” we built in elements that were not included in the official LINE version, such as adding new parts and modifying the content to reflect specification differences.
What were your impressions after actually putting it into production?

Mr. Sasaki
Yes. Even before we implemented “BOTCHAN Keeper,” we already had target figures for the retention improvement rate, but we had not been able to take any concrete action.
After that, together with the CS team, including Mr. Furutōge, we started working toward those targets, initially meeting for consultations at a pace of almost once a week.
In our regular meetings, they continuously proposed specific improvement measures, and I feel we were greatly helped by the CS team’s quick response and the way they stayed close and worked alongside us.

— I’m honored to hear you say that.

Mr. Sasaki
When we work out scenarios only within our own company, our subjective views inevitably creep in. At those times, the feedback we receive from the CS team at “BOCTHAN” is extremely helpful, as it is much closer to the consumer’s perspective.
Comments such as “If you present this part in this way, it will be easier for users to understand,” and concrete proposals for new content based on actually reviewing the content on our pages are truly invaluable to us.

— Thank you very much. I’m glad that we’ve been able to move initiatives forward smoothly, as we are proposing improvements based on a thorough understanding of SANTEMINA’s landing pages, creatives, and content.

Mr. Sasaki
Yes. In our regular meetings, we identify potentially problematic parts of the scenarios, quantify them, and then align on concrete improvement measures. Most recently, we have been proceeding in a way where your company first presents a proposal, our company then implements the revisions, and finally we ask your company to handle the last configuration steps.

— Yes, that’s right!
As expected, we are mainly implementing initiatives around the areas with the highest inflow and the lowest churn-prevention rate.

Mr. Sakaguchi
In the meantime, our most recent meetings have settled into about once a month.
You usually present around two or three proposals.
In terms of scenarios, we are trying out roughly two to three new routes every month.

— And then we started sharing those figures, making changes whenever issues came up… it’s become a kind of pattern, hasn’t it?
Compared with when we first introduced it, have there been any changes in the continuation promotion rate?

Mr. Sasaki
Looking at traffic coming specifically through “BOTCHAN Keeper,” the proportion of customers who choose to “continue their subscription” is steadily increasing.
It is very rewarding when we make continuous improvements and those initiatives prove successful.

— I’m truly pleased to see that the initiative is delivering results. Earlier, we also received some very kind words about our customer support, but from your perspective, how do you find the quality and accuracy of our scenarios and creative proposals?

Mr. Sasaki
My impression is that the overall flow of the scenario you proposed is very good.
I also feel that you have been mindful from the perspective of protecting our brand image.
We may make minor adjustments to specific wording in line with company rules or consistency with other communications, but the changes really are only at that level, and we are basically able to implement your proposal as is.

— Thank you very much!!
At present, what kind of role do “BOTCHAN Keeper” and our company’s customer success team play for your organization?

Mr. Sasaki
You are an excellent advisor who can offer opinions from a different perspective.
As I mentioned earlier, you provide advice from angles we do not have in our company, and we are able to actually reflect it in our initiatives, which makes you truly one of a kind for us.

— I’m delighted. Thank you very much.
If there are any aspects you expect from BOTCHAN in terms of functionality or customer support, or any challenges you would like to take on in the future, we would be glad to hear them.

Mr. Sakaguchi
Yes. I’d be even happier if the management dashboard were easier to read.
That said, since you regularly share the figures with us during our periodic meetings and via chat, we’re not actually having any issues on that front. It’s more of a wish to make things even better! (laughs)

Mr. Sasaki
Going forward, I believe that if we can standardize everything on “BOTCHAN” from the application stage onward, the UI will also be unified and become even better.

— That’s very true. I’d really like us to move forward so we can actually put this into practice.
Lastly, if you have a message for companies that are considering implementing BOTCHAN, we would appreciate hearing it.

Mr. Sasaki
I believe this is an excellent product for companies like ours before implementation, who were not able to prevent cancellations on the web in the first place, or who feel there are high hurdles to building scenarios from scratch.
It makes it easy to create cancellation flows on the web, and I see a major benefit in the fact that it improves the customer UI, so I believe that once it is implemented, results will naturally follow.
In addition, when building scenarios, you provide proposals based on objective opinions and other companies’ success stories that would not emerge internally, so I believe it enables more accurate cancellation prevention measures than if we were to work only within our own organization.

— Thank you very much for your kind words.
I look forward to your continued support.

If you would like to confirm whether you can implement BOTCHAN in your own company, or if you would like advice tailored to your situation, please feel free to contact us with your questions or inquiries.

A specialist consultant will respond.