The key to marketing lies in designing the right “scenario”: Why a rapidly growing D2C company decided to implement a chat form

Sparty Inc. operates its business based on a “personalization × D2C” model under the mission of “Creating an Era of Allure.”

We are experiencing rapid growth by developing D2C brands specialized in personalization, such as the personalized hair care brand “MEDULLA” and the personalized skin care brand “HOTARU PERSONALIZED.”

The company, which develops its marketing strategy around such “personalization,” has introduced BOTCHAN to address its marketing challenges. How does the BX platform “BOTCHAN” transform corporate marketing through its chat-form service?

We spoke with Mr. Masayuki Nishida, Section Chief of the Tech Group Data QA at the company, about the marketing challenges they faced before introducing BOTCHAN and the changes they have seen since its implementation.

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Improving the entry form determines purchasing behavior

━━What marketing challenges or concerns led you to implement BOTCHAN?

We offer personalized hair care, such as “MEDULLA,” and personalized skin care, such as “HOTARU PERSONALIZED,” on a subscription basis. Although our business performance has been growing relatively steadily, there were still many areas in our marketing where there was room for improvement.

The area where I was particularly conscious of major challenges was the entry form.

Around 90% of our new customer acquisition comes through advertising, but compared with customers who find us via search or word of mouth, encounters with customers who come through ads tend to be very “momentary.”

In other words, in that brief encounter, how effectively you capture the customer’s interest and how seamlessly the design allows them to make a purchase the moment they feel they want the product will significantly influence their subsequent buying behavior and overall customer experience.

The entry point for these once-in-a-lifetime encounters is the entry form, and improving it was essential to increasing the CVR.

With these issues in mind, we decided to implement BOTCHAN.

Chatbots Are Not Just an “Input Aid”

Specifically, what numerical changes have occurred as a result of implementing BOTCHAN?

Although there are fluctuations depending on the period, the CVR has improved by approximately 1.2 times.In addition to the obvious benefit of these figures improving, introducing BOTCHAN has also helped streamline operations by reducing the cost of handling inquiries.

━━ To begin with, why was a chatbot service considered as an option for improving the entry form?

We place great importance on designing “scenarios” in marketing. This is because we believe that crafting a story is essential for nurturing customers’ willingness to buy.

Amid these circumstances, we concluded that chatbot functionality was necessary in order to create stories that lead to a better customer experience.

Entry forms are a simple data entry task, but when this becomes a chatbot, it turns into communication. A chatbot is not just an input aid. If all you need to do is enter basic information such as name, address, and phone number, then an entry form is perfectly adequate.

However, with a chatbot, you can more fully design the entire story leading up to the purchasing experience, including the very first greeting message and the chat’s background design. In addition, in the case of BOTCHAN, the fewer constraints there are, the more room there is for creative hacks.

We believe the appeal of chatbots lies in their ability to tailor communication to each individual and take actions that give customers a helpful push forward.

The deciding factor for implementation was the customer support.

━━Among the many chatbot services available, what was the decisive factor in choosing to implement BOTCHAN?

There were various factors, but the courtesy of their customer support was a major deciding factor.

To be honest, we had been evaluating several other chatbot services in parallel, but at first none of them were able to deliver the performance improvements we were aiming for.

However, I did not feel any particular anxiety about the fact that we would not see results immediately after implementation. This is because we placed greater importance on how quickly we could move forward with verification and improvement after the introduction.

Meanwhile, with some other companies, there were cases where text updates were slow to be reflected, and various aspects lacked flexibility. The more constraints there are, the slower the pace of testing and verification becomes.

However, in the case of BOTCHAN, in addition to having fewer such constraints, above all the customer success team responded very quickly. Whenever something came up, they addressed it right away, which in turn allowed us to move forward with testing, and as a result, we created a virtuous cycle in which the metrics improved.

As mentioned earlier, we place great importance on designing “scenarios” in marketing, and we were also given the opportunity to learn about the finer points, such as how to construct the chat storyline and how to phrase the questions.

While some companies provide only limited support after implementation, I believe the reason we chose to introduce and continue using BOTCHAN is precisely because the support after implementation has been so thorough.

━━ Thank you very much. To share an example from another company, Sparty has a culture of moving quickly to test new ideas, so it was very rewarding for us to propose initiatives without holding back.

Exactly. Since we place great importance on trial and error, we make a conscious effort to move quickly through the hypothesis and verification cycle. That is why we were extremely grateful that you were able to keep pace with this speed.

The key to mastering tools lies in hypothesis testing.

━━Could you also tell us what you would like to see improved going forward?

Right. This would be an additional request, but I feel that verification would progress more smoothly if we could handle simple text changes on our side to some extent.

I feel bad having to ask you every time even for the smallest wording changes, so I would really appreciate it if you could consider this.

━━Thank you very much. We will share this internally at our company right away. Lastly, could you share any advice for readers who are considering implementing BOTCHAN?

I assume that all of you are facing some kind of marketing challenge, but I think it is important to state upfront that this is by no means a “magic tool.”

This is true whenever you introduce any kind of technology, but it is quite common that the numbers do not improve immediately after implementation.

What matters at that point, I believe, is not to focus on chasing problems through the technology itself, but to look closely at our own hypothesis-testing process. In a sense, it is only natural that you will not see results immediately after implementation; what is crucial is whether you can then move quickly through cycles of validation and improvement.

To make this possible, it is essential to have a partner who can accompany us when we introduce new technology, and I believe your Customer Success team is fully fulfilling that role. By carefully valuing the hypothesis-and-verification steps as we proceed with the implementation of BOTCHAN, I am confident we can expect to see some kind of positive change in our marketing as well.

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If you would like to confirm whether BOTCHAN can be implemented in your 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.