In this article, we spoke with TeN Inc. about the challenges they were able to solve and the background behind their decision to implement multiple products, including the payment chatbot “BOTCHAN Payment” as well as “BOTCHAN Relation,” “BOTCHAN Keeper,” and “BOTCHAN AI.”
We will take a closer look at the successful process TeN has gone through together with BOTCHAN, including maximizing new customer acquisition, reducing costs, and automating customer service.

wevnal Inc. Sales Department, Dan Baba (hereinafter, “ー”)
To begin, could you please tell us about your company’s business?

Mr. Hideki Ikeda, EC Section Manager, TeN Inc. (hereafter, Mr. Ikeda)
Yes. Our company is called TeN Inc. We were founded in 2020, but including our predecessor company, we have a history of roughly 10 years.
From the early days, we have focused mainly on advertising agency services, and we are strongly committed not only to maximizing the number of acquisitions, but also to the “quality” of those acquisitions.
In addition, so that we can make proposals that are more closely aligned with our clients’ needs, we now handle a wide range of in-house businesses, including e-commerce operations, media management, and SaaS services.

TeN Inc. Service Site:https://ten.andco.group/service/

— Thank you very much. Mr. Ikeda, what kind of work are you mainly involved in?

Mr. Ikeda
I am primarily responsible for overseeing the e-commerce division.
The e-commerce division is broadly divided into four businesses: three in-house e-commerce businesses and one mall support business. Our in-house e-commerce businesses operate three brands: “Imikoto Marche” (a food e-commerce site), “iFur” (hair protein), and “weroast” (home coffee roasters).

From the left: iFur, Imikoto Marche, weroast

— You really do oversee a wide range of areas, don’t you.
Could you tell us about the challenges you were facing before implementing “BOTCHAN”?

Mr. Ikeda
Yes. At the time, the biggest challenge we felt we faced was maximizing new customer acquisition.
I believe this is an issue shared by all companies engaged in e-commerce.
Because we saw issues in the purchase flow as a factor behind our low CVR, we recognized the need for “BOTCHAN Payment” at a very early stage and decided to implement it. Today, we have introduced it across all of the products we offer.

Among these, we launched “Imikoto Marche” ahead of the others because its business stage was more advanced than our other brands. In addition, since the products handled are food items, we implemented multiple products such as “BOTCHAN Relation” to increase cross-selling opportunities and touchpoints with customers, and “BOTCHAN Keeper” in anticipation of future growth in the number of customers.

— Thank you. What criteria do you use at your company to decide which areas to handle in-house and which to entrust to partners?

Mr. Ikeda
Let me see. I think there are two main axes when it comes to criteria for selecting a partner.

The first is, so to speak, the connection or the “people” aspect. We place great importance on how the representative who communicates with us on the front line responds, and on whether we can genuinely feel, “I can entrust this to this person.”

The second is whether they have skills and know-how that exceed our own. We believe it is more effective to entrust the work to people who have deeper expertise than we do. That said, when it comes to product knowledge and communicating product information, that is the area in which we ourselves are strongest, so we believe that should be handled in-house.

Mr. Hideki Ikeda, EC Section Manager, TeN Co., Ltd.

— I see.
In that context, what was your honest impression when you received the proposal from “BOTCHAN”?

Mr. Ikeda
I had already heard from many people that “chatbots are great,” so I felt that at some point we would have to implement one.
This time, through a connection, your company was introduced to us, but I did not assume that just because other companies were successful, we would achieve the same results.
More than that, as we worked to improve our pre-implementation communications and scenarios, I focused on how far you would be willing to stay engaged with us.
From before implementation, I strongly felt your stance of “running alongside us and seeing it through together,” which is why we decided to move forward with your solution.

— Thank you very much.
Your company is currently using many of our products; may I also ask about the performance of each individual product?

Mr. Ikeda
Yes, the most effective initiative was definitely “BOTCHAN Payment.”
There are some differences depending on the product, but the CVR improved significantly. On average,by about 130–140%—when we saw that level of improvement, we were genuinely surprised. In addition, we were able to reduce CPA by around 20%. Since the results were strong, we increased the budget and operated at up to double the original amount.

The next solution we implemented was “BOTCHAN Keeper.”
We knew it was a tool for preventing cancellations, but the main issue we were facing at the time was customer support. Rather than using it as an offensive tool, we decided to introduce it from the perspective of optimizing costs.
As a result, we were able to reduce our customer support expenses (mainly call center costs) byseveral million yen in a single month,without compromising the quality of our customer service. I believe it has been extremely beneficial in enabling cost reductions while maintaining service quality.

We initially introduced “BOTCHAN Relation” as a PoC.
We were facing issues such as a lack of internal resources and challenges with the retention rate of our subscription products, but your company proactively proposed solutions from design through to operations, which helped us significantly by covering the gaps on our side.
The CRM domain requires repeated PDCA cycles and a great deal of persistence. As a result, we were able to improve the six‑month retention rate by an average of 106%, so we ultimately decided to implement it in full.

— Thank you very much.
Most recently, you also implemented “BOTCHAN AI,” which uses AI to automate customer service. I’d like to ask you about that as well.

Mr. Ikeda
We implemented “BOTCHAN AI” on “weroast”.
I believe this is not unique to this product, but we received a wide variety of concerns and questions from customers regarding their purchase decisions.
At an in-person event, we can speak directly with customers and hear about their concerns, decision-making points, and reasons for not purchasing. However, on a static web page, it is difficult to address and resolve such a wide range of questions.
In addition, because “weroast” is a high-priced product, we felt it was necessary to have a mechanism that could dynamically dispel customers’ concerns and anxieties, which is why we decided to introduce it.

— Thank you very much.
Which aspects do you think contributed the most to achieving this level of performance?

Mr. Ikeda
That’s right. Fundamentally, I think the key is whether we and our partners have truly reached a shared agreement. It is important that we have a common, aligned understanding of “what we are aiming for and what the issues are,” without any divergence. On that basis, as a company, we make sure not to simply hand everything over to our partners. We believe we must also make our own commitments.

If I had to sum it up in a word, I would say what we look for in a partner is the ability to run alongside us.
What matters to us is how much they can think from the business operator’s perspective and how flexibly they can respond to customer needs. As mentioned earlier, “BOTCHAN Keeper” is a good example. As a service, its purpose is to prevent cancellations, but they took the time to understand our needs and responded flexibly so that it matched what we were looking for. That is why we believe it is delivering solid results.

—Thank you very much!
What does “BOTCHAN” represent for your company?

Mr. Ikeda
In a word, a “soulmate”-type presence for us!
You are technically an external partner, but you really feel like someone inside the company. (laughs)
You understand our business and think things through together with us. I believe we have been able to build a very strong partnership.
Internally, we often say, “wevnal is great, aren’t they?” But I don’t think that kind of sentiment is very common, and I believe the reason is that your company has a consistent strength, no matter when or with whom we speak. I hope we can continue to support each other and move our business forward together.

— Thank you very much for your kind words. We would be delighted to continue working with you as well.
Please let us know if there are any points you would like to see from BOTCHAN or our customer support going forward.

Mr. Ikeda
What we expect most from your company is an end-to-end solution from entry to exit, including data. We hope you will further demonstrate the areas that only wevnal can provide.
By doing so, we believe the overall business will become more efficient and lead to even greater results.

— Yes, we will continue to do our utmost to operate “BOTCHAN” even better going forward!
Lastly, could you share a message for companies facing similar challenges or dealing with issues at each phase?

Mr. Ikeda
If your company does not yet have substantial expertise or technology in the chatbot domain, my number one recommendation is Wevnal.
What matters most is not implementing something at low cost, but achieving real results.
To do that, the most important thing is to keep running the PDCA cycle.
Wevnal will work alongside you in that process, so I recommend reaching out to them for a consultation.

— Thank you very much for your kind words.
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today.

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.