“With a rapidly growing number of users and a rapidly increasing number of requests, the challenge was how to provide quality service. We are professionals in the travel industry, but we had little knowledge of how to deal with the problems and requests of foreigners.”

That’s the explanation from Mr. Narikawa of JTB. Until then, JTB had outsourced the handling of inquiries to another company that mainly dealt with foreign tourists’ credit cards and insurance. However, JAPANiCAN.com’s contact center operations are currently more complex than those of other typical contact centers, as it is required not only to handle requests and questions from foreign tourists making reservations on the website, but also to communicate appropriately with hotels and inns throughout Japan that are affiliated with JTB, and to act as a link between the two. In addition to informing hotels and inns of the foreign tourists’ requests, they may be asked for more detailed information by luxury inns, such as the family composition, the number of males and females, food likes/dislikes, allergies, and yukata (Japanese bathrobe) sizes of the guests making reservations.

“Some foreign customers get angry, saying, ‘Why are you asking me so many questions that invade my privacy?.’ Some may feel that Japan is a country with little sensitivity in regards to gender when we ask about the number of males and females. If it becomes a problem, it not only lowers customer satisfaction, but also interferes with other business operations,” Ms. Kodama of JTB explained. “This is precisely a problem of differences in culture and customs, but it requires extremely high customer service skills to explain in the customer’s language why the information is needed and to make them understand,” said Ms. Kodama.

Until then, they had relied on the experience and wisdom of communicators who had actually interacted with foreigners and business partners for the know-how on how to deal with customers, but they began to accumulate know-how as an organization and created an environment where they could teach even beginners how to deal with customers.

We also heard that the quality of communication with JTB’s business partners, such as hotels affiliated with JTB, has greatly improved. Ms. Mori of the Customer Support Section, who manages the front-line operations of the contact center, praises BELLSYSTEM24 highly, saying, “Before, some of our foreign communicators could translate but were not good at writing business documents, or did not understand how to respond from the perspective of the Travel Agency Law. However, after outsourcing to BELLSYSTEM24, everyone’s skills have stabilized at a high level and they are now able to create business documents.” Moreover, Ms. Mori said, “If there is a problem between a customer and a hotel, they handle it smoothly. Now they contact us after compiling a report on how the problem occurred, which greatly reduces the time we need to troubleshoot.”