Redesign contact center in line with company's business strategy.
Attract customers through communication
Realize customer-oriented outbound services at contact centers
Redesign communication strategy in line with updated management policies
Build longer-term relationships by listening closer to customers' concerns
Provide stress-free service by improving counseling skills
Contact center
Developed and introduced the Companion Model in addition to outbound product introduction
Improve the quality of the support flow and train agents to provide customer-oriented service
Built the Companion Model to solve customer concerns and questions
Increased response from customers : "Feeling brightened up"
Achieved customer satisfaction 12 to 20 points higher than other companies
Mr. Shinjiro Chotoku, Senior General Manager of Contact Center Department
Mr. Kenichi Kikuchi, General Manager of Contact Center Department
Ms. Midori Yanagihara, Contact Center Department
Suntory Wellness Limited, a group company of Suntory Holdings, has been involved in sales of health foods, supplements, and since 2010, sales of beauty-related products, including skin care cosmetics, as a beauty business. In health food sales, the company’s product line-up includes a variety of supplements with “Sesamin,” a collection of rare health ingredients extracted from sesame seeds, as the main product.
In this context, BELLSYSTEM24 has been contracted to provide the contact center for the beauty business. In 2010, along with the launch of the skin care product F.A.G.E., we opened the Beauty Center, a contact center for beauty products, and have been promoting product proposals through customer services in sales promotion campaigns and through outbound sales to cultivate new customers.
In order to smoothly inform customers of accurate proposals, it is essential to improve the counseling skills of the communicators in charge of the Beauty Center. In the Beauty Center, BELLSYSTEM24 fully utilized the management skills it had developed and hired personnel with experience as beauty staff in cosmetics sales to transfer their beauty skills to its communicators, thus raising the level of beauty knowledge throughout the center. As a result, we not only achieved excellent results, but we also identified new issues and had highly engaged members. Communicators who have become “a group of beauty professionals” have become longtime employees, and the retirement rate has dropped to 1.7%.
In 2021, Suntory Wellness chose BELLSYSTEM24 as its partner to realize a “companion model” contact center that focuses on after-sales care for existing customers in the beauty business. What kind of companion model is required to please existing customers? With no clear “answer” in sight, Suntory Wellness and BELLSYSTEM24 engaged in repeated discussions to develop a new communication model.
What kind of customer service is required to build a relationship of trust? In response to Suntory Wellness’s challenge, BELLSYSTEM24 worked together with them to find the “ideal customer service” for the contact center.
“Our goal is for our customers and contact center communicators to talk to each other in such a way that customer needs and questions are solved and the courteous and kind response he/she receives creates a bright feeling and the desire to talk to the communicator again. If we can respond to our customers in this way, they will be happier,” said Mr. Kikuchi, explaining the background behind the use of “bright” as a keyword.
"He also explained the importance of “consideration” which makes customers in the beauty business empathize and communicate comfortably and ""resolution"" which provides knowledge and skills to solve questions and concerns, as elements of ""companionship"", which strengthens the relationship of trust by staying close to the customer. Both companies worked together to consider what was necessary for “bright” customer service.
Regarding specific approaches to customers, Ms. Yanagihara explained that “BELLSYSTEM24 consulted with us one step at a time about when to contact customers who had made their first regular purchase of our products for after-sales care, and what kind of talk to start with to get them interested.”
When thanking customers for their purchases, they asked for feedback and courteously asked if they had any concerns or questions. Through this process, she said, they refined their customer service so that senior women, the main customers of their skin care products, would feel “at ease,” and would feel that the communicator "understood even things that were hard to discuss" and "put them first".
Ms. Yanagihara gave one memorable example: “A customer in her 70s who had never been enthusiastic about skin care expressed interest in how to care for her skin on the second call. When she actually tried it, her skin condition improved, and on the third call, she was extremely grateful, saying, 'The method you taught me worked, thank you.'” She also gave her impressions about BELLSYSTEM24: “We received unexpected ideas, lessons from the past, case studies from other companies, and more about when to deliver warm, customer-focused comments to customers without using negative language. I was impressed by the depth of their accumulated know-how. It gives me a sense of security that they have a lot of new proposals to upgrade the contact center.”
We are still searching for the ideal form of a “companion model” that focuses on after-sales care for customers. To help communicators learn more about Suntory Wellness’s beauty products, both companies hold “Manabi no Kai (learning sessions)” every year. At “Manabi no Kai,” researchers from Suntory Wellness in charge of product development were invited to share the development story and behind-the-scenes stories, as well as take tours of the laboratory and other facilities. “I was surprised at how many questions came from the communicators, especially during the Q&A sessions with the researchers. The communicators’ willingness to learn and eagerness to answer customers’ questions is amazing. It has become an event where researchers also look forward to talking with communicators, who often talk directly with customers,” said Mr. Kikuchi.
According to a customer satisfaction survey (conducted in July 2021), the Beauty Center that has adopted the companion model showed a 12- to 20-point higher satisfaction rate than before. Mr. Chotoku, who leads the contact center, said, “I feel that BELLSYSTEM24’s strength lies in its ability to properly execute what it has decided to do and produce results. We have a lot to learn from their high on-the-ground management skills, and we look forward to continuing to work with them as a partner.”
Suntory Wellness Limited
Corporate website：https://www.suntory-kenko.com/
A wholly-owned subsidiary of Suntory Holdings, Suntory Wellness handles wellness-related businesses such as health foods and beauty products for the Suntory Group. Major products include Sesamin EX, Omega Aid, F.A.G.E., and Liftage.
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