Sun Chlorella Japan Co.

- First of all, please tell us about your company's business.

Mr. Okumura: We are committed to providing high-quality health foods that utilize ingredients found in nature, such as chlorella, ezo-ukogi, and agaricus, and deliver our products from 18 locations nationwide, centered on our Kyoto head office. We have been in business for 53 years, and since our founding, we have placed great importance on communication with our customers, and each of our sales representatives is responsible for a customer in his or her district to support them in their efforts to improve their health.

- Please tell us about your sales process.

Okumura: My main sales activities are field sales to existing customers. I visit customers' homes to deliver products to them before they run out, and if they ask for health advice, I listen to them as an advisor. Many of our customers are relatively elderly, and I often visit them to watch over them and talk with them. I often receive many referrals from my customers, and I try to expand our relationships by telling them about the wonderful nature-derived foods such as chlorella.

Challenges were faced with the task of setting up visiting routes and the cost of operating the system.

- What were some of the challenges you faced while communicating with customers to build deep relationships with them?

Mr. Okumura: We had been operating CRM with our own core system, but unfortunately it was not a system that reflected the external environment and consumer needs with sensitivity. In addition, we were looking for a system to operate CRM and SFA separately in order to further develop the core system, as we were facing the problem of spending time and money every time we had to revise the core system. We then decided on a method using UPWARD's map function, which fit well with the sales style of our company, which develops community-based activities nationwide. The proposal to use UPWARD as a tool not only to develop existing route sales, but also to improve the efficiency of new development sales resonated with our management, and we decided to introduce it.

Suhara: I think one of the challenges at the sales frontline was that time was taken up by the advance preparation for visiting activities and the reporting work after the visit. I had to plan my visits by the day before, make a schedule in Excel, and submit it to my supervisor. After the visit, I would enter the activity notes after returning to the office, summarize the results and report against the schedule, and submit it to my supervisor again, so I think I was losing time during my in-house work.

Mr. Horiguchi: At our branch, we basically travel by car, so there were times when reporting could be done in a timely manner, and other times when it had to be done later. In the past, we had to stop the car and search for customers on a laptop computer while typing in our reports, but this process tended to take up a lot of time. This process tended to take up a lot of time, and it was not very efficient, as the time for appointments was approaching during the process, making it difficult to manage the schedule. In addition, the areas to be visited sometimes changed suddenly when unexpected appointments were made, which often resulted in significant loss of time, such as having to rearrange the visiting route from scratch.

Mr. Murazu: We believed that the biggest part of the challenge lay in the reporting work. In fact, as we visited 10 to 20 individual families per day, we were left with a large amount of reporting activities after all activities were completed.

- Please tell us about the operations and roles of each branch.

Suhara: I believe that we develop a flow that is based on visits, combined with phone calls and letters to each customer, and that because we are community-based, our customers can consult with us with peace of mind. We offer suggestions and support for health care tailored to the customer's living environment and family structure. We believe that our strength lies in our ability to support our customers with a sense of closeness and a more familiar presence.

Mr. Horiguchi: Each branch acts as a bridge between our customers and our company and products. In addition to general sales, they play a wide variety of roles and support our customers and their families in creating a healthier lifestyle. It is up to the customer, and we may visit you and talk with you on your knees in your home if you prefer to have us deal with you in a more face-to-face manner. For those who do not prefer a visit, we may prefer a phone call.

Mr. Muratsu: We provide support for questions and concerns by calling our customers and visiting them in person. We receive many comments from customers that they feel safer by being able to see our faces, as they are no longer involved with other people.

Changes in documentation and sharing speed as a result of the introduction of UPWARD in branches across the country.

- How do you use UPWARD?

Mr. Horiguchi: When visiting areas change, if it's just a neighboring town, we can respond immediately. However, for distant locations where we can't visit right away, we need to build the route from scratch. Until now, we had to rely on memory and customer searches to piece together the route. Now, by setting conditions on UPWARD's map, a pin appears at the customer's address right in front of us. Clicking it allows us to pull up information beforehand and visit. Since we can identify which customers are worth visiting, we can establish a smooth visit route.Since this can now be done on a smartphone without booting up a laptop, I believe it has become more efficient. Previously, reporting methods and visit route planning varied wildly between branches. Especially in my case, handling both the Tokai Branch and Toyohashi Sales Office, the differing approaches at each made information sharing difficult. Since introducing UPWARD, we've started communicating more effectively, exchanging tips on efficient usage among employees. This has made information sharing much smoother. Including sales meetings, we can now share information with other branches, making our work significantly faster.

Mr. Okumura: Almost all of our outside sales staff use UPWARD. Everything related to outside sales, such as visit planning, inputting notes during visits, daily reports, and searching for visits, is completed on UPWARD. I believe that the amount and speed of information sharing has increased and communication has become easier by breaking down barriers between offices and departments and setting up a team that is aware of horizontal connections.

Suhara: In advance preparation, we make a list of scheduled visits from the map. At this time, UPWARD helps us to find other possible clients near the one we have an appointment with and to determine the order and route of visits.

On the day of the visit, the time spent and other information are automatically entered, so all you have to do is tap the appropriate customer and voice-enter the details of the activity, and the information can be shared in real time with your supervisor and other staff at the site. I find this function very convenient. This operation has eliminated the need for reporting after returning to the office and has improved work efficiency. We have also been able to implement initiatives that we have never experienced before, such as having another office cover for a customer at another office.

Mr. Muratsu: With UPWARD, reports can be easily created using voice input, so being able to spend time on other activities is a huge advantage. Previously, after finishing work, I would input activity reports on my computer, but being able to complete it all on my smartphone is incredibly convenient. When I have free time waiting at traffic lights, I can input things verbally, creating a flow where each task gets resolved one by one.Furthermore, the color and size of marks on the map visually highlight issues, making scheduled visit locations obvious and even prompting additional visits. While visit intervals vary by customer, the visual prominence ensures no visits are missed. Previously, there was a time lag between reporting and information sharing, but now we can share completed actions in real time, significantly speeding up our response.

Suhara: I believe that we have been able to make good use of the data that we have developed over many years of activities in each area of our company at each location by using UPWARD. I believe that data is an asset, but we need to develop new assets in order to create new ones. We would like to collaborate with companies that are rooted in the local community in newly developed areas, and we would like to work with them to develop and cultivate local customers.

Mr. Muratsu: In addition to the simplified reporting, the ability to visit visually was very good and groundbreaking because it was a service that had never been introduced before. We are now able to make visits based on visual information rather than intuition, and we would like to continue this in the future.

Sales digital transformation supports the realisation of a future of 'healthy and long-lived society'.

- Please tell us about your current and future initiatives, vision, and mission.

Mr. Okumura: "To be the global company manufacturing and selling the highest quality chlorella on Earth." This is the vision statement of the Sun Chlorella Group. Guided by this vision statement, since our founding in 1969, we have been the leading chlorella company, dedicated to creating "high-quality" products. Our mission is to deliver "reassurance" and "safety" to countries around the world while contributing to society.Furthermore, based on one of our founding principles—"Health is not something given by others, but something built by oneself"—we aim to convey the appeal of naturally derived foods, led by chlorella, to as many people as possible, striving to realize a healthy society filled with smiles. Regarding the health food market as a whole, while people previously often consumed health foods with specific goals in mind, such as improving health functions or for beauty, it is said that in recent years, health foods are increasingly being used as nutritional supplements for maintaining and enhancing health. Furthermore, the functional food system launched in April 2015 has now approved over 5,000 products. As new products continue to emerge as foods with functional claims, the market is expected to expand significantly. We are committed to swiftly responding to these changing needs in health foods and delivering health more effectively than ever before. Life expectancy continues to rise year after year, ushering us into a new era of truly 100-year lifespans. To fully enjoy such a long life, money is certainly necessary, but I believe what's even more important is "staying healthy forever." With a healthy body, one can continue working indefinitely, leading to both social contribution and economic stability. To achieve this, each and every employee of the Sun Chlorella Group will consider and act upon our social responsibilities. We aim to continue delivering smiles and inspiration to people worldwide through health.

Advancing digital transformation can improve operational efficiency, reduce costs and create added value from data.

- Finally, do you have a message for companies that are working on sales efficiency and digital transformation?

Mr. Okumura: The digital transformationhas rapidly expanded, including the development of work environments for telework, and at our company as well, digitizing analog operations has led to "increased business efficiency" and "cost reductions. We would like to create new added value in the future by utilizing the data obtained from digitized operations. There is no doubt that digital transformationwill be increasingly from a global perspective in the future.

*The names of organizations and positions in the article are as of November 2022.