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: If the area to be visited changes, we can respond immediately if it is in the next town or so, but if it is far away and we cannot visit immediately, we have to build a new route from scratch. Until now, we had to rely on our memory to create a route using the customer search.
Now, if we set conditions on the UPWARD map, a pin will appear at the address of the customer in front of us, and by clicking on the pin, we can suck out the information in advance and visit the customer. This allows you to determine which customers you should visit and establish a smooth route to visit them. I think it has become more efficient because I can now do it on my smartphone without having to start up my laptop.
In the past, the means and methods of reporting and assembling visiting routes varied from branch to branch. In my case, in particular, I was in charge of both the Tokai branch and the Toyohashi sales office, so it was difficult to share information because of the different ways of doing things in each branch.
With the introduction of UPWARD, we are now able to communicate with other employees and exchange information on how to use the system more efficiently, which allows us to share information smoothly. I feel that our business operations, including sales meetings, have become speedier because we can share information with other branches.

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. Murazu: With UPWARD, reports can be easily created by voice input, etc., so it is great that I can spend my time on other activities. Until now, I used to input activity reports on my computer after work, but I think it is very convenient to be able to complete this process on my smartphone.
When my hands are free at a traffic light, I can enter the information verbally, and the process is such that each case is resolved one by one. In addition, the color and size of the marks on the map visually bring up issues, so I think it has increased the number of scheduled visits as well as additional and different visits.
The interval between visits varies depending on the client, but I think that the visualization has eliminated the omission of visits. In the past, there was a time lag between reporting and sharing information, but now we are able to share actions taken in real time, which speeds up our response time.  

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 a global company that manufactures and sells the highest quality chlorella on the planet" is the vision statement of the Sun Chlorella Group. Under this vision statement, since our establishment in 1969, we have made it our mission to contribute to society by focusing on manufacturing "high quality" products as a leading chlorella company and delivering "safety" and "security" to countries around the world at the same time. Based on one of our founding philosophies, "Health is not something that is given to us by others, but something that we build ourselves," we are striving to convey to as many people as possible the appeal of naturally-derived foods, led by chlorella, and to realize a healthy society that spreads smiles.
In the health food market as a whole, people used to consume health food with a sense of purpose, such as to improve health functions or for beauty, but in recent years, it is said that people are increasingly using health food as a nutritional supplement to maintain and improve their health.
In addition, the functional food system was launched in April 2015, and the number of products accepted has now exceeded 5,000. We are also looking forward to responding quickly to changes in the needs for health food products and delivering better health than ever before.
We are entering a new century in which the average life expectancy will be updated every year, and we are entering a new century of 100-year life expectancy. To enjoy a long life, money is of course necessary, but what is more important is to "stay healthy forever. A healthy body allows us to work forever, which leads to social contribution and economic stability. In order to realize this, each and every employee of the Sun Chlorella Group will think about the social responsibility that we should fulfill and act accordingly, so that we can continue to bring smiles and excitement to people around the world through good 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.