Case Studies

Deepen your knowledge of beauty and health for your customers

First of all, could you tell us about your company's business?

We sell health foods and cosmetics, and also develop some raw materials.

［Mr. Nakano.]
The company is mainly engaged in mail order sales of health foods and cosmetics. We are also a manufacturer, developing some raw materials.
This year marks the 31st anniversary of the company's founding, and the entire company is working day and night to further develop the company.

What led you to introduce ━learningBOX?

It was part of our internal IT efforts to keep up with the DX era.

［Dear Sir or Madam...]
We have a branch office that functions as a call center in addition to our headquarters, and we have always wanted to provide consistent training at both locations. It would take a lot of time and money for staff to travel to one location to conduct training at the other. The initial idea was to solve this problem.
Before the introduction of the system, we used to hold face-to-face training sessions in a conference room, but this was difficult because we had to do it every month.

Every month! That's a lot of work.

Since we develop and sell our own products, it is essential for all employees to update their knowledge.

［Mr. Nakano.]
Since we develop and sell health foods and cosmetics in-house, all employees must have the same level of knowledge about the products.
Every month, a study session for products is held led by the person in charge.

It is of course necessary to study new products when they are released, but it is also important to deepen your understanding of existing products.
Also, if there is an issue in society today, our products can solve it from this aspect. Each month, we ask them to think hard about the issues they want to address.

I understand that you have installed ━learningBOX. What kind of effect has it had on you?

We were able to eliminate the hassle of tallying, save time and money on travel, and even learn more about the Corona disaster without delay.

［Dear Sir or Madam...]
For example, when we gave tests, we used to print out the quizzes on paper, hand them out, collect the answer sheets, and score them one by one, which was quite an analog method and took a lot of time.
The fact that all of that is automatically tallied and averaged out, etc., and I don't have to do any of those things anymore is a pretty big benefit.

［Mr. Nakano.]
As mentioned earlier by the person in charge, the physical distance between the two locations for the training was also a nice benefit. Since everyone has to do their own work, it was difficult to find a flexible time for the training.

Another issue was that we could not complete the training in one session because of the large number of trainees. Moreover, the person in charge of teaching was not the same each time, so even if the same thing was taught, the delivery and nuances would differ.
The main thing was that we solved that problem and became much more efficient in total.

Also, the introduction was in the summer of 2019, and then came the outbreak of the new coronavirus. There was a time when our company promoted teleworking, and the introduction of e-learning helped us because we had a system in place that allowed us to take courses anytime, anywhere.

I understand that you are doing ━testing, but what kind of questions are you creating?

We use a quiz generator to create questions in a variety of formats.

［Dear Sir or Madam...]
We ask them to answer questions such as the name of a new product in writing, or what effect the ingredients in this product have.
We have been creating various types of questions since the paper-based version, and after the introduction of learningBOX, we continue to use the quiz generator to create various types of questions, including X's and O's, fill-in-the-blank questions, and multiple-choice questions.

［Mr. Nakano.]
They make the problem quite difficult. You need to be well informed, including the call center members who provide guidance to customers.
Also, when you advertise, you can use what you have learned in this exam to know where to put your points.

What do you think is the value of being able to create your own content?

You can reach the details and learn the knowledge and information that you really need in the field.

［Dear Sir or Madam...]
Since the main purpose of the training is to learn about the company's products, it is better to create the training by ourselves so that we can learn more details and can easily apply it to our daily work.

In order to make the content more useful, we have a meeting with the call center after we create the materials each month. This is to get feedback from the staff who receive the calls on areas such as knowledge, pointers, and tips that are necessary.
I use the advice I receive there to make changes, such as making the expressions plain enough for the customer to understand, and then I finish it.

I understand that you are the sole creator of the materials. How do you create them?

The basic material is mainly video material, but we also create PDFs and quizzes for review.

［Dear Sir or Madam...]
Basically, video materials are the main focus; they are created using PowerPoint's video creation function and a service (Microsoft Azure) for creating artificial voices.
After a month, we create a quiz generator to review the content.

We have set up automatic reminder emails for those who have not yet learned, and more than 95% of the students are able to take the course each month.
As for the content, employees in all departments, from the development side to the office staff, receive the same training, so we try to make it as easy to understand as possible.

That's fantastic! I'm sure you are having a great training session. Also, besides the training sessions, is there anything else you would like to do or plan to do with learningBOX?

I would like to improve internal training based on career and position.

［Mr. Nakano.]
First of all, internal training. We have a lot of great employees, but to our shame, we don't have a solid internal training system yet.

Our customers often purchase one product on a regular basis and use it for a long time, so we have a long relationship with them. Therefore, it is important for them to deepen their understanding of our products and to get to know us better.
I think we can make good use of that aspect as well.

━I can imagine holding seminars for our customers! Please let us know if you have any other requests.

We would like to have learningBOX centralize the course management linked to the real-time lectures using ZOOM and other tools.

［Dear Sir or Madam...]
That's right. If I had to guess, I'd say that e-learning is more difficult to maintain motivation than face-to-face training.
For example, I would like to be able to link real-time lectures using ZOOM and learningBOX more.

I think you can still paste in a ZOOM URL and start real-time delivery from there, but I think it would be nice if learningBOX could centralize course management, such as who's taking the course and who's not.
We hope that you will continue to consult with us on various matters.

Afterword

What do you think of this case study interview with Ventuno?
I realized that all employees must have a thorough understanding of product knowledge and be able to respond to calls, etc., because they are in the business of directly connecting with customers.
In order to achieve this, the company provides regular training and encourages study habits, and I found that e-learning is an excellent tool for this purpose.
The learningBOX system is used in Ventuno's daily operations, and we are committed to providing a better system for their employees and for the users of their cosmetics and health foods.
Thank you very much for taking time out of your schedule to meet with us.
We appreciate this opportunity.