Improve service levels of delivery personnel nationwide.

Release Date :2022.02.04

• Knowledge sharing
• Employee training

Release Date :2022.02.04

Founded in Machida City, Tokyo in 1971, NAC Corporation is engaged in a variety of businesses centered on "lifestyle and living." Its home-delivery water "Kuricla," launched in 2002, has greatly increased its market share through free rental of water servers, and is popular throughout Japan among private homes and businesses. The company provides safe, high-quality water throughout Japan that contains high-quality minerals and can be used for baby milk. In this interview, we spoke with the president of Kuricla College, a human resource development program for employees and sales franchisees nationwide.

E-learning is indispensable for improving the service level base.

First of all, could you introduce your company business?

Since 2002, we have been engaged in the production, delivery, and after-sales service of water servers called "Kuricla. Basically, our business is to rent water servers to general customers and businesses for commercial use and have them purchase water on a regular basis. Currently, we have about 500 stores nationwide, from which we deliver water to about 500,000 customers.

How did you come to know about learningBOX?

We were looking for a way to learn how to raise the service level of our delivery staff to a uniform level. There are approximately 1,800 Kuricla delivery staff nationwide, and they deliver water to customers every day from their respective stores.

About three years ago, the "Service Quality Improvement Declaration Project" was launched to raise the service level of the 1,800 people who have contact with those customers. About two years later, in the fall of 2020, we started searching for a system that would make learning easier, because we wanted to check what we had learned through the project and what we were practicing on a daily basis.

I searched for e-learning and found a company that offered a system, inquired about it and talked to them, and examined which system would be easiest to implement in terms of cost and operation. One of those companies was your company.

What were the deciding factors in your choice of learningBOX?

We decided on this system because we thought it was simple, easy for anyone to use, and had low hurdles to introduce. We have franchisees nationwide, but we also have separate companies with franchise agreements, etc. To manage all such information together, it was important to have a solid system and one that was simple and easy for anyone to use. In this respect, we thought learningBOX was the best choice. At first, we wanted to keep costs as low as possible, so we started with free use.

When I first contacted you, you responded in detail to my request, and at that point I felt a sense of trust in your company. First of all, I would like to introduce the quiz creation tool you provide, "QuizGeneratorThe system was pre-operated with a "quiz generator" (quiz generator) and was not officially introduced until January 2021.

The "Survey" function can be used as a daily report, and the aggregated information can be distributed to all employees.

Did the "Service Quality Improvement Declaration Project" include training and information dissemination to delivery staff?

We had a contest to determine the number one service of our delivery staff. The contest had been held at Tokyo Disney Resort and other places, but the Corona disaster made it impossible to gather there, so the proposition became what we could do to improve the level of service as an alternative to the contest.

So you have been looking for an e-learning system to replace it, and are now using learningBOX?

We decided to switch from our previous approach of "deciding who was number one" and to raise the base. We needed a system that would make it easy for as many delivery staff as possible to participate in the program, and also allow them to relearn from the basics.

We therefore decided to prepare a "National Unified Model Test of Kurikura," which is like a center test on the Web, so that everyone can take the test, learn the same knowledge, and improve the base of our service level. First of all, we set the goal of creating and implementing the "National Unified Model Test of Kurikura" on the learningBOX, and then we also created a quiz on the learningBOX for the students to take before they took the test.

We have been offering the "Kuricla College" since 2013 to develop Kuricla's human resources. The College oversees a manual in which delivery staff and sales staff can learn information and service know-how related to Kuricla. The main points of that manual are divided into six units and put into a web test, and a different question is released each time, once a month. You can take the quiz as many times as you like until you pass.

We made internal adjustments and preparations while testing with "QuizGenerator" in the preliminary stage, and started quizzes one month after the introduction of learningBOX. We were also able to conduct the first "National Cricla Unified Mock Test" at the end of April 2021.

That is great! Is the course set up to be available on smart phones?

Yes, we made the time somewhat flexible so that anyone could easily take the course. The purpose of the quiz, as I mentioned earlier, was to have the students review the manual. The manual is quite thick, so reading it tends to be tedious, but by linking it to the questions and guiding the students to read the pages of the manual for detailed information, we were able to get them to touch the manual. We also set up a system whereby a certificate is issued if the score exceeds 80 points on the "National Cricla Unified Mock Exam.

Thanks to the introduction of learningBOX, web testing has become very popular within the company, and people who previously had low literacy in the business are now able to engage in it in a positive manner.

Have you experienced any positive effects after the introduction of the system?

The response within the company was great, and we began to receive many inquiries from other departments, such as "We would like to use excerpts from the national mock exam questions for our in-house lectures" and "We would like to implement a web-based system. We have shared information with them, saying, "This is how you can use the learningBOX," in response to their requests.

So we are actually using it in other departments as well. We introduced learningBOX into the renewal system for the various licenses required for the operation of our nationwide network of Kuricla dealers. License renewal had been conducted through on-the-job training, but it was difficult and time-consuming for people from all over the country to gather at the training site, so we were considering a review of the system. After the introduction of the system, we can take the training at our own preferred time, which eliminates the disadvantages of traveling, and I think it has had a great effect.

Have there been any other changes due to the introduction of the system?

I thought it might be useful to look at "productivity improvement" from a different perspective, so I decided to conduct a survey of the daily activities of sales representatives across the country.QuestionnaireWe ask them to report back to us using the "Report" form. We then consolidate the activity reports and distribute a variety of information.

For example, a sales representative logs into learningBOX by 9:00 a.m. the next day and fills out a survey form to report his/her performance. The administrator compiles this information by noon and publishes it in a "notice" section. 400 people are registered, and we pick up the best performers and introduce them, and share information such as how many new contracts have been signed nationwide and how many have been signed in total to date, to foster a sense of team effort. This helps to foster a sense of teamwork.

Before the introduction of the learningBOX, we were limited to distributing this type of information in batches once a week. Even then, it was quite difficult, but being able to distribute the information on a daily basis was a first.

Some want everyone to know more about their achievements, while others are inspired by the hard work of their colleagues across the country. We have also devised a system whereby employees receive a message from their supervisors when they reach a certain number of contracts, and so on, in order to make them feel more rewarded.

In-house training and testing is best for speedy response

Do you plan to use learningBOX to improve your business in the future?

Kurikura College is Kurikura's human resource development organization, which currently focuses mainly on group training, and we intend to use it to improve the quality of this training.

With learningBOX, we can check the extent to which each participant has completed the pre-training study conducted prior to the training, so we would like to make sure that participants have cleared a certain line before they participate in the training. We would also like to consolidate knowledge acquisition, including post-training follow-up, into the learningBOX.

How do you feel about the value of creating your own training and exam content?

In order to respond with speed, it is better to be able to produce the work in-house. Of course, there are cases where it is faster and of higher quality to outsource because of the time and effort involved in in-house production. However, in our case, even if a product is developed by the Product Department, it is often the case that permission is not granted by the government agency, or that it is not approved at the last minute, or that information changes. In order to cope with such speed, it would be better to manufacture in-house.

We felt that a low-cost, simple, and easy-to-use system like learningBOX would make it easier for us to step into in-house production.

Finally, what do you expect from learningBOX in the future?

We would like you to learn more about our company and actively make proposals. learningBOX contains a variety of functions, and I think that as you deepen your understanding of it, you will be able to expand what you want to do. To be honest, however, I think there are still some mechanisms that we have not fully mastered, so I would be happy if you could help us learn more about our company and make suggestions on how to use it to match our services and education as we continue our business relationship.

Thank you for your participation
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