Vol.56

We want you to use our online store as if you had visited the store.

This time we introduce Ms. Ishikawa, who is in charge of the online store and is responsible for shipping management and customer support. We asked Mr. Ishikawa, who says, "I want people to use our online store as if they were visiting a real store," to tell us what he is conscious of in his work.

Web Customer support and shipping management Ishikawa

Attracted by the attitude of valuing the relationship with fans

My name is Ishikawa, and I am in charge of the online store at the Imabari head office.

I was born in Matsuno-cho, Ehime Prefecture. After graduating from university, I became interested in the sports business and worked as a sales representative for Ehime FC, a professional soccer club in Ehime.

After that, I worked in several positions, but eventually returned to Matsuno-cho, where I worked for an outdoor tour company for almost 10 years. Matsuno Town has a national park called Nametoko Gorge, which is like a natural water slide where you slide down the rock face and dive into a waterfall basin. We were offering an experience that took advantage of these local tourist resources.

However, when our second child was born, we decided to move from Matsuno-cho to raise our child closer to my wife’s family. And the place where my wife’s parents lived was Imabari.

When I moved to Imabari, I started looking for a job, and I wanted to be involved in an industry that represented my hometown. Shipbuilding and towels are thriving industries in Imabari, and when I was looking for a job, I came across IKEUCHI ORGANIC and thought it sounded like an interesting company.

The reason I was particularly attracted to IKEUCHI ORGANIC was its corporate stance; reading its website and what it communicates in the media, I could tell that it places great importance on its relationship with each and every one of its fans.

Having worked in the sports industry myself, I know firsthand the importance of fans. I also wondered, “What kind of company builds such a close relationship with fans through a product called towels? I was intrigued.

When I actually tried using IKEUCHI ORGANIC towels, I felt that they were completely different from the towels I had used before. I had no experience working for a manufacturing company, but I wanted to be a part of this company and decided to work for IKEUCHI ORGANIC.

I want to deliver a pleasant shopping experience.

IKEUCHI ORGANIC’s online store receives a variety of questions from customers.

They ask questions such as, “I can’t decide which towel is best for me,” or “What do you recommend as a gift?” “Is there anything I should pay attention to when washing?” We are happy to answer these questions and more. My role is to answer these questions accurately and provide a pleasant shopping experience.

I put answers to questions that have a fixed content in “FAQs” and respond to those that need to be answered based on the customer’s needs through “chat” and other means. We also often receive inquiries by phone from customers who are confused about their purchases.

Are the questions we receive from customers something that can be answered immediately? Rather, are they questions that we should be close to the customer and answer in our own way with the customer? I always try to think about such things.

For example, “Which towel do you recommend?” There is no set correct answer to this question, as it depends on the customer’s preferences and the conditions of his/her home. We would like to listen to our customers carefully and find the answer together with them.

On the other hand, if the customer asks, “Can you wrap it? or “How many characters can you embroider? are questions for which the answers are already known. We are preparing our online store so that customers can quickly find answers to these questions.

We are trying to automate and improve efficiency so that we can spend as much time as possible on the things that need to be handled. With this in mind, we hope to improve the quality of customer support as much as possible.

In addition to the online store, I am also in charge of various other tasks at the same time, such as serving as a contact person for corporate customers who contact the head office, preparing for events such as the Imabari Open House, and handling factory tours for students.

The administrative staff at IKEUCHI ORGANIC’s Imabari headquarters is small, so I am determined to “do whatever I can do.

I greet customers with the feeling of standing in a storefront.

While working at IKEUCHI ORGANIC, the way I look at towels has changed a lot.

Before I joined IKEUCHI ORGANIC, I thought that once the yarn was set in the machine, the towels were automatically woven. However, when I actually saw the inside of the factory, I realized that there are many craftsmen’s skills required to operate the machines, and that towels are the crystallization of human skills.

I also learned that many different people are involved in the production of a single towel. Cotton farmers, yarn spinners, dyers, etc., all have their own specialties, and the skills of many different people are packed into a single towel.

It is my role to introduce customers to towels made in this way, so the more I learn about the depth of towels, the more I naturally feel myself becoming more confident.

If you visit our online store and have any questions about our products or how to use our towels, please feel free to ask me for advice.

If it is difficult for me to answer your question, I will share your question internally and return the answer shared by the specialist. Sometimes, a representative or the president of the company will answer your question.

We are a small company, so sometimes it may take us a while to answer your inquiry. However, we would like to respond to your inquiries as closely as possible.

Although the online store is a virtual store, the concept is the same as the stores in Tokyo and Kyoto. Although we do not meet face-to-face, we would like to greet each customer as if we were standing in the store.

Interview September 2023
Interview and text by Keiji Ide
Photographer/ Yuji Kimura