The New Company Promotes LINE Chat at the Contact Centers to Create a New Communication Style between Corporations and Customers

transcosmos inc. (Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan; President and COO: Masataka Okuda; TSE First Section: 9715; hereafter, transcosmos) and LINE Corporation (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President: Takeshi Idezawa; hereafter, LINE) have signed a basic agreement to establish “transcosmos online communications inc.” (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President: Hiroshi Kaizuka; hereafter, transcosmos online communications) on March 17.

transcosmos has been providing one-stop LINE-related services including opening and management of the official account, designing customer center utilizing LINE, sales and promotion through One to One marketing, and planning and executing CRM strategy. transcosmos has abundant past business results and experience with LINE utilization for corporations; for instance, it was the pioneer in developing a management tool for “LINE Business Connect,” which enables two-direction communication between corporations and customers and was certified as an official partner for “LINE Business Connect Partner Program,” to whom LINE gives priority for development and sales support.

LINE has taken advantage of 68 million registered users in Japan to create connections between corporations and users through various forms including LINE official account, sponsored stickers, and free coins and has enriched their relations. In addition, starting in February 2014, LINE has been offering various account functions for corporations via API, and “LINE Business Connect” was started, where the corporations customize it and make it possible to have One to One, two-way communication with users and to link services with the corporations’ system data, expanding the usage of LINE according to the needs and business characteristics.

This newly-established transcosmos online communications will be handling development of new service menu utilizing LINE Business Connect, consulting for corporations, and planning tasks in cooperation with transcosmos in order to accelerate communication between corporations and their customers on LINE.

First off, promotion efforts were made to implement One to One customer support solution on LINE, which especially is a forte of transcosmos’, promoting the LINE chat for contact centers where the corporations respond to the users’ inquiries on LINE. Currently, by transferring the corporations’ user support duties made by their contact centers by telephone and e-mail to chat and messages on LINE, what was not possible previously with only telephone and e-mail inquiries can now be responded to in detail and promptly, and the customer base which did not previously even make such inquiries can now be approached so as to build a relationship with those customers. Furthermore, based on the result of corporations which have already implemented this service, the number of possible responses in an hour has increased to an average of 3 times as many, proving more efficiency in this line of work and reduction in human resource expenses.

In the future, transcosmos online communications will utilize LINE’s platform and user base and transcosmos’ sales and development capabilities to offer various solutions and services to build better relationships between corporations and users and strive at achieving a new de facto standard for communication between corporations and their customers.

President and CEO of transcosmos inc., Masataka Okuda, has commented as the following:

“transcosmos has been leading the contact center market as a leading contact center by pursuing Operational Excellence since its establishment. For our corporate clients who seek low-cost and high-quality service, by implementing LINE for the contact center with ‘LINE Business Connect,’ it is now possible to respond to multiple users with one operator, and in addition, the users can make inquiries to corporations via LINE with no time restrictions, avoiding wait during the busy hours – providing a format for a more efficient contact center for corporations. Moreover, by developing a service menu for direct sales marketing support and E-Commerce utilizing active communication from the corporations to the customers, we would like to contribute to both cost reduction and sales expansion for our corporate clients.”

President and CEO of LINE Corporation, Mr. Takeshi Idezawa, has commented as the following:

“LINE has a broad user base that uses our services actively and frequently, and companies are finding new and various ways to engage such an audience. We believe the ability to handle existing phone and email-based customer support and other operations over LINE will greatly reduce the burden placed on companies and their customers alike. Through establishing this new company with transcosmos, an entity with an impressive track record for customer support solution development and provision, we will be able to accelerate the speed of business-to-customer communication on LINE. We will continue to help businesses build new points of contact by actively developing and providing new services that allow for seamless LINE-based conversations for companies and users in all manner of situations.”

■ Overview of transcosmos online communications

* transcosmos is a registered trade name or trademark of transcosmos inc. in Japan and other countries.
* LINE is a registered trade name or trademark of LINE Corporation.
* Other company names and product or service names mentioned are registered trade names or trademarks of various other companies.

■ About transcosmos inc.

transcosmos launched operations in 1966. Since then we have combined superior “human resources” with up-to-date “technological” capabilities to enhance the competitive strength of our clients by providing them with superior and valuable services. transcosmos currently offers Cost Reduction Services (Contact Center, HR/Financial/Sales Back Office, Order Management/SCM, System Development/Management etc.) and Sales Expansion Services (Big Data Analysis, Internet Advertising, Website Construction/Management, Smartphone/SNS Utilization, Telemarketing etc.). transcosmos continues to pursue operational excellence by providing these services through our 159 locations in 29 countries with a focus in Asia. Furthermore, following the expansion of E-Commerce market on the global scale, transcosmos provides a comprehensive, one-stop global E-Commerce service to deliver our clients’ excellent products and services to consumers in 40 countries. transcosmos aims to be the “Global BPO Partner” of our clients to provide them with high quality BPO services on a global scale.

■ About LINE Corporation

LINE Corporation is based in Japan and operates the LINE messenger app and other various content and services (games, comics, music, e-payment, etc.) offered on the LINE Platform. LINE allows users to freely enjoy communication with other users around the world via audio or video calls, or in one-to-one or group messages, where users have access to a diverse array of emotive stickers. LINE also provides the curation platform NAVER Matome and the comprehensive portal site livedoor.