Episode 4: A New Focus

The breakthrough strategies focused on sales promotion plans and website improvements, with the theme of “recovering from the brink of death,” still failed.

Six months into the venture, a business consultant’s advice hit him hard. “No one cares about good plans, strategies or tactics. It’s about being helpful or what’s beneficial to a person. The customer decides what’s valuable. Focus on making one person happy, even if it’s just a little. If that happiness is worth one yen, you will receive one yen.”

He embraced the consultant’s advice and decided to shift his focus drastically.

Determined to pull himself up out of the financial abyss, he decided to give his all. “I will exert all my strength! Now, I will focus only on solving the problems of the person right in front of me.” He told himself. No grand plans—just fixing one customer’s inconvenience at a time.

From that day on, he continued to talk to each customer and wrote blog articles in his own words. He spent much time as needed to respond to inquiries such as setting and guiding Skype.

Writing over a hundred blogs, each message beginning with “Hello, this is Tanaka.” He realized that the service had to become one with his name. “It has to be Tanaka’s selling point.” He thought to himself.

The blog strategy began to attract customers as it resonated with the target audience. By providing assistance and practicing with senior customers on Skype, he was seen as approachable and genuinely caring. People started recognizing their unique approach and said, “There’s no other online English conversation program that does this in such a simple and polite way.”

Tanaka-san continued to rely on word-of-mouth and blogs to build a customer base. As he took action, he felt the presence of a growing audience even if only 10% of the audience acknowledged it.

The sense of fulfillment fills Tanaka-san’s heart with bliss. He gets excited when someone accepts his service.

With a smile on his face, “There is someone watching.” he said to himself.

Through determination and commitment, Tanaka-san’s business started to do better and become more stable. The road ahead was still challenging, but the spark of hope had been ignited once again, and the journey continued.

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Note:

Customer-centric approach
This is a type of business philosophy that makes the customer a central focus of all activities, decisions, and processes. The primary focus is on understanding the needs, preferences, and expectations of customers to create a positive and satisfying experience.