GooS Co., Ltd. runs Tatsuki Sauna, a sauna facility in Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture, having taken over a neighborhood bathhouse that had closed due to aging facilities and a lack of a successor. The team running it is three staff, including the representative, plus twelve part-timers, with two to three people on site at any given time.
The company has no phone line. Guest inquiries arrived through Instagram DMs, email, and the contact form on its website instead. Recurring questions β about business hours, parking, and whether a reservation was needed β added up to a real workload for such a small team.
After adopting NEWT Chat, the staff have been able to step back from repetitive inquiries and focus on what guests are actually struggling with.
We spoke with Ryota Masuda, Representative Director, about the background to adoption and what has changed on the ground. (Interviewer: Hiroki Ukeda, Reiwa Travel)
Raised in Okazaki, he took over a shuttered neighborhood bathhouse
β Could you tell us about your role as representative, and how Tatsuki Sauna came about? We'd love to hear about the building's background too.
Masuda: My title is representative, but in practice I oversee pretty much everything β from the day-to-day running of the store to accounting, labor matters, and promotion. We have three staff including myself, and twelve part-timers, with two to three of us on site at any time.
I was born and raised in Okazaki, and back then there was no large sauna facility in the city. I wanted to start something, and around that time I learned that a local bathhouse had closed due to aging facilities and a lack of a successor. I contacted the owner directly. The owner passed the space on to me, and that's how I got started. The building is more than 100 years old. There was a wish to bring life back to a place that used to be used by so many people.
Two types of sauna β one where you can talk, one where you can't. Mostly local guests
β Could you tell us about the concept behind the facility and who your guests are?
Masuda: We built two types of sauna β one where you can talk, one where you can't β with an interior that mixes Japanese and modern style. Guests with tattoos are welcome, and we occasionally get guests from overseas too. We built the concept around a range of different ways of using the space, so it could suit as many preferences as possible.
We've just passed our second full year and are now in our third. Our guests are mostly local, though we see more visitors from farther away during busy seasons like summer. About half of our official LINE followers are in Aichi Prefecture. It's a men-only facility, but we hold women-only days on an irregular basis.
No phone line: inquiries piled up on Instagram DM and email
β How is your inquiry desk set up? We'd love to hear whether you have a phone line.
Masuda: We don't have a phone line, so inquiries came in mostly through Instagram DMs, then email, then the contact form on our website. Only the three of us on staff handled the desk, so there were times we missed messages or overlooked something.
Most of it was questions about where to park, business hours, how busy we were, whether a reservation was needed, when women-only days were, what to bring, and lost property. Even for things already on our website, we had to answer each one individually. Each reply itself didn't take long, but having our time taken up that way didn't feel efficient.
A team in their 20s and 30s took to AI without resistance
β Could you tell us what got you thinking about adopting NEWT Chat? We'd love to hear about how the decision came together, and how the team reacted.
Masuda: I knew we got asked about parking a lot, but I hadn't really thought about doing anything specific about it. Someone from NEWT reached out and suggested it, and that's what got me wanting to try it. It wasn't so much a careful comparison as just a sense of wanting to try it out first.
As for resistance to having AI answer questions, there wasn't really any. Everyone on staff is in their 20s or 30s, so I think it was more a case of "sure, that's just how things are now" for everyone.
As a rule, we don't stick closely to a manual β we tend to flexibly try things as we notice them on the ground, repeating trial and error. I think we were simply a team with no resistance to bringing in new things.
Setup was just reading in the URL: building FAQs together with staff
β What was it like using the admin screen β how easy was setup, and how did you find it to use?
Masuda: Setup was about as simple as reading in our website's URL β nothing special beyond that. The admin screen was intuitive too, and I never found it hard to understand. Adding it to our website wasn't much work either.
Early on, there were some questions it couldn't answer well, so I told the staff to collect the questions guests often asked, and we registered the FAQs together. A few of them pointed out things like "shouldn't it say this instead," and having it learn from that meant we could cut one round of back-and-forth with guests, which was good.
Parking inquiries that could lead to neighbor disputes have settled down
β How has day-to-day inquiry handling and running the facility changed since adopting it?
Masuda: We used to get a lot of inquiries about parking β guests parking in the wrong spot, that sort of thing. Parking could lead to trouble with our neighbors, and it wasn't something we could resolve inside the store alone. We had a few other measures running alongside the chat, so it's hard to say it's chat alone, but parking problems feel like they've settled down. We haven't had any complaints from guests reach us either, so far.
What the chat logs revealed about what guests ask before visiting
β What have you learned from the chat logs? We'd also love to hear if there's anything you wish you could find out.
Masuda: Looking back through the chat logs, I noticed again how many questions are about what to bring and what to expect before arriving. Things like "Is it really men-only?", "Is it okay if I have tattoos?", and "Do I need swimwear?" β questions from the stage before actually walking through the door. Once guests are inside, they don't seem to get lost, but a lot of people seem to get stuck on the way there.
The fact that we get these questions even for things we think we've already covered on our website and social media tells me our own guidance still isn't quite there yet. If we could lay out the flow up to using the facility so it's clear at a glance, I think we could draw out other questions too.
I'd also like to be able to see who's asking β their age range, for instance. Our official LINE lets us manage guests to some extent, but we can't tell who's actually asking questions in chat, and that's something I'm curious about.
I imagine some guests find it faster to just ask in chat rather than hunting page by page through our website. Since I started using NEWT Chat myself, I've started paying more attention to chat widgets on other companies' sites too. I think I look at them more as a user now.
"Casual pricing, high quality": why it's worth recommending especially to small, lean teams
β Finally, do you have any words of advice for other businesses run by a small team like yours?
Masuda: Since using NEWT Chat, I've started looking at other services too, and even compared to those, I'd say NEWT Chat is "casual pricing, high quality." We get a report every month, and I don't think there are many services that go that far.
It's not a case of setting it up and being done β the feedback and support after adoption are thorough, so we can keep running through PDCA on that feedback. Even for a small shop like ours, with our volume, they still do a proper job of it, and I really liked that. It pulls out exactly what guests are struggling with in a way that's easy to understand, so I've been able to pay more attention to the things that actually deserve it.
β Even a small shop hasn't had to miss an important inquiry, and can spend time on what really matters. It's been a pleasure to hear. Thank you so much for your time!
Note: Information about the services and the facility in this article reflects the time of the interview and may differ today.
