A member of the Operations Team, responsible for shipping preparation and procurement, and for customer inquiries and review replies. She holds the Japanese Certified Sleep & Bedding Advisor (sleep-environment bedding adviser) qualification.
What I do each day
I am in the workshop’s Operations Team, mainly responsible for shipping preparation, procurement, and customer inquiries and review replies — “I do everything except making and delivering the futon.” From sorting the morning’s shipping list, to answering emails and reviews in the afternoon, to coordinating the next restock — this business chain needs no elaborate craft, but it needs every link done right.
“Must arrive by the Xth” on the delivery slip
The one thing I care about most when handling orders is to act from the customer’s point of view. When a customer notes “moving into a new home on the Xth,” I add a “must arrive by the Xth” instruction on the delivery slip; I pack as flat and uncrushed as possible; the little card enclosed should read naturally. These are small things, but together they are the customer’s impression of the workshop.
Why I took the bedding-adviser qualification
The year before last I obtained the Japanese Certified Sleep & Bedding Advisor qualification. I took it not for a promotion, but because more and more of the daily inquiries are about “sleep” itself — “why do I still sleep badly after changing my shikibuton,” “what bedding does my child’s sleep need.” Studying sleep-environment knowledge systematically lets me give advice that is actually useful.
The workshop as a team
What marks our colleagues is that “once something is decided, we move fast” — “strike, and it resounds.” That agility is the advantage only a small workshop has: a problem found in the morning can be discussed in the afternoon and adjusted the next day. At a large company a similar matter might take weeks of process. That sense of tempo is one reason people want to stay.