How JR Pass cut response times by 60% and transformed customer service

About the company

JR Pass is a leading provider of Japan Rail Passes for international travellers visiting Japan. With a distributed support team and global customer base, the company handles high volumes of inquiries and orders—especially during peak travel seasons like Japan’s cherry blossom period in March. Mariya Williams plays a key role in overseeing social media and customer support operations, helping ensure travellers receive timely assistance and a seamless experience from inquiry to fulfilment.

The Challenge: Managing growing order volumes during peak travel periods

Before implementing Hiver, JR Pass struggled with an overwhelming volume of customer inquiries and orders, particularly during their busiest season around March. The team was processing hundreds of emails daily, including:

• Order processing communications
• Inquiries from worldwide customers
• Employee communications
• Customer complaints and support requests

They relied on a single shared Gmail account accessed by multiple team members, which created several challenges –

Lack of visibility: With a distributed team of 5-6 members (some working remotely, others in-office), there was no way to track who handled which order/inquiry or monitor workload distribution.

Uneven workload distribution: Absence of automated routing meant that distribution of the various types of requests was inconsistent across the team, leading to inefficiencies and potential burnout during peak periods.

Communication breakdown: Team members struggled to track who handled each customer order and inquiry, leading to multiple people responding to the same email or overlooking some inquiries altogether.

No performance metrics: The management had no way to monitor team productivity, track email volumes, or analyze the nature of support queries to identify who might need additional support or feedback.

The Solution: Hiver’s collaborative Shared Inbox

Once onboard with Hiver, the JR Pass team experienced a significant improvement in how they managed customer support.

Clear ownership and accountability from day one

Hiver’s routing capabilities allowed the team to designate orders and inquiries to specific team members, providing clear ownership and accountability.

Smart categorization of customer tickets

The team implemented a comprehensive tagging system using Tags to categorize their support volume by type:

• Complaints requiring immediate attention
• Important/priority inquiries
• Routine order processing
• General customer questions

Eliminate repetitive work completely

Automation workflows: Mariya worked with Hiver’s support team to implement Automation rules to handle the high volume of non-actionable emails that come through daily. These rules automatically sort customer messages into specific labels based on content and type, eliminating the need to process routine communications manually and allowing the team to focus on more complex issues.

Standardized customer communication for faster response times

Previously, the team maintained templates in separate Google documents. Hiver’s integrated template library allowed instant access to pre-written responses directly within the inbox.

Efficient workload management and performance tracking

Real-time visibility into team performance, response times, and workload distribution enabled better management oversight and support allocation.

The Impact

Operational Improvements

• Faster response times: Hiver’s integrated template system and automation workflows reduced JR Pass’s average response time from 4-6 hours to 1.5-2 hours—a 60% improvement during peak seasons.
• Enhanced team efficiency: Better routing and automated categorization eliminated workload imbalances, increasing overall team productivity by 40% and ensuring consistent workload per person per hour across the team.
• Improved team satisfaction: Real-time workload visibility through Hiver’s Analytics enabled better task distribution and fairer workload allocation, resulting in higher team morale and job satisfaction.
• Better customer experience: Automated routing and canned responses ensured all customer inquiries received timely responses. Complaints about slow response times dropped by 70% during critical peak periods.

Process optimization

• Streamlined workflows: Automation now handles non-actionable queries/ customer messages daily, allowing staff to focus on the complex inquiries requiring personal attention.
• Better collaboration: Email routing and workload visibility eliminated 2–3 hours of daily coordination time. The team had previously spent this time managing work across remote and office locations.

AI capabilities that optimize operations further

JR Pass’s journey with Hiver continues to evolve as they discover new ways to optimize their customer service operations. Currently, the team is experimenting with AI Compose, carefully testing how this feature can best serve their customers while maintaining the personal touch that JR Pass is known for.

Delivering world class service at scale

JR Pass’s partnership with Hiver demonstrates how the right solution can transform customer service operations. By addressing team coordination and performance visibility challenges, Hiver enabled JR Pass to maintain high-quality customer service while scaling its operations efficiently.