“Honestly, I'd Rather Not Tell Our Competitors”: conetto President Ienaka on the Overwhelming Speed WOGO Brought, and His Confidence in Growth

conetto Inc.

Posted on 2025/05/01

Updated on 2026/01/28

conetto Inc.

Profile

Keita Ienaka, President and CEO, conetto Inc.

At Five Group Inc., a restaurant business operator, he was responsible for planning and marketing, sales promotion and corporate branding. Drawing on his experience of using and developing systems in-house, he founded conetto Inc., which provides marketing support for the restaurant industry and the staff management SaaS conetto.

Index

conetto Inc. provides marketing support primarily for the restaurant industry. As the company set out to grow, it found its labour-intensive processes standing in the way. How do you grow your customer base without growing headcount? That very real question was where our project with conetto began. In this interview, President Keita Ienaka speaks frankly about how the company came to work with WOGO, what he found compelling about the development project, and the concrete results it has delivered.

The challenge: behind the growth stood a wall called the talent shortage

Ienaka describes the talent shortage conetto ran into as it set out to expand its BPO business, and the limits of a labour-intensive model.

Sato

Could you tell us about the challenges you were facing at the time, the ones that led you to approach WOGO?

Ienaka

Of course. We provide marketing support for restaurant businesses – BPO services, essentially – and back then that took a lot of people. We wanted to grow the business, so we hired ahead of demand, and afterwards I started to wonder: does it really make sense to keep throwing bodies at this? I was handling everything myself, from sales through to operations, and it was clear we would not scale that way. I began looking for a more efficient approach, ideally one that let us grow our customer base without growing headcount. The first idea was to use technology such as RPA and AI to automate and streamline the work we were already doing.

How it began: an introduction.

What conetto expected of WOGO, and what tipped the decision. Ienaka explains how he first heard of WOGO and why, among many development firms, he ultimately chose it.

Sato

How did you come to work with WOGO, and what tipped the decision?

Ienaka

It actually started with an introduction from Sakamoto, the founder of Five Group, who is also one of our shareholders. We were talking about how we lacked people who were strong on the digital side, and that if nothing changed we would have no choice but to keep throwing bodies at the problem, which simply would not work as a business. He said: in that case, WOGO might be able to solve it.

Sato

And how did it go once you actually spoke with WOGO?

Ienaka

My first impression was that WOGO's sheer speed was very appealing. With most development firms you go through a process of nailing down the requirements in rigid detail, then quoting, and so on. WOGO's stance was different: let's try it, and work it out as we go. That was much easier for us to work with. On top of that, we have no product development specialists in-house, so all we can really articulate is what we want – the requirement level. WOGO took those vague requirements, looked at the tools we were actually using, interviewed the people doing the work, and came back with concrete solutions. That ability to turn a requirement into something real is what finally decided it for us.

Working together: overwhelming speed and true partnership – what makes WOGO different

Ienaka talks about the speed, the willingness to work side by side and the communication style he experienced as the project progressed.

Sato

Once the project was under way, what did you find most compelling about WOGO?

Ienaka

The overwhelming speed, without a doubt. And not only in development – building the RPA workflows, the more consulting-style work, all of it was genuinely fast. Honestly, it surprised me. We work with other development firms too, and this kind of speed is something only WOGO delivers. Beyond that, for better or worse, they do not feel like a corporation (laughs). They are very frank, and they will give you feedback without holding back, even on fundamental points we had not noticed ourselves. Sometimes the criticism is blunt, but I feel it ends up making the product better. For a company like ours, which is not afraid of change, that stance is enormously valuable. And they can hold their drink, which is a plus too (laughs). As people in the restaurant business, perhaps that side of it suits us as well.

The work: how WOGO approached conetto’s challenges

An overview of the approach WOGO took to conetto’s specific challenges.

1. Rebuilding the data collection platform, behind the scenes

The first thing WOGO tackled was the data collection work behind the restaurant marketing consultancy conetto provides. At the time conetto already had a data collection platform built on no-code tools, but problems were frequent: the tools would not behave as expected and would stop with errors. Every month, a great deal of human effort went into checking the data to make sure it was consistent.

WOGO began by analysing the existing workflow in detail and proposing improvements, then built a new data collection and aggregation platform that was both stable and extensible. This suppressed the kinds of errors described above and delivered a substantial gain in efficiency. Specifically, we automated the collection and aggregation of data from a wide range of platforms: restaurant listing sites such as Tabelog, reservation management systems, and services including LINE and Google Business Profile (GBP). For information that cannot be obtained through system integration alone, such as payment details, we designed and proposed a workflow that keeps the manual effort to an absolute minimum.

The result was not only greater efficiency: because more information could now be aggregated accurately, it also raised the value of the marketing reports conetto delivers to its clients. WOGO’s fast development cycle meant conetto’s requests – we would like to use this data too – could be turned into working features one after another.

2. Extending the customer experience with a survey and LINE management tool

Alongside the data platform work, conetto asked us to develop a survey and LINE management tool. On top of the basic ability to create surveys as easily as with Google Forms, its distinguishing feature is bulk creation with per-location settings, designed for clients operating many outlets. Common questions can be created once for every location, while the parts that differ by location – such as the review request URL shown on the survey completion screen – can be set individually through a simple UI.

The survey tool also integrates with LINE mini apps. When a restaurant guest scans a QR code on the table, LINE opens and they can answer the survey straight away. On the administrator side it is possible to track and analyse which users answered which survey, and which surveys led to new LINE friend registrations.

3. The next move: an in-house Google Business Profile management tool

WOGO is now working with conetto on a Google Business Profile (GBP) information management tool. conetto had been using an existing MEO tool, but found it slow to load, prone to errors during use and short on features.

Having come to trust WOGO’s development speed and quality over the course of these projects, conetto concluded that building and productising its own tool made more sense than continuing to pay for an existing one, and asked us to develop it. The new tool goes beyond GBP management: it is designed around the use of AI, and it embeds the deep knowledge of the restaurant and physical-store business that conetto has built up over many years, with the aim of maximising value for both front-line staff and management.

Results: visible impact, in lower personnel costs and more efficient operations

Ienaka describes how the partnership tidied up conetto’s operations and the concrete reduction in personnel costs it delivered.

Sato

What concrete results has the work with WOGO produced?

Ienaka

On the qualitative side, the biggest thing is that as we worked through our operations together with WOGO, it became clear which tasks we should be doing and which we should not. Quantitatively, it has translated directly into lower personnel costs. This may not be a comfortable way to put it, but some employees' contracts did end as a result. That is how drastic the efficiency gains were. For example, we used to do a data aggregation job by hand every month. Thanks to the system WOGO built for us, my sense is that we cut the effort involved by 97 to 98 percent. You could almost say it went to zero.

Looking ahead, and a recommendation: for companies that are not afraid of change – the value of working with WOGO

With the partnership going well, Ienaka talks about his hopes for the business ahead and the kind of companies he believes WOGO fits.

Sato

Finally, could you tell us about your plans ahead, and what kind of companies you would recommend WOGO to?

Ienaka

Honestly, the truth is I would rather not tell our competitors (laughs). If they all decided to go to WOGO too, that would be a bit awkward for us. That aside, the companies I would recommend WOGO to are the ones that can accept change. As I said earlier, WOGO makes proposals that go to the heart of the matter. Sometimes the feedback is hard to hear, but a company that can take it positively and use it to improve will find enormous value here. I think they will find the cost-performance is extremely high.

Sato

Thank you, that is very valuable to hear. If we may ask for your view: what industries do you think it would suit?

Ienaka

The restaurant industry, like ours, of course – but I also think it fits industries often described as relatively legacy, such as factories, logistics and delivery. For challenges like tidying up and streamlining internal operations, WOGO's speed and ability to propose solutions should be a powerful weapon.

Sato

Thank you. Lastly, could you tell us about conetto's own plans ahead?

Ienaka

The systems and tools we built with WOGO are very well regarded inside the company. People use them naturally, without needing any special manual. Our plan now is to develop them further and sell them outside the company as well. We are discussing it with our shareholders, and we would be delighted to have WOGO alongside us on that journey – including the strategy for how we win in the market with this product.

Ienaka’s frank comments made clear both his satisfaction with the partnership and his strong expectations for the business ahead. WOGO will continue to engage sincerely with the challenges facing conetto and all our customers, supporting their success through technology. Ienaka, thank you for sharing your time and your thoughts with us.

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