SmartDrive Reduces Onboarding Workload by 60% with Pendo Implementation
Pendo.io Japan announced that SmartDrive implemented Pendo, resulting in a 60% reduction in onboarding time, streamlined support, and increased up-sells through enhanced data integration.
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- 📰 Published: April 15, 2026 at 19:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 15, 2026 at 10:31
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Pendo.io Japan Co., Ltd. (Location: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Country Manager: Kazunari Hanao, hereinafter 'Pendo Japan'), the Japanese subsidiary of Pendo, a software experience management platform that integrates product analytics and AI agent utilization support, announces that SmartDrive Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Retsu Kitagawa, hereinafter 'SmartDrive') has implemented Pendo, achieving a 60% reduction in onboarding workload, suppressing inquiry volume, and increasing up-sell order amounts.
Details of this case study can be found here: https://www.pendo.io/ja-jp/customers/smartdrive/
SmartDrive is a mobility SaaS company with the vision of 'driving the evolution of mobility.' Its flagship vehicle management service, 'SmartDrive Fleet', has been implemented by over 2,000 companies, offering a web application for administrators and a mobile app for drivers. With the increase in the number of adopting companies, the onboarding burden grew and the number of inquiries surged. As a solution, Pendo was officially implemented in October 2024.
Background of Pendo Implementation – Departmental Challenges Led to Pendo
Before implementing Pendo, the company's Customer Success (CS) team faced challenges with the onboarding efficiency per company, as the number of clients exceeded 2,000. Additionally, the Customer Care team struggled with manual responses as the volume of inquiries steadily increased alongside service growth.
In a company where a cross-functional organizational culture takes root, under the leadership of Shinya Shiojiri, who oversees the entire product as a Product Manager, they began selecting a tool capable of solving the challenges of each department. The comparative review was conducted jointly by three departments: CS, Customer Care, and Product, using a checklist to carefully confirm not only functionality but also usability and operational burden. The deciding factors for implementing Pendo were the richness of data allowing multifaceted understanding of user behavior and the ability to cover both web and mobile apps with a single tool.
Utilizing Pendo as a Data Infrastructure – Achieving Substantial Efficiency Gains
Now, a year and a half after implementation, the company uses Pendo not only as a guide and analytics tool but also as a cornerstone of their internal data infrastructure.
The Customer Care team now utilizes Pendo's mechanism for tracking user behavior, enabling them to accurately grasp the operational context behind inquiries. The accuracy of root cause investigations during inquiry handling has improved, resulting in a reduction of escalations to the development team. As a progressive initiative, they have successfully integrated their inquiry handling system with Pendo to streamline responses.
On the product side, by bidirectionally integrating the SFA managing contract information with Pendo, it became possible to reference the assigned CS representative's information when checking user behavior data on Pendo, and conversely, to grasp each customer's usage status from the SFA side. Furthermore, previously, the tools for capturing user data on the web and mobile apps were not unified; when new data was needed, a request to engineers was required, taking over two weeks to reflect in production. By configuring it on the Pendo screen, the report in the BI tool can be reflected the very next day, realizing significant efficiency improvements.
In CS, as a result of working on onboarding support utilizing Pendo's tooltips and guides, 60% of all assigned companies in the SMB segment transitioned to self-onboarding. This significantly reduced handling workload. By redirecting the generated resources to high-touch support, the up-sell order amounts have also increased.
Pendo Implementation as a Catalyst for Organizational Change
Furthermore, as each department advanced their initiatives along with results, a new role emerged within the company. Positioned within the product management team led by Shiojiri, this role acts as a hub connecting the product and business teams, centered around data analysis. By combining customer understanding cultivated on the front lines with behavioral data obtained through Pendo, they aim for a structure that can more precisely grasp 'how customers are using it.'
Shiojiri states the following:
'I feel it is a truly excellent tool with a solidly built concept as a product.
The fact that web and mobile...'
Details of this case study can be found here: https://www.pendo.io/ja-jp/customers/smartdrive/
SmartDrive is a mobility SaaS company with the vision of 'driving the evolution of mobility.' Its flagship vehicle management service, 'SmartDrive Fleet', has been implemented by over 2,000 companies, offering a web application for administrators and a mobile app for drivers. With the increase in the number of adopting companies, the onboarding burden grew and the number of inquiries surged. As a solution, Pendo was officially implemented in October 2024.
Background of Pendo Implementation – Departmental Challenges Led to Pendo
Before implementing Pendo, the company's Customer Success (CS) team faced challenges with the onboarding efficiency per company, as the number of clients exceeded 2,000. Additionally, the Customer Care team struggled with manual responses as the volume of inquiries steadily increased alongside service growth.
In a company where a cross-functional organizational culture takes root, under the leadership of Shinya Shiojiri, who oversees the entire product as a Product Manager, they began selecting a tool capable of solving the challenges of each department. The comparative review was conducted jointly by three departments: CS, Customer Care, and Product, using a checklist to carefully confirm not only functionality but also usability and operational burden. The deciding factors for implementing Pendo were the richness of data allowing multifaceted understanding of user behavior and the ability to cover both web and mobile apps with a single tool.
Utilizing Pendo as a Data Infrastructure – Achieving Substantial Efficiency Gains
Now, a year and a half after implementation, the company uses Pendo not only as a guide and analytics tool but also as a cornerstone of their internal data infrastructure.
The Customer Care team now utilizes Pendo's mechanism for tracking user behavior, enabling them to accurately grasp the operational context behind inquiries. The accuracy of root cause investigations during inquiry handling has improved, resulting in a reduction of escalations to the development team. As a progressive initiative, they have successfully integrated their inquiry handling system with Pendo to streamline responses.
On the product side, by bidirectionally integrating the SFA managing contract information with Pendo, it became possible to reference the assigned CS representative's information when checking user behavior data on Pendo, and conversely, to grasp each customer's usage status from the SFA side. Furthermore, previously, the tools for capturing user data on the web and mobile apps were not unified; when new data was needed, a request to engineers was required, taking over two weeks to reflect in production. By configuring it on the Pendo screen, the report in the BI tool can be reflected the very next day, realizing significant efficiency improvements.
In CS, as a result of working on onboarding support utilizing Pendo's tooltips and guides, 60% of all assigned companies in the SMB segment transitioned to self-onboarding. This significantly reduced handling workload. By redirecting the generated resources to high-touch support, the up-sell order amounts have also increased.
Pendo Implementation as a Catalyst for Organizational Change
Furthermore, as each department advanced their initiatives along with results, a new role emerged within the company. Positioned within the product management team led by Shiojiri, this role acts as a hub connecting the product and business teams, centered around data analysis. By combining customer understanding cultivated on the front lines with behavioral data obtained through Pendo, they aim for a structure that can more precisely grasp 'how customers are using it.'
Shiojiri states the following:
'I feel it is a truly excellent tool with a solidly built concept as a product.
The fact that web and mobile...'