For Japan-based Genki Japanese and Culture School (GenkiJACS), language education is about much more than grammar and vocabulary.
Since 2005, GenkiJACS has helped more than 12,000 students from around the world learn Japanese while immersing themselves in local Japanese communities and culture. Across five campuses throughout the country, the organization’s guiding philosophy is simple: Learn Japan.
“Our thought process is that language is culture,” says Dmitry Ser, sales and communications lead at GenkiJACS.
Long before students arrive in Japan, they begin their journey. Over the course of weeks or even months, they complete placement testing, submit documents, share recordings, and work closely with GenkiJACS staff to prepare for life in a new country.
For Ser, maintaining a personal connection throughout that journey is essential.
Jotform allows us to force-multiply what we do.
Dmitry Ser, Sales and Communications Lead, GenkiJACS
Ten years ago, he was a GenkiJACS student himself. Today, he helps prospective students navigate the same process that brought him to Japan. Ser understands how important personal guidance can be for students preparing to move halfway around the world.
“Our customer service is everything,” he says. Since 2014, GenkiJACS has used Jotform to make data collection easy for everyone involved — from students to staff.
As GenkiJACS expanded operations across Japan, Ser faced a new challenge: how to grow the organization without losing the personal touch that defines the GenkiJACS experience.
To help preserve that experience, GenkiJACS upgraded to Jotform Enterprise.
Case study results at a glance
108K form submissions
Unlimited submissions support a months-long onboarding process that requires enrollment data, program-specific forms, and more.
Collaboration across 5 campuses
Jotform Enterprise supported the GenkiJACS marketing, student support, and academic teams as the organization grew from three campuses to five.
107 optimized online forms
Using Jotform Enterprise Analytics, GenkiJACS staff optimize forms to ensure high submission rates.
Scaling a high-touch student experience
Growth at GenkiJACS has accelerated in recent years. The school expanded to Okinawa and Nagoya, in addition to campuses in Fukuoka, Tokyo, and Kyoto.
The organization collects and manages a wealth of information throughout the student life cycle, from initial inquiries and enrollment documentation to onboarding communications and ongoing support.
“We are a very demanding school,” Ser says. “We want our students to have the best possible experience. For that, we have tests and requirements in place, which makes our onboarding process quite complex.”
Staff previously spent considerable time monitoring online form submissions, following up on missing information, and manually advancing students through the onboarding process.
“When we have a student who has to submit a bunch of forms, we used to push the next form to them manually,” says Ser.
At the same time, teams wanted more visibility into student engagement, greater flexibility to improve forms and workflows, and stronger oversight of the sensitive information they collect. At the administrative level, data security was also a concern.
Ser needed a solution that could support growth while preserving the personalized experience that sets GenkiJACS apart.
More visibility, less manual work
To support its growing operations, GenkiJACS upgraded to Jotform Enterprise.
“Enterprise is a whole different beast compared to our Silver account,” says Ser.
The upgrade gave Ser more freedom to experiment, more visibility into the onboarding process, and more time to focus on supporting students. Jotform Enterprise is now used across marketing, student support, and academic teams.
Since teams can create as many forms as they wish, they can duplicate forms and refine them as processes evolve.
| How GenkiJACS uses Jotform Enterprise | ||
|---|---|---|
| Department | Primary use case | Key Enterprise benefits |
| Marketing and sales | Lead capture, inquiry forms, submission tracking, form optimization, market research | Admin Console Analytics, visibility into engagement and conversion rates |
| Student support and admissions | Student onboarding, enrollment workflows, automated reminders, document collection, ongoing communications | Seamless workflows, conditional logic, automated follow-ups, reduced manual administration |
| Academic and teaching teams | Placement testing, student information collection, enrollment data, program-specific forms | Centralized data collection, conditional logic, easier access to student information |
Additionally, the Jotform Enterprise Admin Console provides greater visibility into submission trends, engagement, and form performance. This helps teams identify friction points and improve form completion rates.
Jotform Workflows delivered another major benefit. Today, automated workflows send reminders about incomplete forms, collect critical onboarding information, and move students through enrollment processes without requiring constant manual oversight.
Rather than spending time tracking down missing information, staff can focus on supporting students directly.
“It gives me peace of mind,” Ser says.
Supporting students also means protecting their information. As GenkiJACS grew, data governance became increasingly important.
“Japan has its own laws. So we need to make sure that we adhere to those,” Ser says.
Jotform Enterprise features local data residency centers to help support the organization’s compliance efforts.
Conditional logic has also become an important part of daily operations. Forms automatically route prospective students to the appropriate representative based on location and program requirements.
Jotform’s visual interface has made adoption easy across departments. Even advanced tools like Jotform Workflows proved approachable with the platform’s drag-and-drop capabilities.
“Workflows are just logic. It’s programming by dragging and dropping,” he says. “I think simplicity of use is paramount when choosing a tool like Jotform.”
Ser summed up his experience with Jotform Enterprise this way: “It’s simplicity of use, data, and your customer service. And how transparent your people are, how transparent the service is. There are no extra or hidden costs. The amount of customer service that we receive is what we were hoping for.”
Jotform: A force multiplier
Today, GenkiJACS staff spends less time managing administrative tasks and more time supporting students. Automated workflows ensure critical information is collected consistently while reducing the need for manual follow-up.
“It takes time to get used to because until now it was very much ‘OK, we need to do this,’ and now we can take our hands off the wheel and say, ‘The system is working.’ We only get involved if there is an issue,” Ser says.
By using Admin Console Analytics and submission data, teams can identify friction points, improve form completion rates, and make informed decisions about student communications.
Enterprise is like a playground with loads of tools that are useful. And the cool thing is, this playground has a bunch of adults who can help you.
Dmitry Ser, Sales and Communications Lead, GenkiJACS
Those insights allow GenkiJACS to continuously refine its enrollment and onboarding processes. Rather than relying on assumptions, teams can see how students interact with forms and make adjustments that improve the overall experience.
Most importantly, automation has helped GenkiJACS scale without compromising its people-first philosophy.
Ser says reducing repetitive administrative work allows employees to focus on customer service and the onboarding process, where personal interaction makes a difference.
With more reliable processes running in the background, staff can spend less time chasing data and more time helping students feel prepared, supported, and connected before they arrive in Japan.
“Jotform allows us to force-multiply what we do,” says Ser.
Growing without losing the personal touch
For GenkiJACS, Jotform Enterprise isn’t about replacing people. It’s about helping people do their best work.
GenkiJACS has created more time for the conversations, guidance, and support that students remember long after they leave the classroom. This enables the organization to stay focused on its guiding philosophy: helping students not just learn Japanese but learn Japan.
As GenkiJACS continues to grow, Ser sees opportunities to further expand its use of Jotform Enterprise.
He knows his team won’t be navigating those opportunities alone. Throughout the organization’s transition to Enterprise, Jotform’s onboarding, customer success, and technical teams helped GenkiJACS implement new workflows, troubleshoot integrations, and identify ways to get more value from the platform.
“Enterprise is like a playground with loads of tools that are useful,” Ser says. “And the cool thing is, this playground has a bunch of adults who can help you.”
Ser is happy for the help. Because for him, the biggest opportunity isn’t a single feature. It’s the freedom to keep improving the student experience as GenkiJACS grows.
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