25% Fewer Inquiries in One Month: Persol Business Process Design Scales Internal Support for 4,600 Employees

Persol Business Process Design Co., Ltd.

Business Process Outsourcing / Consulting·1,001+ employees·Internal Helpdesk

25% Fewer Inquiries in One Month: Persol Business Process Design Scales Internal Support for 4,600 Employees

At a glance

• Internal inquiries cut 25% in one month
• Search utilization rate increased 10% within two months
• 500 internal FAQ pages serving 4,600 employees
• First-response KPI: 95% within 15 minutes

The Challenge

Persol Business Process Design operates an internal helpdesk called the Concierge Desk, serving approximately 4,600 employees across IT, HR, accounting, and a wide range of other topics. The three-person team set a KPI of responding to 95% of inquiries within 15 minutes, while also working to accumulate knowledge and improve operational efficiency.

The company had long encouraged employees to self-serve using an FAQ system, and internal surveys showed that 60% of employees would use the FAQ if they encountered a problem. But the existing FAQ system relied on exact keyword matching, returning zero results when employees didn't type precisely the right terms. As a workaround, staff embedded hundreds of search keywords in each FAQ page, which created a new problem: too many candidate pages appeared, making it impossible to find the most relevant answer. Employees reported dissatisfaction with the system's low search hit rate.

The team knew that with the right search performance, they could promote employee self-service and allow the Concierge Desk to respond faster and more carefully to inquiries that genuinely needed human support.

Why Helpfeel

When the team first heard about Helpfeel's 98% search hit rate, they were surprised. After testing a Helpfeel-deployed site, they confirmed it could recommend appropriate FAQ pages even for colloquial expressions, vague phrasing, spelling variations, and typos. They believed Helpfeel would help employees find information more easily, promote self-service, and contribute significantly to achieving the 95% first-response KPI.

Beyond search performance, the clean, minimal user interface resonated immediately with the team.

What They Did

• Introduced Helpfeel in June 2021, initially running in parallel with the existing FAQ system
• Published approximately 500 internal FAQ pages on the platform
• Promoted Helpfeel to employees at a company-wide all-hands meeting, encouraging greater use of the FAQ site than before

Results

Following deployment, search performance improved markedly. As employees became able to find relevant FAQ pages using colloquial expressions, vague phrasing, spelling variations, or even typos, awareness spread that "you can actually find what you need on the FAQ site."

Search utilization rate (the proportion of employees conducting searches relative to total headcount) increased by approximately 10% within two months of launch. Employees began self-serving on the Helpfeel-powered FAQ site, reducing the number of inquiries requiring human support, including seasonally driven inquiries such as those about health check-ups.

Inquiry volume decreased by approximately 25% in just one month after launch compared to pre-implementation levels.

The improvement was noticed beyond the immediate team: other departments started requesting that Helpfeel be introduced to their teams, and some asked for proposal materials to recommend it to their own clients. Additionally, because it was no longer necessary to embed large numbers of search keywords within each FAQ page, the time required to maintain FAQ pages was reduced, and the pages themselves became more reader-friendly and easier to understand.

"We didn't know there was an FAQ system that could improve search performance this dramatically."

Kenta Ito, Digital Promotion Group

Looking Ahead

Going forward, the team plans to focus on analyzing FAQ site usage. They intend to analyze metrics such as search keywords, pages viewed, and re-search rates to further promote FAQ usage and improve self-service rates. Monthly review meetings are planned to translate data analysis into concrete improvement actions.

At the organizational level, the Concierge Desk plays a critical role in improving overall productivity, serving as the sole internal helpdesk for approximately 4,600 employees. Helpfeel supports that mission. The team's goal is to deepen adoption of Helpfeel further and embed a culture where each individual employee feels empowered to self-serve.

“We didn't know there was an FAQ system that could improve search performance this dramatically.”

— Kenta Ito, Digital Promotion Group