80% of Users Found What They Needed: How Aiful Turned FAQ Reach into Customer Resolution

Aiful Corporation

Financial Services·1,001+ employees·Customer Support

80% of Users Found What They Needed: How Aiful Turned FAQ Reach into Customer Resolution

At a glance

• FAQ reach rate of 80% (target was 40%)
• No-hit rate of 3% (target was below 10%)
• FAQ page views doubled to 400,000 in peak months

The Challenge

Aiful Corporation, a consumer finance provider with over 1,000 employees, faced a support volume challenge that came with growth: on busy days, phone inquiries alone reached 2,000 calls, with normal days averaging 1,000 to 1,500. On top of that, the team handled approximately 500 live chat inquiries and 100 emails per day, all with fewer than 30 operators.

The root cause was clear. Over 90% of new customers completed their loan applications online, but when it came time to actually use the service, questions arose. The existing FAQ had been carefully written and regularly updated, but customers couldn't find the answers they needed. When self-service failed, they picked up the phone.

Aiful had focused primarily on how FAQ articles appeared to customers, but that approach alone hadn't reduced inquiry volume. The team knew that if customers could search the FAQ more effectively and find answers on their own, it would reduce inquiry volume and lead to smoother transactions. The challenge was getting customers to the right information.

Why Helpfeel

What attracted Aiful was the approach to search itself. The ability to handle word variations and vague or imprecise search terms offered a fresh pathway they'd never seen before. The Helpfeel structure prepares multiple question pathways to help customers find the route that actually leads to resolution.

The speed of search in the trial demo was genuinely impressive. Watching it return results for virtually any keyword gave the team a real sense that it would work.

The support structure was also a deciding factor. Aiful needed a partner who could guide them beyond article content and into the entire customer journey to those articles.

What They Did

• Implemented Helpfeel's search-based FAQ system with a focus on mobile (97% of their FAQ users access from mobile devices)
• Thoroughly reviewed not just article content, but the entire path customers take to reach the information they need
• Built pathways within the FAQ that link from the smartphone app to relevant web pages where customers can find clear, visual information
• Operators began using Helpfeel's search capabilities to quickly pull up the latest information while listening to customer questions, giving them confidence to respond with certainty
• Participated in regular Customer Success review meetings where data analysis methods and keyword refinement were refined based on the psychological mindset of users behind their searches
• Introduced Helpfeel's generative AI FAQ Draft Generation feature to improve the efficiency of article creation
• Expanded FAQ operations to a cross-departmental effort, with other business units requesting articles to help customers self-resolve questions

Results

All KPIs significantly exceeded their targets. The article reach rate surpassed 80% from the very first month after launch in March 2023, doubling the 40% target. The no-hit rate came in at approximately 3%, well below the 10% target. FAQ article monthly page views increased from 200,000 to up to 400,000 in peak months, a 1.5x to 2x increase.

Previously, customer satisfaction surveys showed only 3% of FAQ visitors found the content helpful. After Helpfeel, the team now has a real sense that articles are actually reaching customers.

Operators handling inquiries also benefited. Being able to quickly pull up the latest information while listening to a customer's question gave operators the confidence to respond with certainty and direct customers to specific resources.

The Customer Success partnership delivered concrete, data-based advice that fed directly into article improvements. Review meetings pinpointed pain points and made them visible in a concrete way, with proposals that were always persuasive and grounded in patterns observed across many implementations.

"No matter how good an FAQ article is, it's worthless if customers never find it. The fact that Helpfeel is designed with the entire journey to the article in mind, not just the article itself, is what makes it truly excellent."

Nanase, Contact Center

Looking Ahead

Aiful is working to turn FAQ reach into a measurable reduction in phone inquiry volume, with a near-term goal of a 2% reduction. The next phase is improving the quality and accuracy of the content itself.

Beyond the FAQ, the team wants to identify confusing words, ambiguous terminology, and unclear expressions within the app, and surface those observations to the development team as recommendations. As that data accumulates, they plan to collaborate with departments capable of large-scale data analysis for further validation.

The development team is also exploring whether Helpfeel could be applied not just to the FAQ but also to on-site search, with the hope that as the system becomes more robust, that kind of integration becomes feasible.

“No matter how good an FAQ article is, it's worthless if customers never find it. The fact that Helpfeel is designed with the entire journey to the article in mind, not just the article itself, is what makes it truly excellent.”

— Nanase, Contact Center