85,000 New Users, Zero Increase in Inquiries: How Hokkaido Bank Scaled Digital Banking Without Scaling Support Calls

Hokkaido Bank, Ltd.

Banking·1,001+ employees·Customer Support

85,000 New Users, Zero Increase in Inquiries: How Hokkaido Bank Scaled Digital Banking Without Scaling Support Calls

At a glance

• App user base grew by 85,000 in one year while inquiry volume held flat
• Inquiry channel shifted from 100% phone toward web self-service
• PDCA improvement cycle now driven from the contact center

The Challenge

Hokkaido Bank's digital banking success created a support challenge. With over 550,000 app users and growing, inquiries to the call center were rising in direct proportion. Customers often called simply because they couldn't find answers, saying "I don't know what to do, so I had no choice but to call." FAQs were scattered across individual product pages, and if customers couldn't navigate to the right page, they couldn't resolve their question. On peak days like Mondays and paydays, the phones were temporarily unreachable.

The team knew many inquiries covered topics already documented in the FAQ, but information wasn't reaching customers. Despite this, they had no structure or expertise for improving the FAQ. Meanwhile, the app's features and services continued to expand, and inquiries grew more complex.

Why Helpfeel

When a group-wide website redesign presented an opportunity to standardize the FAQ across Hokkaido Bank and Hokuriku Bank, three factors drove the decision to choose Helpfeel:

High customer convenience. Helpfeel's simple design and intent-prediction search could return the right information even when customers searched using a wide variety of words and phrases.

Migration support. The team was uncertain how to migrate approximately 400 existing FAQ articles and had no internal expertise. Receiving support through the migration process provided essential peace of mind.

Ongoing operational support. With no structure for FAQ operations, the team worried they might "implement it and then let it go stale." Continuous Customer Success support was essential to prevent that outcome.

What They Did

• Built an operational structure around the launch. Nishihigashi handles article planning and creation. Katsumi, who manages the call center, joined the effort to ensure front-line customer voices informed the FAQ. The entire call center team participated in migrating and improving articles, drawing on operators' deep knowledge of what customers struggle with.

• Focused on the no-hit rate as a priority KPI. Whenever search log data revealed a gap where customers couldn't resolve their questions, the team treated it as a priority and addressed it immediately.

• Ran monthly PDCA improvement cycles. Monthly review meetings with Helpfeel's Customer Success team provided data analysis that made improvement priorities clear. One memorable insight: "balance inquiry" was being searched frequently. After years in banking, the team assumed everyone could check their balance without trouble, but the data revealed meaningful customer confusion.

• Set up navigation from the app to Helpfeel early. This decision ensured customers could self-serve directly from the context where questions arose.

• Shared insights across the organization. The team circulated monthly review meeting materials to other departments, raising awareness of how the FAQ was being used and what challenges remained. This generated requests from administrative departments to add articles and improvements.

Results

"Even as the number of new app registrations reached approximately 85,000 in the past year and the user base keeps growing, inquiry volume has held flat. Given that non-face-to-face channel capabilities have expanded and there are now more services customers can use without visiting a branch, this is a significant achievement."

Katsumi Shinsuke, Senior Staff, Direct Banking Center

Inquiries about basic functions, such as address changes, are trending downward, indicating customers are successfully self-serving through the FAQ. The ability to publish article updates and edits immediately has been transformative. With the old FAQ, even minor corrections could take around two weeks through an external production company. Now the team can publish changes the same day if needed.

The operational benefits extend beyond metrics. Running the PDCA cycle gives the team a tangible sense that they're helping more customers resolve issues through the FAQ. Call center operators are contributing advice on how to improve articles, and seeing their input reflected in the FAQ has become a source of motivation.

Looking Ahead

Hokkaido Bank is redesigning its website with the goal of strengthening customer touchpoints across non-face-to-face channels. In an era where digital has become the norm, the website and app serve as a "non-face-to-face branch." The FAQ plays a central role in this vision, not just as a means of handling inquiries, but as a navigation function that provides detailed product and service information and guides customers through procedures.

The team plans to design seamless connections from the FAQ to related functions such as account opening, transfers, and various update procedures. They're also exploring how to leverage AI and other technologies to improve operational efficiency and the quality of customer touchpoints, building what they call "evolving digital banking capabilities" with the FAQ at the center.

“Even as the number of new app registrations reached approximately 85,000 in the past year and the user base keeps growing, inquiry volume has held flat. Given that non-face-to-face channel capabilities have expanded and there are now more services customers can use without visiting a branch, this is a significant achievement.”

— Katsumi Shinsuke, Senior Staff, Direct Banking Center