Odakyu Electric Railway is known for its "Romance Car" express trains in Japan that connect Hakone, Enoshima, and other prominent tourist destinations with central Tokyo.
They began a drastic change in their travel business in 2021. The company completely moved over from a handling a wide range of domestic and international travel for individuals through its brick-and-mortar stores to online sales of travel products focusing on Odakyu rail lines and destinations.
In line with this major transformation, customer contact points have also shifted from face-to-face and telephone to website and application. Helpfeel was used to enhance the help center so that questions can be quickly resolved on the same smartphones customers use to purchase and present digital ticket reservations. As a result, telephone inquiries have been greatly reduced under the new structure.
We asked Hideyuki Nakamura, Project Manager of the Tourism Business Development Department of the company, about the deciding factors for choosing Helpfeel, the current status, and the effects they saw after introducing Helpfeel.
Taking the Coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to shift travel business from brick-and-mortar stores to online.
──First, please tell us about your responsibilities and your involvement with Helpfeel.
I originally belonged to Odakyu Travel Inc. and worked as a store manager in its actual stores in Shinjuku and Machida, Tokyo. Currently, I am seconded to Odakyu Corporation, the parent company, and I am in charge of business promotion and customer service under a new system of online sales of products specializing in Hakone and Odawara, which are along the railway lines nearby.
Odakyu Travel's website was renewed in June 2023, and it offers "dynamic packages" that allow customers to freely combine transportation, lodging, and local sightseeing. Here help pages for reservations and purchases are provided by Helpfeel, which was introduced in anticipation of the site revamp, and I am also responsible for its operation.
――You introduced Helpfeel at a time when your business itself was undergoing major changes. What was the background to the change and what were the key issues you faced?
From 2021, the Odakyu Group has been promoting initiatives to become a "regional value-creation company" by developing new demand for sightseeing destinations along its lines and creating tourism experiences that take advantage of unique regional characteristics.
As part of this effort, we began strengthening our travel business with an eye on the after-corona market. Specifically, it was decided to eliminate nearly 20 brick-and-mortar stores that handled a variety of domestic and international travel for individuals, and to specialize in "direct online sales" of travel in and around the Odakyu rail lines.
This means that while we will retain our mainstay products such as "Hakone by Romance Car", the new system changed the way we offer our services, as we no longer provide paper tickets and face-to-face customer service.
At the same time, the reservation system, staffing, and other aspects were reviewed to best suit direct online sales. We have been studying the best way to provide information on the Web and to reduce the number of telephone calls and emails.
Even though Odakyu Travel had a help center on its website when we primarily offered in-person and telephone support, it was rarely used. However, under the new structure the role of the help center became much more significant. How to construct a help center that would enable customers to quickly obtain the information they need became a major challenge
A new smartphone-only reservation system aiming for ease of use, even for first time customers.
──Can you tell us why you chose Helpfeel as your new help center?
We decided to change from a conventional FAQ, which only had a list of questions and answers to one in which related answers are automatically displayed when a search word is entered.
We chose Helpfeel after comparing several products that could do this, because we thought it would be the easiest for our customers to use, with features such as the ability to prominently display the most frequently asked questions. It was also important to us that we were able to see how Helpfeel worked in practice with the example of other businesses in our industry.
──What kind of information did you want to focus on with Helpfeel?
Considering that the majority of people already own smartphones, we have shifted our sales channel to the web, where people can make reservations by themselves from their phones.
At the same time, however, our new reservation system had a flow that may be a bit confusing if you are not familiar with it. Therefore, we wanted to make use of help content to ensure smooth operation from the very first time. In particular, we had in mind the handling of tickets booked by multiple people.
The Romance Car and other tickets included in Odakyu Travel products are sold exclusively via the Internet, and digital tickets are obtained and presented via an app or other means from one smartphone per person. Similarly, the Hakone Free Pass, which allows unlimited rides within the Hakone Mountains, also has a digital ticket that requires a smartphone for each person.
In other words, for each of these products, one person cannot acquire digital tickets for everyone or present them together on behalf of the group, and the representative/companion of the group must follow the prescribed procedure. We considered the possibility of explaining this point online.
――How did you go about formulating help topics and creating answers?
First, we created a new set of questions and answers within the company. Specifically, we asked several employees with extensive experience in dealing with customers both in person and over the phone to list “likely inquiries.” The common questions were consolidated into a single question, and we created answers to respond to them.
The most frequently asked questions, such as “Can you change the time of the Romance Car on the same day?” were placed at the top of the list, where they could be clicked on quickly, so that users could get answers without having to enter words.
Frequently used words such as “Romance Car,” “change,” and “cancel” are also placed at the top of the list, and when clicked, a list of related questions is displayed so that the user can search for an answer among them.
Call volume was reduced by 96% and the number of phone lines was cut in half
――Please tell us about your current use of Helpfeel.
Helpfeel has been in full operation since June 2023, when the reservation site reopened after a three-month preparatory period for site renewal. 116 help pages have now been created, with more to be added.
Regarding the ongoing challenge of handling digital tickets for group reservations, we have first provided a general explanation page “How to access digital tickets for each member of a group reservation” in response to questions such as “I can’t find my digital ticket.”
For more detailed explanations, links to other content on the site are provided. For example, one page has a link to a PDF with a step by step guide showing how the person who made the reservation can help each member of their group to access their digital ticket on their own device.
――Have you seen an effect on your call volume?
Although direct comparisons cannot be made due to factors such as the elimination of telephone numbers on the site and fluctuations in travel demand, we had over 3,600 unique visitors to Helpfeel in one month, and we believe that this has contributed to a significant reduction in telephone calls.
Based on these results, we were able to reduce the number of telephone lines used to handle customer calls by half and also to reduce the number of staff responding to calls.
Aiming for more detailed and comprehensive content by delegating updates directly to support staff
――What are your impressions of operating Helpfeel day to day and the support it provides?
Compared to basic FAQs, Helpfeel is much easier to use, not only in terms of convenience for users, but also in terms of maintainability for operators, such as the ease of modifying and adding answers.
It is good to be able to see the trends of help content usage by visitors to the site in real time. I have been serving customers in person and on the phone for a long time, and the daily results show that help pages serve many more people than I could have ever imagined.
In our case, the trend and contents of contact messages were clear from the beginning, so we asked Helpfeel for assistance before and after the introduction to improve the flow so that we could immediately check the message content.
Specifically, we asked Helpfeel to adjust the display order of frequently used keywords, such as “cancel” and “change” so that customers could find the answers to top questions, and this improved usability.
――Finally, what is your outlook for the future use of Helpfeel?
Odakyu Electric Railway Headquarters Building
According to the analysis of user behavior on Helpfeel, it seems that a large number of people are reading our help pages carefully, and it seems that because they are getting answers to their questions, the number of telephone calls is actually decreasing.
I intend to share the work of adding pages to Helpfeel in the near future. I would like to further enrich the help content we have available, and make it possible to find all the explanations that are yet to be consolidated in Helpfeel.
In addition, we would like to focus on improving support for seniors who browse the website but have difficulty making ticket reservations. We are already holding an Odakyu Travel Smartphone Reservation Class every day at the Odakyu Travel Center in Shinjuku, Tokyo where we invite customers to bring their own smartphones for face-to-face classes.
