How Aircall Uses Tandem to Drive 20% Higher Activation for Self-Serve Accounts

Tandem helps the cloud-based phone system provider transform complex technical onboarding into conversational guidance, enabling thousands of small businesses to self-activate without human intervention

The Challenge: Small Teams Couldn't Figure Out The Product Alone

Aircall serves thousands of companies with their cloud phone system. When they started targeting smaller businesses (under 10 seats), they hit a problem: these teams couldn't afford onboarding help, but the product was too complex to set up alone.

"We were seeing concerning feedback in our G2 reviews about self-onboarding difficulty," explains Alyssa Kosti, Senior Product Manager who owns the activation flow at Aircall. "Small businesses were struggling with technical decisions that our Account Managers typically guide for larger accounts."

Users had just 7 days of free trial to experience value. But setup required:

• Choosing the right phone number type (local vs toll-free vs national)
• Configuring call routing and IVRs (called "smartflows")
• Completing regulatory requirements
• Integrating with their CRM

Most gave up before making their first call.

Impact Summary

• 20% increase in user activation for self-serve accounts
• Thousands of users successfully onboarded alone
• 7-day trial conversion significantly improved
• Zero engineering resources required—no CSS tags or IDs needed
• 3-10x higher engagement compared to traditional product tours

The Solution: An AI Agent That Guides Users Through Setup

Aircall implemented Tandem in minutes with a JavaScript snippet. The AI agent now appears at the right moments to help users through complex decisions.

"It was ready to run directly—we didn't even need to add IDs or tags to our CSS," notes Paul Yi, Senior Software Engineer. "Tandem just understood our interface."

Use Case 1: Helping Users Pick The Right Phone Number

The Problem: New users see options like "Local," "National," "Toll-free," "International" and don't know which to choose. Each has different costs and implications for their business.

How Tandem Helps: The AI agent appears and asks: "What kind of business do you run and who will call you?"

If you say "We're a local plumbing company in Austin," Tandem recommends a local 512 number and explains: "Local numbers build trust with area customers. Perfect for service businesses."

The user gets the right number type without reading documentation or opening a support ticket.

Use Case 2: Setting Up Call Flows (Smartflows) Without Technical Knowledge

Smartflows let users build IVRs ("Press 1 for sales, 2 for support") and routing rules. It's powerful but intimidating.

"Users would see 'Create a smartflow' and freeze," says Kosti. "They didn't know what it was or why they needed it."

Now Tandem:

• Explains what smartflows do in plain language
• Asks about their needs ("Do you want callers to reach different departments?")
• Suggests the right template
• Guides through each step of configuration

Small businesses now build sophisticated call routing without help.

Results: More Users Succeed Without Support

The 20% activation increase changed Aircall's economics for serving small accounts. Features that required human explanation are now self-serve.

"We're seeing users successfully configure features that typically required support intervention," says Tom Chen, CPO. "That's transforming which customers we can serve profitably."

Additional impacts:

• Support tickets for setup questions dropped significantly
• Users discovered advanced features they would have missed
• Small accounts became profitable to acquire

What's Next

Aircall is expanding Tandem to help users discover their AI agent product. "We're using AI to help users adopt AI," explains Kosti. "It sounds recursive but it works."

The Bottom Line

Instead of spending months building their own solution, Aircall was live with Tandem in days. For a company racing to capture the SMB market, that speed mattered.

"Tandem gives every small business what feels like their own Customer Success Manager," concludes Chen. "It's changed who can successfully use our product."

Company Information

• Company: Aircall
• Industry: Communications/SaaS
• Headquarters: Paris, France / New York, USA
• Employees: 500+
• Implementation time: Minutes