diff --git a/src/.env.local.js.example b/src/.env.local.js.example
index f6015dd..2da4d1f 100644
--- a/src/.env.local.js.example
+++ b/src/.env.local.js.example
@@ -46,11 +46,11 @@ module.exports = {
   //   'ds_federated_date',
   //   'sm_federated_terms',
   // ],
-  // OPTIONAL: Provides config for adding autocomplete functionality to text search
+  // OPTIONAL: Provides config for adding autocomplete functionality to text search, defaults to false
   // autocomplete : {
   //   url: <your-endpoint-for-autocomplete-results>, // required @todo document accepted types
-  //   queryField: 'tem_suggestion_title', // REQUIRED
-  //   suggestionRows: 5, // REQUIRED: no current default set
+  //   appendWildcard: true, // OPTIONAL: defaults to false, whether or not to append wildcard to query term
+  //   suggestionRows: 5, // OPTIONAL: defaults to 5
   //   numChars: 2, // OPTIONAL: defaults to 2, number of characters *after* which autocomplete results should appear
   //   mode: 'result', // REQUIRED: show search-as-you-type results ('result', default) or search term ('term') suggestions
   //   result: { // OPTIONAL: define result based autocomplete-specific config
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ module.exports = {
   //   },
   //   term: { // OPTIONAL: define term based autocomplete-specific config
   //     titleText: 'What would you like to search for?', // OPTIONAL: default set
-  //     showDirectionsText: true, // OPTIONAL: defaults to false
+  //     showDirectionsText: false, // OPTIONAL: defaults to true
   //   },
   // },
 };
diff --git a/src/components/text-search/search-as-you-type.js b/src/components/text-search/search-as-you-type.js
index 4f499e9..4e47830 100644
--- a/src/components/text-search/search-as-you-type.js
+++ b/src/components/text-search/search-as-you-type.js
@@ -178,14 +178,14 @@ class FederatedTextSearchAsYouType extends React.Component {
       ? this.props.autocomplete.result.titleText
       : 'What are you looking for?';
     const resultShowDirectionsText = hasResultModeConfig
-      && this.props.autocomplete.result.showDirectionsText
+      && Object.hasOwnProperty.call(this.props.autocomplete.result, 'showDirectionsText')
       ? this.props.autocomplete.result.showDirectionsText
       : true;
     const termTitleText = hasTermModeConfig && this.props.autocomplete.term.titleText
       ? this.props.autocomplete.term.titleText
       : 'Suggested search terms';
     const termShowDirectionsText = hasTermModeConfig
-      && this.props.autocomplete.term.showDirectionsText
+      && Object.hasOwnProperty.call(this.props.autocomplete.term, 'showDirectionsText')
       ? this.props.autocomplete.term.showDirectionsText
       : true;
 
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index 80df6dd..d375252 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -7410,7 +7410,7 @@ sockjs@0.3.18:
 
 "solr-faceted-search-react@git+ssh://git@github.com:palantirnet/solr-faceted-search-react#root-138-autocomplete":
   version "0.12.1"
-  resolved "git+ssh://git@github.com:palantirnet/solr-faceted-search-react#82eb9366e0650b43be57565139da296ffc62e565"
+  resolved "git+ssh://git@github.com:palantirnet/solr-faceted-search-react#f0df9079a3a0e56d866ff2640c780decc645617a"
   dependencies:
     classnames "^2.2.5"
     prop-types "^15.6.1"