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Happy customers are the core of any successful business. However, many companies are facing challenges in customer support, as customers expect quick and high-quality service and issue resolutions. And when their expectations are not met, they switch to competitors. According to Qualtrics, only one in five customers will forgive a bad customer experience.
This is why many businesses are turning to new technologies and tools like customer self-service to make sure they provide proactive customer service and get access to all the necessary support and information before reaching out to support representatives.
Let’s discuss customer self-service and the key tips for successfully implementing this tool into your customer experience with minimal effort.
What is self-service?
Customer self-service is a support model where businesses provide customers with all the needed information that can help them solve their problems. The information can be offered through tools like IVR, automated chatbots, online support manuals, knowledge bases, and more.
With self-service solutions, there is no need for a customer to connect with customer service reps, reducing the support team workload and letting customers quickly solve their basic customer issues. On the business side, companies can run their processes with relatively small teams by shifting many tasks from company-driven to customer-driven.
Shift towards self-service solutions
The change in business-customer interactions has been gradual, but with the pandemic, it has shifted more toward customer-led support. A Zendesk survey showed that 67% of customers would rather have self-service available than speak to a live customer service representative.
Another survey from Hubspot found that 73% of customers want to have the opportunity to solve problems with the product or service independently.
In addition to the change in customer behavior, we can also observe technological innovation, which makes customer self-service resources more accessible and intuitive.
More companies now see the major benefits of implementing self-service technology, which can streamline processes, minimize wait times, and provide more personalized experiences.
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Why you should provide customer self-service
Usually, companies underestimate the power of excellent customer service. It impacts more than just existing customers but also future clients. Moreover, customers are more unforgiving now, and after one bad experience, they quickly switch to another brand. Positive customer service offers great value, resulting in more sales and increased revenue.
According to Bain’s survey, 95% of consumers say excellent customer service is the key to their loyalty towards a brand. The survey also highlighted the direct link between quality customer interactions and continuous business growth. And 96% of consumers see customer service as one of the most important factors in brand loyalty.
Benefits of customer self-service
Fast resolutions for customers
When resolving customer service issues, a knowledgeable agent can be more effective than a chatbot. But take into account the time it takes to connect a customer with the best agent, have that agent accurately diagnose the problem, guide a customer through resolving it, and have to go through the entire process again in case the initial remedy doesn't work. Also, don’t forget about time zone differences and working hours of a support team.
Self-service frees up agents, cuts down on support resolution times, and increases customer experience.
Customers can find answers anytime they want without connecting with support agents, exchanging messages, and, in the end, waiting two days to fix their issues. Of course, if an issue is more complex, support from an agent may be necessary.
Efficient and informed customer service team
Your customer service agents will have more time and energy to focus on the complicated issues that genuinely require their attention if they are relieved of the burden of answering the same queries again and over.
This translates into a better-balanced workload, a happier team, and higher team productivity levels.
Even when clients contact your support team after using all available self-service options, agents will find it far simpler to resolve the issue. The client has already ruled out any alternatives that wouldn't work and has the necessary data at their disposal.
Lower costs for companies
A self-service strategy can also significantly lower your CS costs by freeing up your support crew from handling too many tickets.
Your yearly customer support expenditures might be lowered in half if a well-written FAQ page or customer search engine knowledge base reduces the number of requests by 50%.
24/7 support
A consumer equipped with a strong self-service portal will be able to handle their difficulties around the clock, not just during working hours, while your support professionals are restricted to standard operating hours.
As a result, there are fewer situations when clients must wait until the next day or over the weekend for assistance, which lowers customer attrition rates.
"Always-on" assistance will also be advantageous for your company. If you don't want to spend a fortune on a round-the-clock support staff, you'll save expenses while also raising client satisfaction.
Scalability
One of the most important advantages of various customer self-service options is their ability to scale. Whether you want to facilitate a few thousand users or hundreds of thousands, self-service tools can handle any scale at any time. This means you can handle any situation, especially when the demand for customer support increases unexpectedly.
Examples of customer self-service
A study conducted by American Express found that over 60% of US consumers prefer an automated self-service for simple customer service tasks, such as a website or mobile app. Such channels are only the start of what customer self-service can provide, so let’s explore these tools further.
FAQ pages
Organize a collection of frequently asked questions about your business where customers can find all the needed links and answers to many of their questions. This is also a great way of incorporating SEO keywords to boost your search engine optimization.
Knowledge base or help center
While FAQ pages answer questions, an automated help center with knowledge base articles can guide customers on how to use products or services. In fact, 91% of customers, according to Zendesk, are willing to try an online information base and research relevant articles if it is accessible and matches their needs at their stage of the customer's journey.
Customer self-service portals or community forums
The Local Consumer Review Survey 2024 states that 89% of brands that create community forums believe it positively influences customer experience. In these online communities, customers can get together to chime in with personal solutions to problems they faced earlier. Many times, companies can even add brand-appointed moderators to address troubleshoots.
Mobile apps
Business apps are a great way to encompass many customer self-service channels. For example, these can include in-app icons with embedded deep links that direct customers to a FAQ page, a customer self-service portal, communication channels, phone support, and more self-service options.
AI-powered chat and messaging
Artificial intelligence-powered chatbots have become so clever that they can now answer almost any customer question. These chats can be improved with customer data and delivery details to convey exact custom information. Additionally, an AMA report showed that 67% of US millennials are likely to purchase products and services from brands using chatbots.
Automated call centers
Self-service phone lines are great for those customers seeking advanced help during non-office hours that they can not solve with electronic support. These phone lines can be filled with information from a knowledge base that customers can access by simply pressing the needed numbers. This option allows customers to resolve issues on the phone by following simple steps without needing to talk to someone.
Virtual assistants
Similar to AI-powered chats, virtual assistants can perform routine tasks, recognize voices, and provide information in speech form. This is an important feature for businesses since not all customers like to text, search for information on websites, or even interact with call centers.
Tips for improving your customer self-service strategy
A well-implemented customer self-service strategy will positively affect business processes. Here are the main tips to fulfill the ideal strategy:
Comprehensive resources
The main factor in every customer self-service strategy is to keep resources comprehensive and think about how they will work both ways. Resources can’t just be chosen to free up customer service staff; they should rather focus on delivering customers answers much quicker and letting customers control the speed of the information they receive.
Accessibility
Most of the buyers are willing to pay more for great customer service. This includes making customer self-service portals more accessible for the customers through mobile-friendly interfaces, free phone calls, and even easy-to-find answers.
Clarity
Before considering customer self-service channel options, a business must clearly outline its customers' needs. For example, if previous customers often had problems setting up products, the business's main focus should be on knowledge-based help centers.
Innovation
According to Oracle, 34 percent of sales and marketing leaders believe that artificial intelligence will cause the most sizable improvement in customer experience. It is important always to stay ahead of your competition and step up the game regarding self-service channels.
Regular updates and improvements based on feedback
Support content should be updated regularly. Even when customer requests stay the same, the answers should be always altered for one’s needs. Different requirements can be conducted to find the ideal SEO keywords to boost optimization.
Measuring customer self-service metrics
Customer self-service channels can always measure the success of their channels. An idea of how to do so is by asking customers who had to contact support staff, why that happened. Track what channel they were using so that they could not get a complete answer or solution to their problem independently.
Easy contact with an agent
It’s key to remember that these self-service portals cannot always resolve issues, so instead of relying solely on them, businesses still must provide accessible ways to contact an agent.
Top future trends in customer self-service options
As customer self-service flourishes and many customers become devoted to finding solutions and excellent answers to problems themselves, self-service channels will only expand and cover more topics after a trial and error run.
Business leaders claim that one of their top priorities for the upcoming years is to build out their digital care ecosystems. It’s hard to detect the exact trends of customer self-service in the future since each business has a different range of customers with various requests.
Some trends that stand out as fitting for all companies include the incorporation of AI. As the technology becomes smarter, it is projected to work better and learn to find solutions to even the toughest problems. AI and automation can deliver “best-in-class” experiences for your customers while also reducing the costs of self-service by a staggering 30% and increasing its profitability by 38%, according to a TULP report.
Self-service via LiveChat
LiveChat already offers powerful AI-based customer self-service tools. For example, you can easily speed up your replies with AI Assist and get a Chat Summary with instant reply suggestions. You can use pre-set messages to engage customers automatically or start chats at the right moment when new website visitors go through offerings.
LiveChat can also be integrated with popular messaging apps like WhatsApp Business, Facebook Messenger, Apple Messages, and others to make sure you can offer customer support through other communication channels.
Try a free 14-day trial of LiveChat to discover how it can benefit your business customer service experience. After you've tried the tool, selecting the right pricing plan that meets your business needs will be easier.
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