The self-service guide

Customer self-service is an important part of customer engagement. It refers to the tools and platforms that allow customers to find solutions to their inquiries or service needs independently, without direct interaction with a member of staff. 

Its aim to enhance the overall customer experience by providing quick and convenient access to information, reducing the need for customers to wait in queues or rely on traditional support channels like phone calls or emails. 

By empowering customers to find answers and resolve issues on their own terms, businesses can improve their efficiency, reduce operational costs, and foster greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

As a result, for many businesses that serve a large client base, self-service is an essential tool to survive and grow in an increasingly competitive landscape

Customers no longer have to solely rely on live service channels like phone calls and emails. Here is a run-down of the different types of self-service customers can use for support: 

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems

These enable customers to get information from pre-recorded voice messages without needing human assistance. Cloud-based IVRs also remove the need for specialists to install hardware. They are typically deployed in contact centers. 

Chatbots 

Chatbots and virtual assistants can provide immediate answers to customers’ frequently asked questions and even schedule appointments and provide customer support. Chatbots can use natural language processing (NLP) and/or generative AI to understand user intent, extract information and respond in very natural-sounding language. 

Knowledge bases and frequently asked questions (FAQs) 

Knowledge bases on company websites can give customers access to tutorials, troubleshooting tips, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and other relevant content related to their products or services. These allow customers to find answers to their questions and solutions independently, without the need to contact customer support.

Community forums

Customers can interact with each other to ask questions, troubleshoot issues, and share ideas and solutions based on their own experience. They can provide quick solutions to common problems, foster a sense of community among users, and reduce the burden on traditional customer support channels. 

Mobile apps  

Mobile apps are often developed to bring new levels of convenience to a customer’s purchasing experience, but they also provide a convenient way for customers to self-serve. Apps allow customers to conduct transactions, make orders and payments, update their account details and access customer support — all through their smartphones or tablets. 

Self-service kiosks

These are standalone, physical terminals that allow users to perform various tasks or transactions, usually with a digital component. They are often found in public places like airports, train stations, banks and fast-food restaurants. A good example is McDonald’s, where customers can order food at a kiosk and collect it at the till, removing the need to queue at the counter. 

SMS 

Text messaging is still a valuable communication tool for many companies. Automated SMS systems can issue pre-written responses to customer inquiries, as well as send order confirmations, delivery notifications and appointment reminders. 

As outlined above, when this is achieved, the advantages of self-service for both customers and businesses include convenience, faster problem resolution and cost-effectiveness. 

Self-service also has these strategic benefits: 

• It enables greater personalization. Personalized CX refers to companies delivering messages, offers and products that are tailored to each individual customer. By offering a customized experience businesses can demonstrate that they know and understand the preferences of their customer base, leading to increased engagement with their brand, a higher customer lifetime value and an increase in loyalty and advocacy. Research shows that companies that do not offer personalized CX risk losing both customers and revenue.
• It facilitates omnichannel experiences. Omnichannel is the seamless, connected experience users have between different channels, such as phone calls, web chat and email. For example, a customer may speak to a chatbot initially before following up with a phone call. By collecting information at every self-service touchpoint, customers don’t need to repeat their query when they follow it up. 
• It provides businesses with valuable customer data. The data collected by self-service channels can be used to provide valuable insights on customers’ behavior. For example, it can reveal the obstacles customers face when purchasing products and common questions asked during the ordering process. This can then be used by decision-makers in the contact center, marketing, sales and commerce teams to refine the overall customer experience.

You can read more about the benefits of self service to both customers and businesses in Three real world factors driving demand for self-service. 

Implementing effective self-service solutions is not just about deploying the latest technology. It requires a strategic approach with a deep understanding of customer needs, seamless integration across touchpoints, and ongoing optimization based on feedback. Here are a few points to consider: 

1. Find out what your customers need

Analyze customer feedback and data from voice of the customer programs to determine the paint points your customers are encountering. Next, assess what solutions you can provide via self-service channels.  

2. Choose the right type of self-service channel

By understanding your customers’ behavior, you can select the most beneficial form of self service. For example, if you have a large number of customers interacting with your brand via their smartphones, you can ensure they can self serve via an app or that the information you provide is mobile-friendly. If a majority of customers need the same type of support you can consider publishing a ‘how to’ guide or video on your website. 

3. Make sure information is easy to find 

Customers must be able to find the information they need easily. Pay attention to the user experience (UX) of your channels, such as the number of clicks needed to make an order. Consider also whether the design of your website and interfaces are inclusive and accessible to all, for example for people with visual impairments.  

4. Train staff to resolve complex queries 

Self service can reduce the need for support contact, but that doesn’t mean support staff are no longer needed. In fact, it means their skillsets must shift towards handling complex queries that self service cannot address. For this reason it is vital they have the right tools and training. In an era where many queries are answered with automated responses, skills like emotional intelligence, problem-solving and even friendliness are more important than ever. 

Find out what the most important customer service skills are for any industry here. 

A successful self-service strategy should include regular monitoring and using insights to continuously improve and enhance your company’s offering. Here are a few ways you can do this:

• Usage metrics. Measure interactions such as chatbot conversations and visits to self-service portals and compare these to the usage of traditional support channels.
• Efficiency metrics. Measure the average time it takes to respond and resolve customer inquiries, as well as the cost per interaction.
  Customer satisfaction metrics. You can use the same metrics to measure the performance of self service channels as you would for customer satisfaction, including the Net Promoter Score (NPS), by asking customers how likely they are to recommend it to others.
• Voice of the customer (VoC). Use surveys and feedback forms to find out about customers’ self service experiences and areas for improvement. There is more about voice of the customer programmes here.
• User behaviour: A form of passive VoC, it is possible to look at user data from a self-service portal to find out if a customer was able to resolve their query and at what point in their journey they disengaged. This provides valuable information on where self-service can be improved.

Here are three examples of companies that have implemented self-service to their advantage:

How giffgaff leverages its community to answer FAQs

Founded in 2009, giffgaff has become one of the largest mobile network providers in the UK. Actioning customer feedback has been integral to the company’s mission since the beginning – after all, the name ‘giffgaff’ comes from the Scottish phrase for ‘mutual giving’.

The company enlisted a third-party vendor (in this case Qualtrics) to create a forum for customers to interact with each other resolve issues in return for incentives like free mobile data. It also used the forum to gather feedback from product testing, enabling the business to act quickly on the insights it gathered while demonstrating to customers that it is listening and taking action based on their input.

Thanks to the flow of information on the forum, giffgaff’s technical team is able to release daily updates, helping to prevent potential issues from arising.

How Cash App’s chatbots deliver fast support with sentiment analysis

Mobile payment and crypto service Cash App has a customer support bot with sentiment analysis capabilities to understand customers’ intent. It does this by analyzing sentence structures and verbal cues, allowing enquiries to be prioritized in a way that provides a convenient and empathetic response.

Joshua Tye, CX Network Advisory Board member and senior customer operations lead for Cash App, explains: “Our support bot utilizes a human-centered design process when customers are reaching out, particularly outside of normal business hours. The bot will field the enquiry and assess the pain points and sentiments behind that enquiry, understanding the emotional state the customer arrives in.”

Read more examples of customer support bots in 4 organizations that took chatbots to the next level.

Traditionally self-service has been flawed with Gartner calculating that 88 percent of all customer journeys that start in self-service channels still end up touching multiple channels and even live service.

However, with new tools and capabilities now on the market, organizations have the power to make self-service more efficient and effective than ever before.

Ayelet Mendel-Girin, CX Network Advisory Board member and group head of CX for Humm Group, says that self-service and digital CX generally can present challenges: “The initial rollout of voice and chat-based solutions was marred by negative feedback and a poor reputation due to their underdeveloped state, which resulted in customer frustration and disappointment. This led to a decline in customer engagement.”

To prevent this, Mendel-Girin says organizations should avoid generic solutions that simply replicate the information found in website FAQs in favour of channels that leverage real-time data and that pre-empt customer needs. The advancement of generative AI tools is making these functions far more sophisticated, using all the information available to give better responses to customers in natural-sounding language. 

The future of self-service in CX is likely to be characterized by increased automation, omnichannel integration and personalization.

Devon Mychal, the former senior director of product marketing for Talkdesk, explains that, “ChatGPT allows a more eloquent response that can potentially leverage all the information available for both agents and chatbots and can present information to customers and agents with speed and a human tone.”

The ability of AI and machine learning tools to analyze vast quantities of data from past customer behaviors, preferences, demographics, real-time interactions can deliver tailored experiences and content to customers at a highly granular level, shifting from traditional personalization to hyper-personalization.

Overall, the future of self-service in CX is likely to be characterized by increased automation, omnichannel integration and personalization, enabling brands to proactively engage with customers to increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.