Self-service that works – tips & tricks

Customers today are more independent than ever. Research has shown that approximately half of them would rather look for solutions themselves than contact a service employee. Preferably 24/7, i.e. also outside the contact centre’s opening hours. By offering the right self-service channels, you not only meet that need, but it is also the best way to keep monotonous questions and processes away from your agents and to limit the call volumes in the contact centre.

Thanks to the correct application of self-service in customer contact, agents can focus on more challenging issues. They can provide customers with solutions instead of information, and therefore have much more added value. Moreover, there is more time for training and personal development. All this has a proven positive influence on employee satisfaction and ensures less absenteeism and a lower turnover in the contact centre.

Accessible information

Give your customers access to as much information as possible so they can easily find the answers they are looking for. Your company website is the starting point for the vast majority of customers. What information does it offer them? Do you have an FAQ page? A user forum? A chatbot? With the support of a multilingual knowledge base, you provide a central source of information, so the customer always gets the same answer, regardless of the channel he chooses to approach your company.

Even when customers do call the contact centre, you can help them get started before – or even without – getting to speak to an agent. For example, you can make interactive spoken feedback available and/or have the interaction handled by a voice bot using speech technology where possible.

Self-sufficiency

In addition, it can be super useful to share videos via YouTube or another platform. For example, it allows you to show how a product works and how the customer can solve any problems themselves. We all know that visual instructions work much better than text, right?

Don't forget to also include your back-end systems in the self-service process. After all, self-service is about so much more than just Q&A. The goal is a customer that is not only self-sufficient in requesting information, but also in arranging things without the support of an agent. Outside the contact centre’s opening hours as well. For example to place an order, make changes to an existing order, or take out insurance. A seamless integration with the back-end systems is indispensable for this.

Avoid frustration

Although self-service channels are a godsend for many customers, they, unfortunately, can also be a major source of frustration, something you’ll want to avoid at all costs. Hence the following tips:

Tip 1

Make sure the information on your self-service channels is always accurate, up-to-date, and unambiguous. As mentioned, the most efficient way to achieve this is to use a central knowledge base. One that not only supports the contact centre agents but all self-service channels as well.

Tip 2

Give your customers the opportunity to contact an agent at any time during the self-service process, for example by means of an online chat function or a user-friendly 'web-to-call' function. And if the contact centre happens to be unmanned at that time, offer them the option to be called back during regular opening hours. A seamless operation of your company's omnichannel platform is essential for this, so the history of the total interaction is visible to the agent. It's simply a matter of proper case management: (also) outside the contact centre opening hours, the bot assigns a case number to the interaction to ensure it is traceable from a to z.

Tip 3

Make interactions between a customer and a chat or voice bot as efficient as possible. Using keywords and having the support of a knowledge base will ensure that the correct dialogues are available. Result: the customer is actually helped and does not end the conversation out of frustration because the bot does not understand them (“Sorry, I did not understand your question”… sounds familiar?). In addition, conversations with chat and voice bots are becoming more and more human-like thanks to the developments in the field of 'conversational AI'. Make use of that technology!

Tip 4

Whatever you offer customers in terms of self-service, make sure it works. Sounds obvious? We think so too, but unfortunately, it’s not always self-evident. Just as an example, here’s a recent personal anecdote, courtesy of the author of this blog:

A certain Southern European budget airline offers a super easy chatbot on its website, helping customers to request compensation for flight delays. Nice! You go through the process in a few steps and a case number appears on the screen. So far, so good. Unfortunately, in our case the promised e-mail confirmation never arrived, so the next step – after a few days of waiting patiently – was to call the contact centre. Result? No trace to be found of either the claim or the case number.

A one-off incident or a structural hitch in the case management process? In any case, these kinds of things cause huge frustration for the customer. Quite rightly so. And every contact centre agent knows how uncomfortable conversations with a frustrated customer can be. So, for the sake of customer and employee retention: Make. Sure. It. Works.

Wondering how to make the most of the self-service channels in your contact centre? Let us know! We’ll be happy to help you on your way.

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