The work-from-home and social distancing protocols brought about by Covid-19 have accelerated the need for more companies around the globe to adopt self-service resources, especially in the customer service area. Even before this pandemic, many companies were trying to increase their engagement using digital channels to improve customer support experiences and reduce operating costs by giving customers more control over their interactions. This is one reason why knowledge-based management software has become so popular over the past few years. That being said, many companies worldwide are still behind when it comes to the self-service capabilities they offer their customers.
Giving your customers the ability to serve themselves in certain areas will benefit the company in many ways. For starters, it is a cost-effective method that gives your customer the power to resolve problems by themselves, reducing the time they’ll spend with your agents on live web chats and the phone. This gives your agents more time to handle the more complicated issues and allows customers to resolve simple issues by themselves, instead of them having to waste time trying to get in touch with one of your agents. Such self-service resources can be stored in a knowledge-based management software tool.
Let’s take a closer look at why more customers demand more self-service options during these trying times.
1. Convenience
Coming across an issue with a service or product, calling customer support, getting put on hold, having to go through several automated instructions before you can get an agent to help you resolve the issue you’re experiencing is very common. Thankfully, customer service’s soul-crushing odyssey has been simplified over the past few years and will go on doing so after this pandemic we’re going through. Businesses are now constantly looking for ways to give customers the ability to help themselves in certain areas so that there’s less friction in customer journeys.
Now that more and more people are being forced to stay indoors, they have time to go through things like tutorials rather than wait for an agent to explain how to work a certain product or service. It’s way more convenient for them to help themselves fix something simple rather than wait on reps to help them do so, and knowledge management software is at the heart of all this.
2. Consistency
Customer support agents are human beings too. They can make mistakes sometimes and have different opinions on how to resolve certain problems. Unfortunately, customers don’t have that much patience in the first place and often want an easy-to-follow method for resolving whatever issues they may be facing at the time. Self-service resources like step-by-step guides and FAQs can provide customers with reliable solutions they can use without an agent’s help.
If you have a knowledge base where customers can easily find resolutions to issues, instead of spending hours on hold troubleshooting 20 different solutions, they will have to spend only a few minutes on the problem. Self-service resources help provide consistent customer support experiences, side-stepping human error.
3. Speed
Customers want fast solutions these days. With these harsh economic times upon us, folks have to work even harder than before just to survive. They don’t have time to spend a whole day on the phone talking to everyone in the support department trying to explain the issues they’re experiencing. Not only is self-service convenient, but it’s consistent too. It speeds up the whole process of resolving issues with little or even no guidance from the company itself. In today’s internet age, there’s simply no reason why you should spend a whole day on the phone with a rep trying to resolve a simple problem you can do yourself.
If you know that customers prefer serving themselves, why not take full advantage of that? Some customers know so much more than what you’d expect them to, and self-service resources allow them to work at a speed they’re comfortable with and can handle, instead of being slowed down by tedious and basic troubleshooting processes.
Self-Service’s Key Trends
Freshdesk knows all too well what’s trending in the self-service realm. It isn’t a new concept; however, it is more about using tech that’s already there.
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Artificial Intelligence:
Artificial Intelligence is quickly taking over many aspects of the business world, and the most recognizable AI applications in the business world are, without a doubt, chatbots. These applications are pre-programmed to answer some common questions, in turn, helping provide customers with easy and fast solutions to simple problems.
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Advanced Analytics:
Advanced analytics will help you engage with your customers in ways they’re happy with, drive more profitable customer experiences, and encourage future interactions with them. They also help when it comes to speed because each customer is paired with the agent best suited to handle their issue.
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Text for Service:
Customers these days prefer using text-based services rather than the computer or phone. Because almost everyone has a smartphone in today’s world, more and more customers use their mobile phones to go online and look for quick solutions to their problems. They now feel it’s much more efficient and faster to use self-service resources, like text for service, when looking to resolve simple issues.
Takeaway
Knowledge management software is here to stay, and self-service is trending because the internet has brought forth higher expectations across the board. These said expectations are not unwarranted because companies and businesses all across the globe have access to certain technologies that can help make having to wait on the phone to speak to an agent completely obsolete. Hopefully, this article has shown you why the demand for self-service resources is on the rise.
