SELF-SERVICE

YOUR CUSTOMERS
WILL LOVE
with Johan Jacobs

1 | Self-Service Your Customers Will Love

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Understanding Self-Service..
....3
Effectively Supporting
the Self-Service
Transaction..7
Knowledge Management:
The Heart of Self-Service...
....10
Delivering the Seamless
Customer Experience.
.................................14

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UNDERSTANDING
SELF-SERVICE
Self-service is not a new concept. Its really become
quite ubiquitous. We are all used to pumping our own
gas, checking ourselves out at the grocery, getting
money out of ATMs, choosing our flights and ordering
goods online.

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The Web presents the perfect platform for selfservice, and companies have invested heavily
in promoting its convenience, offering
incentives to encourage use.

But despite the huge amount of time and

money that have been poured into Web selfservice, customer satisfaction scores are not
increasing and abandonment rates are still
high. Why is self-service not more successful?

4 | Self-Service Your Customers Will Love

In many cases, companies have invested

heavily in transactional self-service, but have
neglected those aspects of self-service that
must be there to support the transaction.
What happens? When customers have
questions or need help to complete a
transaction, they cant easily get answers. So
their answer is simple: Opt out of the
transaction and dont bother with self-service
again. The typical pattern shows a sharp drop
in use within a year.
TOTAL CUSTOMER BASE THAT ADOPTS SELF-SERVICE

5 | Self-Service Your Customers Will Love

On average, nearly half of your customers know about

your self-service capabilities and have used them
once or twice. These are the people you want to focus
on, supporting all aspects of their self-service
interactions in order to encourage greater use. Lets
look at how to deliver self-service your customers will
love.
CUSTOMER USAGE OF SELF-SERVICE
Customers who will never use Web selfservice due to age, bandwidth constraints or
personal preference

8%

Customers who know about your self-service

and have used it once or twice

45%

Customers who are regular users

27%

Customers who do not know about your Web

self-service capabilities

20%

Based on data presented during webinar, Self-Service Your Customers will

Love, with Johan Jacobs, November 12, 2013

6 | Self-Service Your Customers Will Love

EFFECTIVELY SUPPORTING THE

SELF-SERVICE TRANSACTION

When implementing self-service, it is crucial to

support the interaction as a whole, not just the
process of filling the shopping cart and checking out.
This requires equal investment in the support side of
self-service, which includes both unassisted and
assisted self-service channels. The goal is to answer
customers questions within the context of the selfservice interaction.
7 | Self-Service Your Customers Will Love

Many companies implement FAQs as their unassisted

self-service solution. But FAQs are notoriously
ineffective, delivering answers that bear little
relevance to the question the customer asked.
So skip FAQs in favor of the many unassisted
channels that can do a far better job such as:

EMAIL RESPONSE MANAGEMENT

Provides relevant auto-response within one
hour or less

VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
Creates stickiness and entertainment while
delivering relevant answers

HOW-TO VIDEOS
Keeps the customer in self-service with
visual guidance
SMS & MULTI-MODAL
Integrates SMS/Texting with the Web to
provide relevant links and encourage selfservice use

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When improving self-service, start with really

good unassisted support, then enhance your
offering with assisted Web channels. These can
include:
WEB CHAT*
Text engagement with a live agent

EMAIL RESPONSE MANAGEMENT

Auto-preparation of responses for service
representatives to review and edit before
sending to the customer

COLLABORATIVE BROWSING
Screen sharing for problem resolution and an
interactive experience

SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE

Support delivery via social channels

PEER-TO-PEER COMMUNITIES
Customer-to-customer support, often
leveraging social channels

* For an in-depth discussion of Web chat, read our eBook,

The Dos and Donts of Web Chat

9 | Self-Service Your Customers Will Love

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT:
THE HEART OF SELF-SERVICE

No matter which channels you choose to implement, a

knowledgebase must lie at the heart of every
unassisted and assisted channel, providing a unified
repository of all the knowledge needed to answer
customer questions.
10 | Self-Service Your Customers Will Love

With a knowledgebase, you can be sure responses

are consistent across both unassisted and assisted
channelsregardless of the channel the customer
uses, the answer will be the same.

11 | Self-Service Your Customers Will Love

It is very important that your knowledgebase uses

sophisticated search techniques, like natural language
search, semantic search and decisions trees so that it
delivers only the most relevant answers. This
eliminates bombarding your customers with pages
and pages of potential answers that bear little
resemblance to the question.
You can measure the effectiveness of the
knowledgebase through relevancy of response,
which equates to first contact resolution in the contact
center.
Knowledgebase Service
Level Agreement

Answer have 85%

relevancy to the
question
No more than 3
answers per inquiry

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When you address the total self-service experience,

there will be an impact on your business in terms of
the competencies you will need. Keep in mind that the
new channels will require different skills such as the
following:
KNOWLEDGEBASE
Technical writing & fact-finding skills

EMAIL RESPONSE MANAGEMENT

Business writing skills; word processing

WEB CHAT
Business writing skills; multi-tasking

COLLABORATIVE BROWSING
Multi-tasking; speaking and writing skills; product
knowledge

VIRTUAL ASSISTANT
Graphical and video editing and design

MOBILE SERVICES
Multi-tasking; text typing; SMS authoring

VIDEO SERVICES
Face-to-face persona; friendly; stress management
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DELIVERING THE SEAMLESS

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

The final step to delivering a great self-service

experience is to make sure that your unassisted and
assisted channels are easily available throughout the
self-service interaction.

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This requires embedding self-service support within

the transaction. Every page on your site should make
it easy and simple to get helpand offer multiple
ways to do so, enabling customers to pick the method
that works best for them at that moment.

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Investing in the support side of self-service by

providing multiple unassisted and assisted channels
and embedding these within the transaction can result
in higher rates of adoption and use over time, leading
to the ultimate prizegreater customer satisfaction
and loyalty.

TOTAL CUSTOMER BASE THAT ADOPTS SELF-SERVICE

+
+

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Finally, a comprehensive approach to self-service

enables faster adaptation to the approaching world of
the omni-channel, which will integrate online and
offline interactions.
More and more, customers expect seamless
experiences that can cross the online and offline
worlds without a hitch. By making unassisted and
assisted self-service an integral part of the customers
journey, it becomes easier to build bridges between
the logical and physical world, enhancing the offline
world with the channels and techniques used online.
CREATE SEAMLESS EXPERIENCES
THROUGHOUT THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

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Meet the author

JOHAN JACOBS

Johan Jacobs is a former research director with

Gartner, Inc. Based on his 13 years of
experience, Johan has developed a depth of
knowledge about best practices for web chat,
including implementation techniques, ROI,
required agent skills sets, contact center
processes and the impact of knowledge
management on agent productivity and
customer satisfaction.

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LEARN MORE
If youre interested in learning more about Moxie
Softwares solutions for self-service, contact us today:
info@moxiesoft.com
NA: +1-800-474-1149
Intl: +44-870-904-1122
www.moxiesoft.com

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