The moments when customers will reach out to your support are inevitable. However, not all questions and reported problems are created equal and require advanced assistance. That is why self-service was invented. In this article, we will introduce the strategies that can help improve it and facilitate the way your customers solve emerging problems with as little time as possible.
1. What is customer self-service?
Customer self-service (CSS) is a kind of assistance that allows customers to handle their queries autonomously without the support of the company’s agent. It becomes possible thanks to knowledge banks (FAQ pages, videos, static tutorials, etc.), customer community, or automated chatbots that redirect customers to the needed articles that provide a step-by-step guide on how to resolve the problem.
Does it mean that a company does not need customer support? No, but with customer self-service in place, support teams can be more efficient as they will receive queries that require a higher level of assistance. In addition, the customer will not need the agent’s availability round-the-clock since most common issues will be explained in tutorials and guides. This results in increased customer satisfaction and chances that the service will be recommended through word of mouth.
2. Advantages of customer self-service
Implementing customer self-service has its own significant advantages such as:
- faster problem resolution: customers are able to find the needed information to solve the issue on their own without contacting support and waiting for its response.
- lower cost of customer support: more autonomous customers = fewer queries that support agents need to address. As simple as that.
- more productive support agents: when minor queries can be resolved thanks to the FAQ pages and support forums, agents become available for issues that require in-depth inspection and more sophisticated assistance.
3. What is required for customer self-service?
The success with which customers can find a solution for a pending request without contacting your support department defines whether your customer self-service portal is efficient. It is determined by several factors:
- accessibility,
- user-friendliness,
- the diversity and quality of support materials,
- adaptability to customer needs,
- integration with live support to name a few.
3.1. Accessibility
It should not take a long time for your customer to find the Help pages. The interface must be adapted to desktop and mobile screens, as well as easily located from any page of the website (e.g. In the footer at the bottom of the page)
3.2. User-friendliness
Customers should be able to navigate through the knowledge base, search for information, and access relevant content without confusion. A clean and organized layout contributes to a positive user experience. On the contrary, the interface oversaturated with pop-up windows, irrelevant links, and unnecessary animations will only divert customers away from your support center.
3.3. Variety of support content
Depending on the content type, different ways of explaining it must be considered. For example, infographics are great for summarising, static tutorials are better for short tutorials that do not require extensive explanations, and video tutorials are appropriate for in-depth guidance. It must also be adapted to mobile interfaces, be digestible, and be easy to search for.
Consider internal linking of your relevant content in case the customer needs more explanations.
3.4. Proximity of support agents
Although we are talking about customers’ ability to resolve encountered problems themselves, it should not be difficult for them to pass the query to a support agent.
If you deploy a support bot that redirects customers to helpful articles but fails to connect him/her to the support agent after the customer 10 times request it, you need to change it. The aim of the bot is to collect as much information about the encountered problem as possible, so once the agent is connected, he/she already has visibility of the issue. The agent should not spend extra time enquiring the customer about the same things.
The same applies to the purpose of live chats. Consider implementing remote visual assistance. Once the agent understands the encountered issue, he/she can switch to a real-time video call to guide the customer by using collaborative tools and screen-sharing capabilities. A similar flow is possible through the bot which can connect the right expert with the customer based on the collected information.
With the help of remote visual support, the customer does not feel abandoned which increases overall satisfaction with the service.
4. Create good FAQ pages
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page is the foundation of customer self-service best practices. It must gather all the information regarding recurring or the most often encountered issues. How do you create one? Do you and your support team just brainstorm about what potential problems might occur? While collective knowledge and understanding of customers may serve well, it is not completely unbiased. You and support teams know your product well, therefore, it is easy to overlook the details and questions that may seem obvious to you, but not so much to your customers.
By adding remote visual support to your product suite, you will be able to access the video recordings of support sessions and receive a full understanding of all the pain points. Thanks to it, you will be able to constitute FAQ pages that are actually helpful. Moreover, the relevant parts of the recordings can be used for video explanations. After all, simplicity is a key. Customers do not possess an excessive amount of time to read articles.
What if the answer was not found? Then again, it comes down to support’s proximity. With a remote visual support solution in place, the agent is only a few clicks away.
5. Keep support forums busy
Who are those people that seem to know the answer to every question? Ideally, they should be your customers who have been using your product or service to the extent of mastering it and are willing to share their expertise with new users. That is why it is important to have an engaging community. Nothing speaks better about the success of your business than satisfied customers. In the eyes of other users, they are more trustworthy, relatable, and reliable.
However, even the most lively customer forum can become a desert without community management. Hosting live Q&A sessions can be one of the ways to engage the audience in the discussion and encourage users to share questions, concerns, and suggestions. Once a user asks a question, others can share their experience and provide recommendations on problem resolution. Sometimes hearing a solution from a peer rather than an expert can feel more relevant and empathetic.
Once again, the video recordings of such sessions can be used for learning purposes, as well as to demonstrate to new customers the collaborative spirit among the users. Thanks to such sessions, customers not only find answers to their questions but also like-minded people who they associate with your company. Create a dedicated section in the support forum that would feature the archives of the Q&A discussion with enabled comments to initiate further discussions and knowledge sharing.
6. Collect feedback
Users who are dissatisfied with your service are as valuable as those who are willing to share their knowledge on the support forum. Complaints shed light on the areas of improvement and information that is missing from your knowledge base.
For this reason, remote visual support solution like ViiBE offers feedback form at the end of every video session. It must be filled by both the support agent and the customer, so the company would have a full comprehension of the interaction. The form is customizable allowing you to focus on metrics that really matter.
7. Conclusion
We live in a fast-paced world where customers wish to have their problems resolved quickly and effectively. That is why it is important to incorporate customer self-service support. Statistically, it takes 12 positive experiences after just one negative experience for the customer to go back to the service he/she used. Ensuring that there is plenty of useful information that the customer can consult is one of the ways of showing that your company cares about the experience.
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