Self-service refers to the idea that customers can complete a task on their own, without any kind of assistance from any employee of the company or business. To grasp this concept clearly, you can think of a gas station, where most of them offer self-service to customers as they must pump their gas. The gas stations offer this option because it is easier for people to operate the pumps on their own. At the same time, it is beneficial for the business as well. Gas stations save money in this case by not hiring extra employees and simultaneously the customer is happier, as the work is done a lot faster.
What is Customer Self-Service?
As proactive customer service, customer self-service deliberately provides support for customers who are willing to find their solution. Self-service options allow customers to get their solutions at a much faster time and pace. Working with one customer service representative for a long time can irritate some customers. So, in that case, if the option of researching and troubleshooting for problems were made public along with a customer service representative, it would be a better solution for everyone.
Why Should Businesses Start Providing Customer Self-Service?
Customer self-service is now rapidly becoming a preferred customer service method. Instead of holding on to the phone line with a rep for a long time, if customers can go and look for their solutions on their own, it saves them time and much irritation.
On the other hand, the representative or your business's customer service team could also benefit from this. It reduces stress on the incoming request stream and clears up more time for your representatives to look after more complex issues. Customers who have bigger problems that need immediate assistance can now get attention.
The self-service option for customers can be easily adopted and easily integrated into the customer service offer. If you do not have any at the moment, keep reading as the following section will have examples of some of the best customer self-service options available.
The Best Examples of Customer Self-Service:
1. Adding a Knowledge Base
This knowledge base should be added to your business website that will guide customers to solve basic and common issues. It should include organized documentation of your business services and products along with the articles that help the customers to troubleshoot their basic problems. It would be better if your website's knowledge base had a search bar alongside the categorized basic problems and guides to their solutions.
2. Creating Product Training for Your Customers
Think of it in this way, the customer service reps that you are hiring benefit exceptionally from the training they were provided initially. They get to learn in detail about how your products and services work, what the common roadblocks are, and how to optimize the product or the service for the best workflow. Now imagine, if little training can help your reps understand everything so smoothly and work according to it, how much benefit would your customers get if they were offered the same? If your company offers the same training to the customers, not only will they know how the service or the product works but also it will increase customer experience.
3. Providing Flexible Automated Features
If you introduce automation in customer service, it is a time saver for both the rep and the customer. Customers can use automation features like chatbots to assist them in finding information faster, without waiting to talk to a real rep. But make sure that these features are flexible and innate and that the customers schedule to be able to ask questions in many different ways and receive consistent answers each time.
4. Including the Escalation Process to the Website
There are already several complaints against the chatbots that business websites usually have, that they do not have options to escalate issues. In that scenario, the customers have to call in and talk to a human rep if they wish to escalate things. So focus on that and make sure your chat box on the website has an option for customers that wish to escalate issues.
