If you lead an IT Service and Support Team, the odds are good that you hear a common frustration from your customers. It centers around self-service, and how they have to dig through confusing help sections or outdated, obsolete information. It raises this question: How can you make self-service options that are useful?
It is possible to create a more intuitive self-service environment. It can even be done without big investments in new technologies.
Why bother optimizing the self-service experience? Because our customers, especially younger generations, like to be able to solve problems on their own. An effective self-service function is quick, easy and available when it’s needed. A Zendesk report showed that 67% of customers prefer self-service over contacting the service desk, especially for simple issues. A Salesforce study indicated that an effective self-service process can result in up to a 70% drop in contact volume. Unfortunately, few organizations take advantage of these processes, as a Gartner survey showed only 14% of support contacts are resolved through self-service, even if the customer tries it first.
The starting line is a knowledge base. Create a customer-facing knowledge base or provide a way to identify knowledge as public. It should be well-organized with simple, understandable language, accurate keywords and clear headings that avoid technical terminology. For example, include a section on applications, security and networking. Include high-quality visuals, such as screenshots or how-to videos. Keep FAQs short, focusing on the top-10 or -20 questions. Format articles clearly, using simple flowcharts or numbered lists. Most important, test everything with customers and gather their feedback on what feels natural and easy.
Here are two examples that show how this works:
- Atlassian reworked its public knowledge base with the customer in mind, providing easily searched articles and how-to videos. This resulted in lowered call volumes and happier customers.
- Netfor, a support services firm, reorganized its knowledge base by listening to customer feedback and adjusting its keywords and article titles. Their result was a 30% reduction in call volume and a 22% reduction in handle time.
What should you take away from this? First, if you have a good budget and the ability to leverage new tools and AI, you can level up your support processes. Use AI to handle natural-language questions that direct customers to the right article or how-to video. Utilize analytics to examine and track what knowledge is being used (or not) and then, update the content accordingly. There’s been some amazing advancements in chatbot technology that can guide customers to self-service.
If budgets are tight (or non-existent), work on leveraging what you have. Look through your email or incident tickets for common questions and issues. Then, build FAQs, guides or checklists in Word or a simple web page. Engage with your support team to have them contribute to knowledge and help keep it up-to-date, and market your efforts to the business through various channels. Use email, application notifications, company newsletters or any good communication channels to get the word out. Even very basic self-service help can make a big difference. A Harvard Business Review article found that even the most basic self-service shifts can reduce support costs between 50 and 70%.
Optimizing self-service processes means you’re putting yourself in the customer’s shoes. If it’s easy, they’ll use it. Start small and grow incrementally based on customer feedback and testing. And who knows? Maybe you could see that 50-70% volume reductions other companies talk about!