4 Key Factors of Successful Self-Service

4 Key Factors of Successful Self-Service

Today’s customer experience and contact center market is rapidly changing. Modern customer journeys leverage digital channels and self-service capabilities. It is not enough for business leaders to simply implement self-service, however. For any self-service project to be truly successful, leaders must focus on four key factors: availability, ease of use, real resolutions, and ease of escalation.

“For any self-service project to be truly successful, leaders must focus on four key factors: availability, ease of use, real resolutions, and CSR access.”

1. Availability— can your customers access your self-service capabilities?

Consumers interact with businesses through a wide variety of channels every day. Thousands of interactions through a website, via email, by embedded links, and other digital connections. The factor of successful self-service is making sure customers accessing all these different channels have the option to use self-service. Self-service projects delivering capabilities through a multichannel offering will achieve more success because more customers have the chance to access and enjoy the experience.

2. Ease of Use— are your self-service capabilities a frictionless experience?

A critical metric for any self-service project is called Customer Effort Score. As the name suggests, this metric examines the effort required by customers to complete an interaction and reach a successful resolution. Thebest self-serviceimplementations cater to human tendencies. Make sure your customer journey employs compelling visual interfaces and graphics that communicate more information than cumbersome audio menus or long paragraphs, intuitive engagement that leads users smoothly through the process towards a successful resolution, and a seamless connection to your backend databases to reduce the chance of errors or issues that force users to restart or leave the interaction.

3. Real Resolutions— does your self-service deliver on its promises?

When customers engage with self-service capabilities they expect the interaction to deliver a resolution then and there. True self-service necessitates end-to-end automation that collects customer information, connects to backend databases, retrieves or changes any data relevant to the interaction, and completes the interaction. Users want self-service to provide a full resolution, and don’t want to wait for an agent to complete their request later and get back to them.

4. Ease of Escalation— an escape route provides confidence

Today’s consumers demand self-service, but we’ve all experienced a less-than-amazing experience with customer service automation. Chatbots haven’t set the stage well for today’s more advanced self-service tools. It’s important to make sure customers have the option of switching to a live CSR interaction at any time to give them the confidence to engage with your self-service solution. Some customers will avoid self-service despite the possible benefits if they expect they’ll end up stuck in a dead-end experience. This escape button is important because even the most advanced automation platforms can’t handle every single customer service call. Sometimes, customers just need to speak with an agent.

Zappix self-service tools like Mobile On-Demand Apps andVisual IVRdeliver on the full promise of customer service automation. Visual IVR transforms the user journey during customer service calls smoothly transitioning callers from a voice encounter to a fully automated visual experience. Mobile On-Demand Apps deliver that same seamless experience to any digital channel. Powerful Zappix API connectivity means Zappix solutions create real resolutions by effortlessly updating backend systems and delivering the information customers need from databases instantly. Visual IVR and Mobile On-Demand Apps bring self-service automation to use cases and customer questions across every industry, but complex, empathy-based interactions demand human interaction. That’s why every Zappix solution lets customers shift to a live agent interaction at any time, making sure customers feel confident they’re getting exactly the resolution they’re looking for.

Implementing a modern self-service experience to the customer service journey is critical for today’s contact centers. Modern consumers demand automation and the fast, powerful experiences it provides. To make sure self-service projects deliver on the promise of modern self-service, business leaders need to focus on these four keys to success. These keys are important to both delivering an enjoyable experience to customers, as well as increasing the return on investment for businesses. When all four key factors are built into a self-service offering, leaders can be confident their project will succeed.