How to Make It Easy for Customers to Find Answers

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Top Takeaways:

• Every question starts with a search. Whenever there was a question, people used to go to the library, ask a friend, or call a store. But now, most of these activities have moved online.
• In a research with 1500 respondents, Yext found out that “85% of customers say that being able to find information or resolve an issue themselves versus contacting customer support is either very important or fairly important.”
• Most brands don’t make it easy for customers to find answers. This is not on purpose. Many brands are still hamstrung by the old ways of organizing information – they typically have answers hidden four, five, or six clicks deep into a knowledge base or scattered across different departments in the organization.
• Customer support teams are under pressure. A lot of them are still measured by metrics like average handle times, the number of resolutions per day, ticket queue, and backlogs. They have the challenge of jumping across multiple knowledge bases to find the information that customers are waiting on. This takes time and is frustrating for support agents.
• Support leaders are turning to chatbots and virtual assistants to help meet customer expectations. However, customers may phrase questions in a way that chatbots are not yet designed to answer. This is frustrating for customers.

Quotes:

“85% of customers say that being able to find information or resolve an issue themselves versus contacting customer support is either very important or fairly important.”

“Customers are increasingly preferring to be able to find answers on their own instead of waiting on a chat queue or sitting on the phone.”

“Don’t overlook the power of search to create a great user experience.”

About:

Joe Jorczak is the Head of Industry for Service & Support at Yext where he is responsible for defining and executing the strategic direction for the company’s service and support offerings.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions … and more:

1. What are the challenges that support teams encounter when finding the answers to their customers’ questions?
2. Why is customer self-service important?
3. Do customers prefer self-service?
4. Why is a knowledge base important?
5. How do customers prefer to find answers to their questions?