Finding the right role for self-service

Self-service can deliver significant assistance to the customer, and financial benefits to the business. Yet many organisations continue to struggle with the right role for self-service in their portfolio of support offerings and its use has plateaued. Allen Bonde examines the reasons for this - and explores what the right role for self-service really is.

By Allen Bonde, eVergance

Self-service has become a part of our everyday lives, from the airport to the petrol station, through to how we now research and purchase products online. As a customer service tool, there is a lot to like about self-service, especially if you can provide more convenient service to your customers and employees whilst lowering the cost of each interaction.

Success stories are widespread. Across every industry, we have seen tremendous value for both users and business when self-service is properly presented and delivered in a usable fashion. One large bank has been able to redeploy 50% of its contact centre staff due to a self-service helpdesk initiative. In another case, a leading airline reduced its customer email volume by over 60% via an online self-service 'assistant'. Elsewhere, in the public sector, the city of Amsterdam has cut its inbound call volume in half, whilst also increasing citizen satisfaction levels by 15%.

Yet, despite numerous successes, many organisations continue to struggle with the right role for self-service in their portfolio of support offerings. And while internet use, broadband access and even the deployment of kiosks continues to expand, a recent study by eVergance shows that overall, self-service adoption is actually reaching a plateau at around 40% of all customer interactions.

Why has self-service adoption leveled off? Simply put, it is not for everyone, there are still some technological hurdles and - significantly – self-service doesn’t always result in better service. Some consumers just simply want to speak with a live person and some transactions, like purchasing a car or choosing a mortgage, are just more naturally conducted face-to-face. Furthermore, like any technology lifecycle, once it reaches a certain level of maturity and adoption in an industry or market, growth flattens out and the focus shifts from new deployments to maximising the benefits of existing systems and addressing new features and reliability that a mainstream market demands.

At the same time, there remain huge variations in the level of self-service adoption across various industry sectors. The financial sector was ahead of the curve early on with automated cash points and online banking, and not surprisingly is approaching 50% adoption of transactional self-service. Another bright spot in terms of self-service roll-out has been wireless telecoms, especially in Europe.

Self-service success or deflection rates – a measure of how effective online applications are at helping users complete their task or answering their question – are highest in banking and retail. Part of this is certainly attributable to the maturity of online banking and ecommerce applications, and the comfort-level customers in these sectors have with automated systems and electronic exchanges of information. Interestingly, success rates are lowest in (traditional) telecoms and utilities, two sectors with a long history of poor service and a mixed track record of rolling out new consumer self-service tools like ebilling.

Revisiting the benefits – and finding the right role

Early self-service applications like vending machines or web portals were about both reach and efficiency. They provided convenience and lowered the cost of a transaction or interaction. However, along the way, too many organisations started viewing self-service as only a lower-cost channel. Cost savings is typically a key benefit of self-service, but must be coupled with other goals like creating a better user experience, improving satisfaction, or gaining greater insight into customer needs.

In addition, self-service options must offer at least as good an experience - if not a better one - than alternatives and offer a payoff for both initial and continued use. Banks recognised this when they promoted the convenience of using cash points at any time of day vs visiting a branch location during banking hours. And consumers are happily choosing check-in kiosks at hotels and airports when they glance over at the alternative: a long wait in a queue in front of the service desk.

Self-service also drives and requires change. Beyond choosing a technology foundation and picking the right performance metrics, driving adoption remains a key challenge in many cases. Promotional campaigns and specific incentives – for both end-user adoption and to drive experts to contribute content – is a key starting point. Organisations also need to tap into the power of communities and realise that the best way to drive self-help may in fact be by encouraging and enabling users to help each other.

Remember, we live in a multi-channel world!

Even when self-service works extremely well, not all customers will want to use it – or will be able to complete all of their tasks online. And for almost all businesses, each new interaction channel typically is addition to the mix rather than being a substitute. For example, the web has not replaced the phone, and chat is increasingly a 'bridge' between the phone, email and even self-service.

At the same time, even in the best situations, users will need special assistance at some point in their interactions. Despite advances in user interfaces and the potential of next-generation artificial intelligence and business process management (BPM) approaches, this means providing live help via a nearby associate, or if online via chat or a call-me button or simply making contact information easy to find.

Regardless of your industry, there is proven value in offering self-service. But be aware that success rates will vary, and what might be seen as a low adoption rate in one sector may in fact be best-in-class in another. Self-service must also be viewed as part of an overall multi-channel strategy, with specific roles, relationships, and interaction processes defined for each channel.

In some cases cultural and technological hurdles remain. But if we truly listen to our customers, remain pragmatic about what technology can and can’t do, and focus on the overall experience we deliver both online and offline, there is no question that self-service can be the channel of choice – at least for some of your customers!

Allen Bonde is senior vice president and chief marketing officer at eVergance.