Customer Service & Retention

Five Tips for Getting the Most from Your Self-Service System

22 Nov, 2011

By: Mariann McDonagh

Consumers today have a do-it-yourself mentality. Whether it’s home improvement, online banking or even shopping for groceries, we’ve come to enjoy the savings, convenience and sense of accomplishment that result from bootstrapping our way through the modern world.

To satisfy our DIY demands, companies of all types are increasingly offering self-service options that let us tend to our own needs, on our own schedule. As a result, the self-service model has become a major component of customer relations and call center operations.  

But, in order to be effective, self-service options must be optimized for user-friendliness to give customers what they expect when they call or click. Done right, self-service can drive high levels of customer satisfaction and significantly lower operational cost for the call center. But, done wrong, self-service can lead to customer frustration, dissatisfaction and costly damage control as the company is forced to deal with negative publicity in the age of social media.  

So, how can your company get the most out of today’s self-service options? Start by optimizing the system with your customers in mind.  

  1. Make sure it makes sense: Self-service options work perfectly for simple operations like checking a balance or order status, paying a bill or basic troubleshooting in order to route calls more efficiently. However, complex needs may be more cumbersome to address. Take the grocery store for example: it’s easy enough to scan your milk, eggs and bread at the self-service checkout. But, will customers know the product code for the cilantro or fresh basil? Unlikely. They’ll need help from a service rep, which could turn what was intended to be a quick solution for busy shoppers into a longer wait than checking out with a cashier. When devising self-service options for your company’s needs, make sure that the workflows you choose to automate are well-suited to self-service with a fairly linear process and few opportunities for users to veer off course.

  2. Minimize choices: Whether it’s a touchtone prompt system or IVR (interactive voice response), keep the number of menu options to a minimum – four at a time at the most. Give callers too many choices and they’ll easily forget which options they heard first and quickly become frustrated when they make the wrong selection and wind up down a rabbit hole that offers them no help whatsoever. Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” In self-service, the “KISS” principle should always be applied.

  3. Develop customer-driven menus and scripts: Develop the system from the customer’s perspective and how they would classify and describe their needs. This is particularly important with IVR systems—the attendant must understand language the customer would use. Involving agents in the menu and script development is one of the best ways to ensure they meet the needs of callers. In speaking with customers individually, your agents have no doubt amassed a vast knowledgebase of how they describe various issues. Take advantage of their experience to craft options and IVR scripts that leverage this first-hand knowledge.

  4. Make it easy to access an agent at any time: One of the biggest consumer complaints about self-service and IVR is the difficulty in gaining access to a real, live human being. Sure self-service can help reduce manpower and save money, but there must be a warm body ready to help any customer who chooses to opt-out of the self-service module. Giving customers this option, and repeating the instructions to access an agent regularly throughout the workflow, will not only improve customer satisfaction but can also enhance agent efficiency: systems that prompt agents about the point at which the customer exited the system prior to taking the call help agents better prepare to meet the customers’ needs and streamline the service process.

  5. Incorporate reporting features: How will you know if your self-service or IVR system is working as you’d hoped? You could find out the hard way: when customers start slamming your system on Facebook or Twitter. OR, you could implement a system with built-in reporting that keeps you apprised of the situation and enables you to make adjustments on the fly to improve efficiency and satisfaction. Integrated reporting supports a much more proactive strategy, as opposed to solving problems once the damage is already done.  

To be sure, self-service and IVR can dramatically reduce call center operating expenses, with cost estimates at around 5-25 cents each to handle inbound IVR inquiries, versus $5 to $25 for a live-agent call. However, if self-service is not the right fit, or the system you choose is not designed with your customer’s perspective in mind, the savings will disappear quickly as your company spends even more to woo new customers to replace the ones you lost as a result of poor service.