What Are The ROI Benefits Of Smart Self-Service?

Customers today have higher expectations than ever before from the companies they do business with, so continuous service across all channels, including, increasingly, self-service channels, is a priority across all industries.

When customers prefer to address their needs themselves, they want consistent, personalized self-service options that make it easy for them to get the answers and resolution they expect.

Is It Enough For Customers That Companies Offer Self-Service?

A report from Aberdeen Research found that while self-service channels are high on organizations’ priority list for planned channel adoption, simply offering self-service isn’t enough. 92% of call centers provide some form of self-service, whether accessible via phone, company website, virtual agents, or mobile devices.

However, giving customers the option to use self-service is not enough for businesses to create happy customers. They have to transform and adapt these activities to the needs of the users.

The Aberdeen Research report was based on a survey of more than 300 contact centers around the world. Among the consultancy’s findings are that the complexity and pace of change in customer expectations are forcing a shift from traditional self-service to smart self-service.

What Are The Benefits Of Smart Self-Service?

• Combines traditional self-service channels with analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enable call centers to continually adjust activities for better resolution and excellent customer experience (CX).
• Promotes business growth.
• Enables contact centers to accelerate their digital transformation and generate higher ROI while improving CX.
• According to the report, companies with intelligent self-service enjoy superior CX, drive operational efficiency, reduce costs and increase revenue. They enjoy a 2.2x decrease in customer effort, achieve a 39% year-over-year increase in customer satisfaction, and benefit from a 9.3% year-over-year growth in annual revenue (compared to 4, 3% of call centers that do not use it).

What Factors Are Necessary To Move From A Traditional Self-Service To A Smart One?

• Analyze assisted service conversations to reveal common issues that can be resolved through self-service.
• Use analytics to reveal issues where self-service is not meeting customer expectations.
• Leverage machine learning (ML) and AI to monitor and adjust self-service activities as needed.