Although many companies have made large investments in self-service, a new study by Gartner shows that only 14% of customer service issues could be completely resolved via self-service. Even for simple problems, only 36% of customers manage to resolve their issues without having to contact customer service.
The survey, which included over 5,700 customers, shows that many users feel companies do not understand their needs, often leading to frustration. The most common reason for self-service failure is that customers cannot find relevant information to solve their problems.
The survey shows that companies can improve their self-service offerings by:
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- Expand and maintain content: Involve customer service representatives in creating the content so that they can contribute knowledge as part of the problem-solving process, rather than as a separate task.
- Invest in proactive solutions: Use customer data to anticipate customer needs and become more proactive.
- Simplify the solution process: Place a digital guide, for example a chatbot, centrally on the website to help and make it easier for the customer to resolve their issue.
- Continuously evaluate and improve the content: Establish processes to improve the quality of the content, for example by allowing both customers and employees to flag content that needs improvement.
The results highlight the importance of refining and adapting self-service options to better meet customer expectations and needs.