Self-service channels for customers – good or bad idea? pt.2
After we shed some light on what the self-service channels are, it is time to look at some wrong practices, which can quickly turn their benefits into negatives – a moment that is too often neglected and even more often a result of unconsidered self-service channel implementation.
Unintuitive interface
How many pages your customers should navigate through, to find the information they are seeking? How many clicks should they do, to find what they need? Sometimes, self-service channels can become the hurdle in front of the customer, mainly because of their lack of intuitiveness. Often, this is the case with knowledge bases, where the user looks for the answer through a huge amount of pages – an activity that can be quite time-consuming, frustrating and confusing, to say the least. This is how self-service can consume much more time than contacting the operator;
Broken links
When a corporate website is being updated, sometimes some of the links miss the memo. And most of the times those links are the ones that lead to the self-service channels. This, of course, makes them unreachable, thus worthless;
Wrong information
We’ve all been there – checking for some information in the knowledge base of a company’s website, only to find out the answer to our problem is wrong, unclear or too broad to be useful. The truth is, no matter how comprehensive a data base is, one can never foresee all the problems that can occur. However, a customer service agent with enough experience can always help even in the most complicated situations;
“Pushing” self-service channels
As we’ve mentioned, not all customers prefer self-service channels, especially if they had bad experience using them in the past. Some think, that by paying for your product or service, they deserve a proper and personal help, when they have a problem, instead of just being transferred to a self-service channel. There is a big difference between having a customer service rep explain to the customer how to help himself with his problem, next time it occurs, and the aggressively “pushing” a self-service channel.
Self-service channels can quite easy become a negative part of a company’s customer service, if it turns out they are the focal point in it. Self-service can be a great addition, but a company’s customer service should always be structured around a professional and experienced team of agents, who can personally find solution to all the customer’s problems.
Our agents are trained to offer great customer service on all existing channels, without having the customer search for the needed information by himself. An experienced team of professionals can do so much about your customer service, so check out our services and give us a call, if you want to offer a positive customer experience, and not just guidelines for searching the internet.