As digitisation and technological advancements continue, customers demand speed and immediate assistance with questions or problems. According to a study on the most important factors for customer satisfaction by CMO Council in cooperation with SAP Hybris, a full 52% of all respondents stated that the response time to questions or complaints is decisive for them in finding a company's service good or bad. *The solution to this claim is "Self Service". Read the following article to find out what this is and how you can also offer timely and thus satisfactory customer service in your company.
What does Self Service mean?
It unites all services that can be used by people or customers independently. Self-service systems can be found on every corner of everyday life: shopping at the supermarket, buying a train ticket at the ticket machine, putting together a meal at the hotel buffet, etc. - the list could go on forever. The same applies to the digital world, in which customers and interested parties receive answers to questions independently and, above all, independent of time, through offers such as insurance comparisons, hotel bookings, FAQs and chat bots.
A distinction is made here between two types of self-services: those initiated by the user and those that can be carried out completely independently by the user. The former includes all activities that can initially be initiated by the user independently, but subsequently require the processing of the service provider, for example:
- an insurance enquiry via a comparison portal
- renting a rental car
- or the request for a personal customer service representative after the chat bot could not help
Self-service, on the other hand, which can be used by the user independently, works completely independently of the service provider, such as reading the FAQ or the chat bot that can answer the query. Self-service offers are therefore a very useful service in companies. What other advantages do they bring?
Advantages of a self-service portal for companies and customers
The brevity of the response time it takes to deal with customers' enquiries is now the deciding factor for over half of all consumers as to whether they find a company's service pleasant or not. If a business offers speedy customer service, it can satisfy and retain its customers. If not, customers may migrate to a competitor that offers them this service.
In addition to customer satisfaction, there are a number of other benefits that a self-service system brings to both businesses and customers. These are, for example:
- Automation and standardisation: The customer service process can be raised to a level that includes both a fast response time and service quality at the highest level. Furthermore, part of the customer service can be automated by means of automatic answers via a chat bot or the provision of a knowledge database.
- Cost savings: Due to the automation of the processes and at the same time higher customer satisfaction, costs can be saved and revenues increased.
- Time and location-independent customer service: Thanks to the offer of a self-service, customers can be offered service completely independent of time and location. This also brings advantages for the service provider, as he does not have to be on site at the same time to process the request.
The implementation of a self-service software is worthwhile for companies to establish an optimal customer service. However, choosing from the wide range of different portals is not easy. To give you a little help, we present EcholoN's self-service portal below..
EcholoNs Self Service Portal
The EcholoN Self Service Portal is a browser-based application. It facilitates communication between customers, departments, support teams and specialists. All standard processes within the self-service software can be freely customised and adapted. Just as you need it in your company.
The way the Self Service Portal works is very simple: First of all, if the customer has a question or needs a solution, he can access the FAQ or the extensive, constantly growing knowledge database. If they still cannot find an answer to their question or problem, they report a problem.
He reports this fault via a web form that is connected to the company's internal service desk. The malfunction report becomes a ticket and, thanks to predefined categories, is forwarded to the right department or the customer service staff.
There, the ticket is processed and the status is updated. Meanwhile, the customer can view the status of his ticket at any time or, if necessary, set it to completed himself. The whole process takes place in a timely manner and is highly transparent for the customer. In this way, customer satisfaction can be ensured despite the required service time.
In addition, the Self Service Portal can be expanded modularly at any time, for example by assigning different user roles, a shopping basket or a rating system. You are welcome to discuss the extent to which further modules are important and useful for you directly with one of our employees, we will be happy to advise you. Please contact us without obligation - by e-mail or telephone.
We look forward to hearing from you!