Self-service is a concept that has been evolving. In decades past, self-service meant providing a detailed manual. The downside, of course, was that a printed manual could not be updated dynamically and was costly to distribute. In the late 1990s, with the advent of the Web and content management, self-service meant the publishing of information on the company website, where it could be updated and where customers could find information. This type of content management was one sided — meaning that it was about pushing information from a company to its customers.
Swamy,
Thanks for the post. I agree with your five factors in evaluating potential solutions. I would add "Customer Workflow" to the mix. We see a lot of customer service groups that want customers to have a consistent experience whether they are contacting the contact center agent or going through a web self service workflow. For example, say a customer needs to return a product. If they were to call the contact center, the agent would follow a workflow to walk the customer through a series of steps that would result in a return label, RMA number, instructions, etc. Creating a consistent experience on the web means taking the customer through a nearly identical workflow that the agent would follow to get the desired end result. This way the company can be confident that regardless of the channel the customer experience will be consistent.
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10 Steps to Customer Self-Service Nirvana
Posted by: Swamy Viswanathan January 4, 2011 05:00 AMSelf-service is a concept that has been evolving. In decades past, self-service meant providing a detailed manual. The downside, of course, was that a printed manual could not be updated dynamically and was costly to distribute. In the late 1990s, with the advent of the Web and content management, self-service meant the publishing of information on the company website, where it could be updated and where customers could find information. This type of content management was one sided — meaning that it was about pushing information from a company to its customers.
Thanks for the post. I agree with your five factors in evaluating potential solutions. I would add "Customer Workflow" to the mix. We see a lot of customer service groups that want customers to have a consistent experience whether they are contacting the contact center agent or going through a web self service workflow. For example, say a customer needs to return a product. If they were to call the contact center, the agent would follow a workflow to walk the customer through a series of steps that would result in a return label, RMA number, instructions, etc. Creating a consistent experience on the web means taking the customer through a nearly identical workflow that the agent would follow to get the desired end result. This way the company can be confident that regardless of the channel the customer experience will be consistent.
Thanks,
Brian
http://www.riverstar.com