Beyond the moments that matter, customers want to feel empowered to solve their issues whenever possible. Throughout 2020 there was a 30% spike in customer self-service features,17 which was driven by the need for greater speed and convenience.
Consumers are now used to meeting their needs with chatbots and digital assistants to resolve common requests and access information. Many consumers even prefer these self-service solutions to speaking with an agent.18
Notably, 51% of consumers now point to an easy-to-navigate website as an element of positive CX.19 Whether they use it or not, 86% of consumers take it for granted that an organization will offer some form of self-service for ordinary issues.20
This search for simplicity and always-on availability is driving the growing appetite amongst consumers for automated means of problem-solving. For instance, 58% of customers say emerging technologies such as chatbots and voice assistants have increased their expectations over brands.21
Bots and other forms of automation represent a winning situation for your business. By reducing contact volumes, agents are liberated to focus on the most critical, value-adding issues, customer effort and frustration are minimized, and organizations can optimize the cost to serve without denting CX delivery.
Reasons why consumers prefer self-service solutions
prefer not to speak with a human
think it's faster
think it's more accurate
like that it's available any time of the day
don't know
58% of customers increase their brand expectations thanks to emerging technologies.
Source: FoundeverTM
Things you can do to boost your self-service and automation capabilities:
1 - Expand your self-service technology.
Provide your customers with the freedom to pull relevant information and timely answers where and when they need them, building deeper brand connections while delivering highly effective, 24/7 service.
2 - Optimize your digital conversations with AI.
Leverage AI-driven solutions using data and insights from customer conversations to improve outcomes and become more intelligent over time, providing your brand with unique and relevant interactions.
3 - Enrich your knowledge base and self-service content.
Consolidate your knowledge base and content capabilities to make finding answers effortless, ensuring your support pages are concise, intuitive and customized for your brand.
4 - Benefit from intelligent automations.
Apply advanced automation pathways to common problems, connecting data to workflows and human activity, boosting back-office productivity, expediting agent response and resolving requests faster.
17, 18, 19 - Foundever, “COVID-19: The CX impact.”
20 - Microsoft, “Global state of customer service.”
21 - Salesforce, “State of the connected customer report, 3rd edition.”