As customer service and customer experience become key differentiators for brands and organisations across all industries, it has never been more important to meet customers on the channels and platforms they use most, and make their service experience as effortless as possible.
Microsoft’s annual State of Multichannel Customer Service Report, which surveyed 1,000 UK consumers, showed that customer service channel preference is changing based on value of (and for) the customer’s time, with 56% saying that they now use brand or organisational self-service support portals on a regular basis. In fact, 92% of the consumers surveyed say they now expect a brand or organisation to offer a self-service customer support portal, and 43% have a more favourable view of that same organisation if the self-service portal is also mobile responsive.
With these numbers, it’s incredibly difficult to dismiss a greater investment in the development or redevelopment of your brand’s self-service offering. Yet, self-service development or redevelopment efforts should not be done hastily, as Gartner Research estimates that “by the end of 2016, at least 80% of organisations that fail to plan their self-service implementations will incur higher customer service costs and will not achieve the savings and benefits expected.” (Why You Need to Rethink Your Customer Self-Service Strategy, Gartner Research, Brian Manusama, 2015)
This complimentary guide to self-service, detailing its role in customer service and the customer experience, explores the strategy needed to develop an improved self-service offering. The guide also details the key role knowledge, and knowledge management, plays in employee and customer empowerment through self-service whether the content is in written, video or virtual form.
In addition, this guide sponsored by Microsoft and written by My Customer, gives best practices beneficial to every organisation across any industry, and looks at concrete ways to measure both the success and ROI of any self-service endeavour.
With Microsoft’s State of Multichannel Customer Service Report showing that 97% of UK consumers believe customer service is very important or somewhat important in their choice of, or loyalty to, a brand, empowering them with the best self-service offering has never been more important.
We hope you enjoy and benefit from this complimentary guide as you consider improvements to or the development of a self-service resource.
Click here to download for free today.