
Hannah Cohen
Updated:
Published:
July 5, 2023
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7 min
Hannah Cohen
Tango Content Marketing Lead
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Youâve probably heard of self-service in the context of internal to external customer service.Â
A customer has a question or a problem. They want their inquiry to be addressed and/or their roadblock to be removed. Ideally, they wonât have to wait in line (literally or figuratively). Self-service makes it possible for them to find exactly what they need, when they need it, without any human interaction. đ
The shy and introverted arenât the only ones rejoicing, in this scenario.
These stats probably come as no surprise to people who work in Customer Service, Support, or Success. (Angels on earth, all of you!) But similar behaviors, desires, and expectations exist inside organizations, too. Just ask your friends triaging tickets in Information Technology (IT) and fielding requests in Human Resources (HR).Â
In this post, weâll cover:Â
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It doesnât matter if your customer is internal (a team member whoâs stuck) or external (a consumer with questionable patience).Â
To deliver a friction-free experience, you need to give people what theyâre looking for, fast.Â
Weâll get into the 360-degree benefits of a self-service model later on. For nowâhere are eight larger trends influencing the rise of self-service.
This combination of factors makes self-service options more critical than ever.Â
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The good news is, thereâs no shortage of ways to help people become more self-sufficient.Â
Step-by-step how-to guides make it easy to find answers quickly, minimize avoidable mistakes, and complete tasks with confidence. Want to skip the tedious, text-heavy approach to sharing what you know? Try Tango to guide people through automatically generated processes in real-time (without screen sharing). đ
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A knowledge base is an online library of information about a product, service, department, or topic. Information is centralized, searchable, and easily accessibleâand ideally, incredibly useful. Notion, Guru, and Helpjuice are at the top of the class, if you want to scale your ability to serve your team and/or your customers. If youâre looking for inspiration, HubSpot does a great job.Â
Frequently asked question pages are a simple but powerful way to help people find the information they need. By addressing common concerns and stumbling blocks, FAQ pages can reduce the number of repetitive questions and prevent them from arising in the first place.Â
AI-powered customer service chatbots arenât newâbut they have gotten much more effective. Use them to deliver customer support, help people make purchases, and access information. If youâre in the marketâcheck out Zendesk, Drift, and Intercom.
Whereas a knowledge base typically provides information, a self-service portal allows people to perform specific tasks. Self-service portals are popular for software as a service products because they make it easy for customers to access account information and manage subscriptions, among other things. But theyâre equally great for IT and HR teams. Help people access training materials, order their own tech, reset their passwords, find their pay stubs, track performance, and more.Â
If one person has a question, chances are someone else does too. A community forum is a fantastic way to enable peer-to-peer support and empower people to find readily available answers when they need them, without tapping into an in-house subject matter expert. Slack, Tribe, and MightyNetworks are all great options to research.Â
P.S. Looking for more online community? All are welcome here!
If youâve ever activated a debit card by phone (without talking to a human), youâre probably familiar with this one. Automated call centers use interactive voice response systems (with pre-recorded messages and voice recognition technology) to help callers make a selection from a menu of optionsâlike checking an account balance, paying a bill, or scheduling an appointment.Â
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Customer self-service has a host of benefits beyond time and money savedâand the joy doesnât only flow one way.Â
18 Reasons for Customer-Facing Teams To Champion Self-serviceÂ
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âTriageâ and âticket deflectionâ are magical words for anyone who works in Customer Support, IT, and HR.Â
Hereâs a popular way to prioritize a large volume of incoming requests:
Whatâs the TL; DR? Even with all its benefits, self-service isnât a one-size-fits-all solution.Â
There are times when combining self-service with human supportâor jumping straight to a very high touch customer experienceâmay make the most sense. And even when self-service *is* the right path, it needs to be done equally thoughtfully.Â
So what can make self-service fall short?
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To recap: Effective self-service is a win-win. It empowers people on both sides of the equation, saves time and money, and drives seamless experiences.Â
It can also reduce the number of Tier 1 (first contact resolution) tickets we talked about above, by turning them into Tier 0 tickets that can be solved without help from a human. Whether youâre in Customer Support, IT, or HR, itâs in your best interests to minimize the number of non-complex requests.
To do that, you need to optimize the way you share knowledge. To our earlier pointâif you pack everything under the sun into an encyclopedia of a PDF, people will be less likely to 1) use it, and 2) rave about it.Â
This approach will also take your team far too long to make and maintainâŚwhich is where Tango comes in.Â
See how Senior Business System Analyst Rebecca Zey increased self-service and slashed ticket volume by creating how-to guides with Tango:Â
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We covered a lot of ground in this guide. What are the top three takeaways?Â
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A self-service process empowers people to complete tasks or access resources without help from a customer service representative or another individual.
To encourage customers to self-serve, you should:
We'll never show up
empty-handed (how rude!).