5 Benefits of self-service customer support for businesses

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Customer service becomes a brand's premium add-on when provided in multichannel setting. This enables your customers to reach you via the channel that's most convenient to them. So, aside from the instant interaction that phone calls bring, they may opt to send your company an email or leave a message on your site's chat feature.

Or you can put up self-service customer support features on your website. This works best for customers who only need quick fixes to common product nuisances.

Self-service customer support serves as the first line of support for common customer issues. It guides your customers in resolving their concerns on their own with the use of tools such as an FAQ page, a comprehensive knowledge base, instructional videos, and manuals.

1.   Efficiency and productivity

With self-service customer support set up, some of your customers won't feel the need to call your call center hotline and instead try to solve their product issues on their own. This is especially true for those with repetitive and recurring concerns.

And with the resulting reduced call volumes, your agents have more time to attend to customers with more complex concerns.


2.   Customer empowerment

There's a growing trend of consumers who prefer on-the-go solutions over direct interactions with call center reps. So provide your customers with the means to solve their own issues and find answers to their queries with curated content on your brand's FAQ page.


3.   Cost reduction

Reduced call queue and volume of tickets are a couple of benefits gained when customers can address their concerns through self-service. You will need less agents to handle your calls since the influx of communication will be notably lower. This means, savings in hiring, training, and employment even when your company grows.


4.   Site traffic boost

A well-established and updated self-service support channel is a useful tool to funnel audiences to your site. As more customers click, site traffic will boost. You can take advantage of this by hyperlinking to other related parts of your FAQs or website to push customer engagement further. This also provides a holistic experience for customers who may have related queries.

Furthermore, your readily available self-support channel encourages brand visibility since customers know that you're easy to communicate with. Information dissemination through external parties such as blogs, social media, and the like, link information from your site and include them in their write ups. So when customers search for certain queries online, they have various links to help them resolve their concerns quicker.


5.   Customer experience enhancement

Offering multichannel support drives consumers to appreciate the accessibility and assurance of great customer care you offer. Self-support can be the tip off or the auxiliary care you can provide since it creates better conversations between your brand and your consumers—whether it's to expand the channel or to be a reference point for those who have gotten in touch with you.