From homemade baked goods to high-tech video game consoles, there seems to be a perfect gift for everyone out there—so why not give a little something extra to your self-service users that will outlast the holiday hype?
According to the Harvard Business Review, "81% of people attempt to help themselves before reaching out to support."1 But in order for customers or employees to actually use your self-service options, you need to provide them with the right channels, features and technology that will help them find answers to their issues quickly and conveniently.
Help your customers and employees help themselves with these 3 self-service gifts that will keep on giving.
1. Omnichannel Self-Service Support
Give users access to answers from anywhere.
With technology being easily accessible at home and in the workplace, it is not surprising that customers and employees are relying more on self-service when it comes to quickly finding solutions to their issues. This is why giving users access to support from anywhere is a key ingredient for self-service success.
But omnichannel support is not just about offering users a plethora of channels to access information from. Instead, think about it as delivering information in different ways that are accessible at any time while providing consistent support. In other words, it is about making sure that all channels work together to give the users the best experience possible wherever they work. So how can you achieve this?
Make self-service options available to everyone in your organization through website applications, self-service portals and messaging platforms. You can also leverage self-help technology and virtual agents to ease access to answers or guide users through complicated processes. For example, virtual agents and chatbots can improve user interactions by integrating with 3rd party software like Microsoft Teams or Slack—this provides a more comprehensive, unified self-service experience.
2. An Intelligent Knowledge Management System
Provide guided answers and solutions to everyone.
HDI research from the end of 2018 showed that knowledge management technology is already employed by 87% of support organizations and is the second-most important technology for providing successful support.2
A knowledge management software that enables the delivery of the right content to the right audience at the right time can have a big impact when it comes to increasing employee and customer engagement with self-service.
By focusing on end-to-end knowledge experiences rather than static knowledge articles, you can give users a more interactive experience and guide the delivery of bite-sized knowledge in the form of videos, images, text, and more.
Knowledge management tools with self-help technology can help you capture knowledge and deliver it in a way that it is easy-to-digest, while integrating it with intelligent tools like chatbots or virtual agents.
3. AI Augmentation for Self-Service
Deliver personalized support experiences for everyone.
Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic in the several years and I am sure it might be an item in many of your wishlists. The concept of AI Augmentation for self-service refers to taking advantage of AI technologies, such as natural language processing (NLP) and intelligent search, to enhance and personalize support experiences for everyone.
For example, when users don’t want to navigate to a self-service portal or a third-party application when looking for an answer, virtual agents use NLP to analyze what the user is looking for and deliver it in various formats. This is a great example of how omnichannel support and AI technologies can work together.
Combining AI and knowledge management systems also streamlines the self-service experience because together they allow for intelligent searches that deliver more relevant answers for users, faster. This way users get exactly what they need without having to go through pages of irrelevant information.
Ready to check your list twice?
Learn more about how you can integrate advanced AI technology like chatbots and knowledge management to provide customers and employees with a self-service experience that will keep them engaged all year: see a live demo.
1. Harvard Business Review, “Kick-Ass Customer Service”. January 2017. https://hbr.org/2017/01/kick-ass-customer-service
2. HDI, “2018 Technical Support Practices & Salary Report”
