Applying the 90-9-1 Rule to Digital Self-Service: A Cross-Functional Framework for Success

Creating a seamless digital self-serve experience isn't about perfection; it's about building a system that continuously improves over time. Borrowing from the 90-9-1 rule—a model often used to describe engagement in online communities—can be a strategic approach to guide digital self-service, setting realistic goals for both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.Imagine this self-service goal: 90% of your customers self-serve, 9% connect with a human for support, and 1% defect.

As W. Edwards Deming, economist, industrial engineer, management consultant, statistician, and writer (and my Operations Management professor at NYU Business School), believed, aiming for zero defects may be unrealistic, but striving to understand and address defects pushes an organization toward excellence. To get there, companies need a holistic approach, one that prioritizes seamless, integrated self-serve experiences, and leverages insights to drive continuous improvement.

The Digital Self-Service 90-9-1 Framework

• 90% Self-Serve: The goal is for 90% of customers to find what they need independently. Whether through an intuitive knowledge base, an AI-powered chatbot, or a well-organized FAQ, the aim is to make digital resources accessible and helpful, empowering customers to resolve their own issues quickly.9%
• Assisted Support: Even the best self-service tools can't address every need. About 9% of customers will require human support for complex or nuanced questions. Here, ensuring a smooth transition to live support is essential for a positive customer journey, with agents empowered to pick up where self-serve left off.
• 1% -- Oh well, these might go unanswered: While striving for zero defection is ideal, a minimal 1% rate acknowledges that some customers will leave or encounter issues that self-serve or assisted support can't resolve. Rather than seeing this as failure, companies should see it as an opportunity for continuous improvement, identifying reasons behind these cases and closing gaps over time.

Is Achieving 90-9-1 Self-Service Realistic?

Achieving this 90-9-1 split in self-service is ambitious but attainable with the right strategies in place. While it might seem unrealistic at first glance, it's crucial for companies to adopt this mindset and strive towards it. Just as ATMs revolutionized banking by replacing human tellers for routine transactions, and self-driving cars are transforming transportation, the 90-9-1 model can drive innovation in customer service.

Here's what makes it achievable and where some companies might need to adjust based on their unique circumstances:

• Quality and Accessibility of Self-Service Resources: To reach 90% self-service, digital resources must be well-designed, thorough, and easy to navigate. Self-Serve should be part of the UX and UI and not thought of as an add-on. At Intuit, we built Live Community which embedded user created content from the community into the products. Not only that it was context based so if a customer got stuck using the product, they received real time and relevant help from experts at point of need. At Udacity, we built high-quality FAQs, chatbots that understand intent, and strong search functions are essential. A federated search that pulls from documentation, community forums, and product resources can be especially effective in delivering comprehensive answers to customers.
• Product or Service Complexity: This target is more feasible for straightforward products with predictable customer issues. For complex, regulated, or highly technical products, companies might aim for an adjusted ratio—perhaps closer to 80-15-5—while continuously improving their self-service systems.
• Data-Driven Iteration: Achieving a 90% self-service rate requires consistent iteration. Regular analysis of user behavior, escalation patterns, and direct feedback helps identify common pain points and knowledge gaps. By acting on these insights, companies can improve their self-serve systems over time, delivering an increasingly valuable experience for customers. Unfortunately, many of the companies I have worked with don't have a unified digital self-serve dashboard. They have university usage in one place, chat bot usage in another place, etc. So to really drive continuous improvement you need data not only from each platform, but also at a macro level so you can understand engagement numbers across the digital self-serve board.
• Customer Preferences: Not all customers are equally inclined toward self-service. Organizations should consider customer firmagraphics demographics, preferences, and tech-savviness when designing their systems. For customers who may be new to self-service, educational content and onboarding can ease the transition and build confidence.

Digital Self-Service: A Cross-Functional Team Sport

Creating a successful self-service experience is not a solo effort; it's a cross-functional sport involving departments across the company. Here's how collaboration is essential for self-serve success:

Product and UX Teams as Key Players: Product and UX teams play a central role by building self-service options directly into the product's UI and UX. When self-service is embedded at the core of the user experience—think intuitive workflows, in-app guides, and real-time support options—customers can resolve issues without relying on external applications or "afterthought" add-ons like WalkMe or Pendo. Self-service becomes part of the customer journey, not an overlay on top of it.

Digital Self-Serve and Customer Success Leadership: Leaders in digital self-serve and customer success are essential to guiding the strategy, defining success metrics, and working closely with product teams to ensure that self-serve initiatives align with customer needs. These leaders should advocate for continuous testing and refinement based on customer feedback, ensuring the self-serve experience remains relevant and valuable over time.

Data Science Teams for Insight-Driven Refinement: Data is a driving force behind effective self-service. Analytics teams play a crucial role by tracking user behavior, identifying knowledge gaps, and analyzing how often customers resort to live support. By working alongside product and self-serve teams, analytics can help direct improvements, from adjusting UI elements to creating new knowledge base articles, based on data-backed insights.

Moving Toward Continuous Improvement in Digital Self-Service

Deming's philosophy of continuous improvement aligns perfectly with digital self-service. Rather than seeking a "finished" solution, companies should view self-service as an evolving system that requires regular updates, refinements, and optimizations based on user behavior, feedback, and emerging technologies.A few practical steps to sustain improvement include:

• Behavior Tracking: Continually analyze user interactions to spot patterns or common drop-off points. This data can reveal where customers struggle and where self-serve resources can be improved.
• Feedback Loops: Use direct customer feedback to guide improvements, addressing issues that customers voice directly.
• AI and Analytics Tools: AI-driven analytics can help identify patterns, measure success, and point to areas for enhancement in real-time, making it easier to adapt quickly to customer needs.

Case Studies and Real-World Examples

Clari: At Clari, we implemented a mentor-mentee program called Clari Coaches. These coaches consistently provided feedback on how to improve the product, creating a valuable feedback loop that enhanced both the self-service experience and the product itself.

Marketo: During my time at Marketo, we focused on creating self-serve content that not only helped users learn the product but also fine-tuned their craft and accelerated their careers. We encouraged the Marketing Nation's Community customers to go beyond helping answer product questions and share stories and "play it forward," discussing how they managed their careers and improved their Marketing Operations (MOPs) skills. This approach created a vibrant community of users who supported each other's growth while becoming more proficient with the product.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Implementing a robust self-service system requires initial investment, but the long-term benefits far outweigh the costs. Consider the following:

• Reduced Support Costs: It's expensive to hire and train people to solve customer support and onboarding issues. Self-service significantly reduces these costs.
• Improved Customer Satisfaction: Customers who can quickly find answers to their questions are more likely to be satisfied and remain loyal.
• Increased Efficiency: Self-service frees up support staff to handle more complex issues, improving overall operational efficiency.
• Scalability: As your customer base grows, self-service allows you to scale support without a proportional increase in costs.

Measuring Success

To evaluate the effectiveness of your self-service strategy, consider the following metrics:

• Time to Value: How quickly can customers start deriving value from your product through self-service?
• Call/Case Deflection: The number of support cases avoided due to self-service options.
• Depth and Breadth of Product Usage: Are customers using more features of your product as a result of self-service resources?

Additional key metrics include:

• Customer satisfaction score
• Customer effort score
• First contact resolution rate
• Usage rate of self-service channels
• Content quality and relevance
• Cost savings
• Digital Health Score or Self-service score
• Percentage of customer contacts via self-service portal
• Overall self-help portal performance
• Self-help portal's customer satisfaction score & net promoter score
• Number of support calls
• Bounce rate on self-service pages
• Etc.

Final Thoughts

While achieving a 90-9-1 split in digital self-service is ambitious, it's a goal worth striving for. By embracing this mindset and implementing a cross-functional approach to self-service, companies can significantly improve customer satisfaction, reduce support costs, and drive product adoption. Remember, just as ATMs and self-driving cars once seemed impossible, a highly efficient self-service model is within reach for organizations willing to invest in continuous improvement and customer-centric innovation.Throughout my career, I have believed that self-serve content should help people learn the product, fine-tune their craft, and accelerate their career. This philosophy, combined with the 90-9-1 framework, can transform digital self-service from a cost-saving measure into a powerful tool for customer success and business growth.

This article was edited by my friends Claude and Perplexity.

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