The Great Self-Service Divide Between Customers and Businesses!

I read an article on CX today on the self-service divide. The article quotes a Gartner survey, which reveals that self-service is failing to deliver on its promise.

Only 14% of the 5728 customers surveyed admitted a company's self-service channel fully resolved their customer service and support issues. This means only 1 in 7 customer service queries were resolved using self-service channels.

Only 36% of the issues described by customers as simple were handled by self-service channels.

On the other hand, we keep hearing that businesses are migrating 80 to 90% of their customer service resolution to the self-service channels.

There is a disconnect in what self-service is able to deliver, besides the disconnect in the understanding and implementation of self-service channels itself.

Let me give you some scenarios that I have encountered or heard from people in my circle. I am doing them here in first person for better understanding.

Scenario 1

I was told by my credit card provider that my KYC has to be updated. I was given the choice of doing it online. When I clicked on the link, it asked me to write something and hold it in front of the camera for it to verify. Then, it presented me with multiple drop-down options, and after a point, I couldn't figure out how to get this done.

So, I called customer care, and I was directed to visit a nearby branch to submit my KYC documents physically.

Avoid difficult-to-navigate menus and unclear instructions (they should have zero ambiguity) to make things easier for your customers.

Scenario 2

I have a savings account and a business account with the same bank. I was able to set the password for my savings account. So, assuming that the process would be the same, I tried setting up the password for my business account. I was told that I should come to the branch to get things set up.

?By design, the self-service process was implemented for certain scenarios and not for others.

Avoid having limited functionality in your self-service channels. ?

Scenario 3

I recently ordered a bunch of T-shirts from an online store. In the portal, the shipment time was listed as six working days, and for speedy delivery, they had an option for me to opt for a shipment with premium pricing. I did that, and I was told that I should get the delivery on the 3rd day.

I did not receive the shipment on the 4th day, so I went to their chatbot to check on the shipment status. I was provided generic information stating that it takes six working days to deliver anything, and it is only the 4th day. I should wait another couple of days before contacting them.

The chatbot had no clue that I had opted for priority shipping, and I paid for that. This experience was very frustrating.

Your self-service channels should be integrated with other systems so that you have a clear view of your customer interactions. With that, you would be able to provide personalized service to your customers without them having to repeat themselves or listen to generic automated stuff.

Scenario 4

I subscribed to a conferencing service for my office, which was working like a breeze. They kept sending me reminders to upgrade my installation to their latest version. After a few days, they forced me to upgrade to the latest version, which I did.

After the upgrade, it stopped working. So, I went to their knowledge base and FAQs to troubleshoot my issue, but all the knowledge available there was for the older version, which did not work for me.

After trying a few times, I had to reach out to their tech support to fix the issue.

Always keep your knowledge base updated with the latest information, especially when you are rolling out an upgrade.

Scenario 5

I recently downloaded the Digiyatra app on my phone. I was told that the airport check-in process is a breeze with the app installed on the phone.

Accordingly, I scheduled all my meetings, and I had planned to reach the airport just in time to catch the flight. On the way to the airport, I was trying to update my information on the Digiyatra app.

While uploading, I realized there was a mismatch in the name – my ticket was booked with my full name, whereas my Aadhar had my initials. This didn't match, and my Digiyatra refused to work.

Once I reached the airport, I had to literally run and request people in the queue to let me jump them so that I didn't miss my flight.

Culturally, the country is very vast, and self-service facilities like Digiyatra should factor in those cultural nuances and let people check in with their credentials. The same credential was accepted by the security person who was physically checking the identification.

There are many such scenarios where there are multiple self-service options that are available to make your life easier. But do they really make your life easier?

More often than not, they don't. It can be due to limited functionality, poor user experience, lack of personalization, inadequate knowledge base, technical glitches, and lack of human touch.

In many cases, most customers don't even know that the organization has a self-service channel for customers to make use of, resulting in poor adoption and keeping the human agents busy.

While self-service has a lot of advantages, it needs to be implemented well so that people gain from it rather than get frustrated about the experience.

Are we being mindful of this when we try to implement self-service initiatives to enhance customer experience?

As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Drop us a line or hit us up, and we can talk.

Wishing you a month filled with transformative experiences and positive vibes.