Do-it-yourself Support
Use the Web to help your customers help themselves
September 2006 By Linda Formichelli
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Let’s consider two scenarios: In the first one, which takes place in the Stone Age, a customer has a problem with your widget. She dials your toll-free number on her stone phone, and the call center rep (who’s wearing a loincloth because it’s casual Friday) spends valuable time walking the customer through the process of hooking up the widget.
In the second scenario, you have a customer who has a problem with your widget. She surfs over to your Web site and clicks on the FAQ section located in a prominent place on your home-page. The first few FAQs in the list are the most common ones, and she finds her answer there. But she still doesn’t quite understand the widget hooking-up procedure (you can tell because she’s reloaded the FAQ page several times), so one of your contact center reps initiates a quick Web-based chat.
Welcome to the modern world of Web self-service, where your customers and prospects get all the product and troubleshooting information they need right on your Web site without having to pick up the phone. Companies institute Web self-service for any of three reasons:
1. To enhance customer service. Many customers don’t want to spend time waiting on hold and then trying to describe their problem to a stranger who may or may not have the answer. They would rather go to your Web site and quickly find the solution to their problem.
2. To save money. It’s simple: When a customer is serving himself, you don’t have to pay someone else to do it.
3. To make money. “I found That if you look at the typical customer life cycle in the B-to-B world, you go from marketing to sales to service,” says John Ragsdale, vice president of the Service & Support Professionals Association. “But in the consumer world, it’s different: It goes from marketing to service to sales. With Web self-service, you’re helping consumers get the information they need to close the deal.”
If that sounds sweet to you, here’s how you can get your customers to serve themselves on your Web site.
Get Them There
The first step is to encourage prospects and customers to use your Web self-service option. Include the self-service link in all your written marketing and fulfillment materials, and even in the hold or voice mail message of your toll-free service number. “At every opportunity, you should drive customers to the support link on your [Web site],” says Anand Chopra, director of product marketing for KANA, a provider of multichannel customer service solutions. “A customer of ours says the best thing to do is make it hard for the customer to find an 800 number … if they want the 800 number, they will find it.” Once customers are on your site, however, make it easy to find the self-service option; some experts suggest having an FAQ link or search box on the homepage.
Consider the Options
Sure, FAQ pages and search tools are great, but there are plenty of other self-service options, both do-it-yourself applications or via software solutions. You can analyze customers’ data—such as their history with you, what products they own and what they’re doing on your site—to create a customized self-service page just for them, says Ragsdale.
You can initiate (or let the customer initiate) chats, and even co-browse with customers, says Chopra. Case-based reasoning asks the customer a series of questions to narrow down to the correct solution. Chopra also points out the effectiveness of decision trees, which are step-by-step guides that bring the customer down a different path depending on her answers to various questions.
Be Warm
No one wants to wade through an FAQ full of corporate-speak or use a search tool that requires them to enter terms they’d never use in real life.
“When you push customers into self-service, it must be intuitive,” says Jeanne Bliss, president of the customer service coaching and consulting firm CustomerBLISS. “Think about the scenarios they’re in when they use your Web self-service, and what questions they’re asking. Don’t off-load them into a site that has no feeling.”
For example, use natural language search tools, and phrase your FAQ questions the way a real person would articulate them, such as, “I turn on my widget and nothing happens. What’s wrong and how can I fix it?” A great idea is to catalog the questions you commonly receive via phone and e-mail, and then incorporate them into the self-service system.
Jump In
The last thing you want is a frustrated customer who’s vowing to never buy from you again as he reloads the FAQ page 50 times or spends half an hour trying to decipher your instructions. Some self-service options let you monitor customer actions on the Web site and alert someone if the customer seems to be having trouble.
“You can track how long they spent on a URL or how many times they’ve repeated a certain act, like asking a question or searching an FAQ list,” says Ragsdale. For example, says Chopra, studies show that if a customer spends more than 20 seconds on a checkout screen, he’s likely to abandon the shopping cart; you can set a timer to automatically initiate a chat if someone has been on a checkout screen for 15 to 20 seconds.
Give Them an Outlet
It may sound like the point of Web self-service is to dump complaining customers into a wasteland where they won’t bother you. But if your self-service is not enhancing the customer experience, you need to give customers an out, whether it’s the option to initiate a live chat, call a service number or send an e-mail. Also, give customers a guaranteed promise of how quickly you’ll get back to them, says Bliss.
De-escalate
That said, offer customers one more chance to de-escalate before bringing in live service. For example, with the KANA solution, when the customer tries to escalate to an e-mail, a pop-up box asks her to further describe her issue. The software then conducts a search, brings up the top three solutions and asks if they’re helpful. If the customer clicks “no,” then the communication escalates to an e-mail.
Review and Revise
Review the customer self-service interactions on your site, ask customers for feedback and log service calls so you can update your self-service operation as needed. You may notice several customers have entered a particular search term that brings up zero responses, or that customers with a certain issue always end up escalating to an e-mail or a phone call. You then can add the appropriate information and/or solutions to your Web site to help customers find what they are looking for faster.
Linda Formichelli is a freelance writer who has published articles in national business, consumer and trade magazines. She can be reached at linda-eric@lserv.com.
In the second scenario, you have a customer who has a problem with your widget. She surfs over to your Web site and clicks on the FAQ section located in a prominent place on your home-page. The first few FAQs in the list are the most common ones, and she finds her answer there. But she still doesn’t quite understand the widget hooking-up procedure (you can tell because she’s reloaded the FAQ page several times), so one of your contact center reps initiates a quick Web-based chat.
Welcome to the modern world of Web self-service, where your customers and prospects get all the product and troubleshooting information they need right on your Web site without having to pick up the phone. Companies institute Web self-service for any of three reasons:
1. To enhance customer service. Many customers don’t want to spend time waiting on hold and then trying to describe their problem to a stranger who may or may not have the answer. They would rather go to your Web site and quickly find the solution to their problem.
2. To save money. It’s simple: When a customer is serving himself, you don’t have to pay someone else to do it.
3. To make money. “I found That if you look at the typical customer life cycle in the B-to-B world, you go from marketing to sales to service,” says John Ragsdale, vice president of the Service & Support Professionals Association. “But in the consumer world, it’s different: It goes from marketing to service to sales. With Web self-service, you’re helping consumers get the information they need to close the deal.”
If that sounds sweet to you, here’s how you can get your customers to serve themselves on your Web site.
Get Them There
The first step is to encourage prospects and customers to use your Web self-service option. Include the self-service link in all your written marketing and fulfillment materials, and even in the hold or voice mail message of your toll-free service number. “At every opportunity, you should drive customers to the support link on your [Web site],” says Anand Chopra, director of product marketing for KANA, a provider of multichannel customer service solutions. “A customer of ours says the best thing to do is make it hard for the customer to find an 800 number … if they want the 800 number, they will find it.” Once customers are on your site, however, make it easy to find the self-service option; some experts suggest having an FAQ link or search box on the homepage.
Consider the Options
Sure, FAQ pages and search tools are great, but there are plenty of other self-service options, both do-it-yourself applications or via software solutions. You can analyze customers’ data—such as their history with you, what products they own and what they’re doing on your site—to create a customized self-service page just for them, says Ragsdale.
You can initiate (or let the customer initiate) chats, and even co-browse with customers, says Chopra. Case-based reasoning asks the customer a series of questions to narrow down to the correct solution. Chopra also points out the effectiveness of decision trees, which are step-by-step guides that bring the customer down a different path depending on her answers to various questions.
Be Warm
No one wants to wade through an FAQ full of corporate-speak or use a search tool that requires them to enter terms they’d never use in real life.
“When you push customers into self-service, it must be intuitive,” says Jeanne Bliss, president of the customer service coaching and consulting firm CustomerBLISS. “Think about the scenarios they’re in when they use your Web self-service, and what questions they’re asking. Don’t off-load them into a site that has no feeling.”
For example, use natural language search tools, and phrase your FAQ questions the way a real person would articulate them, such as, “I turn on my widget and nothing happens. What’s wrong and how can I fix it?” A great idea is to catalog the questions you commonly receive via phone and e-mail, and then incorporate them into the self-service system.
Jump In
The last thing you want is a frustrated customer who’s vowing to never buy from you again as he reloads the FAQ page 50 times or spends half an hour trying to decipher your instructions. Some self-service options let you monitor customer actions on the Web site and alert someone if the customer seems to be having trouble.
“You can track how long they spent on a URL or how many times they’ve repeated a certain act, like asking a question or searching an FAQ list,” says Ragsdale. For example, says Chopra, studies show that if a customer spends more than 20 seconds on a checkout screen, he’s likely to abandon the shopping cart; you can set a timer to automatically initiate a chat if someone has been on a checkout screen for 15 to 20 seconds.
Give Them an Outlet
It may sound like the point of Web self-service is to dump complaining customers into a wasteland where they won’t bother you. But if your self-service is not enhancing the customer experience, you need to give customers an out, whether it’s the option to initiate a live chat, call a service number or send an e-mail. Also, give customers a guaranteed promise of how quickly you’ll get back to them, says Bliss.
De-escalate
That said, offer customers one more chance to de-escalate before bringing in live service. For example, with the KANA solution, when the customer tries to escalate to an e-mail, a pop-up box asks her to further describe her issue. The software then conducts a search, brings up the top three solutions and asks if they’re helpful. If the customer clicks “no,” then the communication escalates to an e-mail.
Review and Revise
Review the customer self-service interactions on your site, ask customers for feedback and log service calls so you can update your self-service operation as needed. You may notice several customers have entered a particular search term that brings up zero responses, or that customers with a certain issue always end up escalating to an e-mail or a phone call. You then can add the appropriate information and/or solutions to your Web site to help customers find what they are looking for faster.
Linda Formichelli is a freelance writer who has published articles in national business, consumer and trade magazines. She can be reached at linda-eric@lserv.com.
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