Are Your Self-Service Options Efficient?

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In addition to this newsletter on LinkedIn, I also publish a separate series called The Weekly Win by email. If you'd like, you can sign up for access to that series at experienceinvestigators.com/newsletter/. I wanted to share this message from a previous edition with our community on LinkedIn as well. Thanks for reading!

Let’s say you’re the customer and need support. Where do you typically turn first? Search for the customer service number to call? Use the chat? Try a social forum? Or, sometimes, if you’re like me, you think “I don’t have time for this today” and put it off until you have done your deep breathing in preparation. :) 

I know it’s a nuanced question. Certain needs require a certain level of support. But I’d venture to guess your channel of choice depends on perceived speed and effectiveness — because who doesn’t want their issues solved quickly, the first time? (And our expectations are that it WILL take time. Thus the deep breathing.)

As you consider your preferences, I wanted to share some new data from Five9 to help guide you in building an effective support strategy for your organization.

To set the stage, 40% of customers will stop doing business with a company after just one negative support experience. The stakes are high. Like really, really high. We can’t ever forget that!

(And feel free to use that statistic to remind your executive leadership about why effective support is so crucial to customer retention.)

90% of customers try self-service options first… but they leave if they can’t resolve their issues quickly. 

If the self-service journey is well-designed, however, about 70% of customers will resolve their issues that way. I’m betting these findings aren’t shocking to you. We’ve all been there and made those types of judgment calls. Do I stay or do I go?

Another “not surprising” finding is how there are disconnects between how executives think customers prefer support versus what customers actually want. Two findings in particular stood out:

• 56% of customers would rather solve general service issues by phone, but only 31% of executives believe consumers prefer phone support.
• 74% of customers prefer phone support for urgent requests, but 38% of execs expect customers to use social media or messaging for urgent needs.

It may be time to revisit your team’s support strategy. Offering customer choice is critical, so let’s clear up misconceptions to ensure everyone is aligned on what customers want.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Review your customer support channel usage rates. How often do customers use specific support channels? Are their issues often solved on first outreach?
• Walk through specific support situations. Much like customer journey mapping, step into your customers’ shoes and test how easy it is to access support when issues arise.
• Send a customer survey to understand what they expect from your support offerings. If possible, have 1:1 conversations with customers to fully understand how they navigate your support offerings and whether they consider the options to be effective. 

Frustrating self-service experiences can turn a bad situation into a worse one, eroding your customer trust and loyalty. It’s an important area to consider as we get closer to the busy holiday shopping season and business technology renewal periods. 

It’s funny how, as customers, we see the support choices so clearly. Yet within our business roles, we often have to take a step back to really understand the choices and limitations we’re offering the customers we serve. 

I hope you’ll take a few minutes today to consider your customer’s experience in new ways. And remember - there’s always deep breathing exercises when you need them. 

You can find more resources like this in the Experience Investigators Learning Center at ExperienceInvestigators.com.