How Smart Self-Service Elevates Customer Satisfaction

*Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from the report. 

Earlier this summer, SSON published a report titled "(Why) Understanding Customer Sentiment is Critical for CX." The report observed that many in the shared services space understand the importance of delivering a strong customer experience yet lack the tools and resources to create the experience.

The report also stated that amidst this struggle to deliver a meaningful CX, organizations also must embrace the fact that customers have become increasingly difficult to satisfy over the past three years. Today's customers expect fast but quality service, a personalized experience, and multiple digital channels to connect with the organization. It's a volatile time for businesses to retain customers: the options for channels, increasing customer expectations, and even more competition overwhelms many businesses, and it's easier than ever for customers to transfer their loyalty to another organization.

The sentiment analysis report discusses how businesses can understand and increase their customer experience (CX) through subjective analysis of text-based and voice interactions. Digital CX is another area to consider that affects customer sentiment, and this report will turn to digital self-service as an avenue businesses must embrace and consider to retain and attract modern customers.

Businesses can support their customers 24/7 through digital self-service, which includes proactive outreach, online FAQs, knowledge bases, chatbots, and live chat. Today's digital self-service is more advanced and comprehensive than the call centers and help desks customers would visit for help in the past. It can reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and increase customer satisfaction.

Despite the advantages of digital self-service, data suggests businesses are still unable to make the most of these advanced capabilities. A study by Aberdeen Research found that 92% of businesses already use customer self-service, but 78% of firms struggle to use data to achieve their CX goals. Similarly, Gartner found that digital self-service only resolves 9% of customer issues.

This report aims to explore the current challenges businesses experience in customer service, what organizations need to know to maximize their digital self-service implementation, and a case study demonstrating the benefits organizations can expect by bringing in digital self-service to uplift their CX. 

Readers should walk away having learned:

1. In order to meet the needs of today's consumers, businesses need to improve their digital development speeds and accelerate their time-to-value. 
2. AI is playing an increasingly important role in digital self-service.
3. Self-service not only improves the customer experience, but the employee experience as well.