This is a guest blog written by Kelly Koelliker, Director, Solutions Marketing at Verint Systems. Learn more about Verint at http://www.verint.com/.
For the first time ever, self-service channels have surpassed the phone as the most popular channels for service. As a result, organizations are beginning to invest heavily in these channels, seeking to provide the user experience customers demand. Meanwhile, contact centers still field millions of phone calls every day. So while the self-service channels are growing, many interactions still require the human touch of a phone call.
Many customers prefer to find information on their own, searching and browsing on web and mobile devices. Self-service offers the convenience of anytime/anywhere access for customers, with an added benefit of lower cost for organizations. At the same time, assisted service channels like the phone offer the value of the human touch, which can be critical when dealing with sensitive or complex issues.
Clearly, both traditional and emerging channels are important for a complete customer service strategy. But to really optimize engagement across these channels, organizations must pay attention to which channels are preferred for different user types and user scenarios. While many customers select self-service as their initial engagement channel, what causes them to pick up the phone? What is the tipping point that sends a customer away from self-service and to an assisted channel?
Once an organization understands the tipping point between self-service and assisted service, they can optimize both of these channels to best serve the customers and their specific issues. Self-service design should focus on ease of use for a frictionless experience, relying on tools like knowledge management and seamless escalation. Assisted service strategies should focus on soft skills to connect with the customer and guided troubleshooting tools to handle complex issues.
If executed correctly, your omnichannel strategy can serve each customer with exactly what they need, when they need it. To learn more on how to get started, join us on June 21 at the Execs In The Know webinar, “The Digital Tipping Point: Balancing Digital Self-Service and the Human Touch With Knowledge.” To register and learn more, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/9146439583075979009.
