Self-care: towards the augmented customer and the liberated employee?

Changes in consumer behavior and expectations for ever more personalized, available and efficient service have profoundly altered corporate strategies over the years.

According to a survey conducted by Forrester in 2019, " 72% of customers say they prefer to find a solution to their problem on their own, rather than dealing with a customer service department". Self-care can no longer be ignored by companies, who must take into consideration the new needs of their consumers. Find out what's at stake with this new practice, and what you can expect to gain from it.

What is "digital self-care"?

Self-care, also known as digital care, refers to a set of interactive methods enabling customers or prospects to obtain information and instant answers to their questions, in complete autonomy.

In concrete terms, this means providing online resources, support services or collaborative spaces that enable Internet users to :

• Order easily, when and where you want,

• Find immediate, precise answers to their requests or queries.

Selfcare: which tools should you use?

As a spontaneous source of information for customers, self-care considerably relieves the burden on contact centers.

In fact, according to a 2019 Smart Tribune study, "over 70% of questions/answers addressed to a customer service department and its contact center can be automated"! This is a significant statistic, demonstrating that the systematic intervention of customer service and a call center agent can be supplanted by collaborative self-care tools.

But what solutions should be deployed to promote self-care? Here are a few suggestions.

F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions) are one of the most widespread digital self-care solutions. Faster and more ergonomic, they have become a dynamic and intelligent tool for consumers, bringing together all the most frequently asked questions and answers in a dedicated space. Everyone can access the information they need, in real time, and at the right moment. In this way, we can provide customers with constantly available content that answers the majority of their questions.

In addition to self-care, there are also " mutual care " tools, which rely on Internet users helping each other: community forums and chat rooms, staffed by volunteer advisors who help customers seeking information by drawing on their own experience.

Finally, the chatbot, a conversational agent that dialogues with users in natural language, based on libraries of questions and answers, is also a first-rate virtual assistant for self-care. Its use has been widely democratized, and it can handle a large number of user requests. A 2017 study by Chatbots Magazine* shows that companies implementing conversational solutions like chatbots can cut customer service costs by up to 30%.

The virtues of self-care tools

At a time when competition is increasingly fierce, a company's ability to keep up with new digital trends is key!

The way forward is simple: if organizations deliver a seamless service, in line with expectations, customer satisfaction improves and loyalty is strengthened. This applies equally to information searches and complaint handling. So, by constantly offering them available tools, brands prioritizeefficiency andimmediacy. Not only do they meet their customers' expectations, but they also use more efficient and less costly methods. The abandonment rate drops considerably, and agents are freed from repetitive, time-consuming tasks, allowing them to concentrate on higher value-added missions.

Guaranteeing a quality customer experience is an integral part of any company's offering, especially as customers become increasingly volatile. Self-care is therefore the first step towards empowering customers by providing them with the resources they need to find answers to their queries, and freeing up call center agents to focus on higher value-added tasks.

Boost your customer experience with solutions from ViaDialog !

ViaDialog offers a complete range of solutions for optimal management of your customer interactions. Discover our solutions for managing customer relations workflows, as well as our voicebots for automating natural language exchanges to continually improve your users' experience. Contact our experts today for a detailed demonstration.

* Chatbots Magazine, "Can Chatbots Help Reduce Customer Service Costs by 30%?", 2017

‍