Dive Brief:
- Customers are on average about twice as likely to use self-service options on their next customer service journey if the option is recommended by a call center agent, according to a Gartner survey of more than 3,500 consumers released Monday.
- However, 3 in 5 respondents said that an agent did not mention self-service options during their recent customer service interactions.
- The context of the recommendation matters as well. More than 85% of customers who had self-service described by an agent in very positive terms were likely to use the option next time, compared to 11% who heard about self-service in very negative terms.
Dive Insight:
Customer service leaders invest a lot of money in their self-service options, but customers often fail to access them for a variety of reasons.
“Customers sometimes don't know they're there,” Keith McIntosh, senior principal quantitative researcher on the customer service and support team at Gartner, told CX Dive. “They're not confident enough to try it. They don't realize it's a viable option. A way for organizations to save money long term is to use their agents to just highlight that self-service exists.”
Ideally, the agents should be familiar with the company’s self-service options, according to McIntosh. This ensures agents not only promote the tools, but they can also teach customers about using the right channel for the right problem.
Less than 2 in 5 survey respondents said they would use self-service when an agent mentioned the option in a neutral context, but well-trained call center employees can offer a more helpful and positive view of what self-service can do.
However, service leaders shouldn’t force agents to promote self-service, according to McIntosh. Instead, they should encourage the behavior by pointing out how workers benefit when customers take care of problems on their own.
“I think one way of making the case is reminding [agents] that their contacts are simple issues that are kind of routine, and that can be a bit boring and can be a bit exhausting after a while,” McIntosh said. “So the routine, simple, more transactional issues are the kinds of issues that are actually best served in self-service.”
A light approach can also work for agents who are inadvertent self-service detractors, as 12% of respondents said the agent mentioned self-service but painted the option in a negative light.
Workers may criticize a website or FAQ in the course of sympathizing with a frustrated customer, rather than because they personally dislike the tools, according to McIntosh. They probably don’t realize the impact they have and informing agents, rather than punishing them, can produce results.
When self-service fails, agents should use their own discretion to determine whether a recommendation is appropriate for that customer, according to McIntosh.
“There's going to be common sense situations,” McIntosh said. “If the customer calls in and they're complaining about the website — ‘I spent 20 minutes spinning my wheels. It didn't work for XYZ reason’ — obviously, that's not a situation where the agent is going to promote self-service.”
However, a majority of customers — 60% — start their customer service journeys in assisted channels, according to McIntosh.
“For the most part when customers reach an agent they're starting there, meaning they're not already angry at self-service because of a failure,” McIntosh said. “So for the most part, it's appropriate for agents to promote self-service.”
