Self-service portals successfully implemented

"I could do that better myself!" the customer grumbles while on hold. A minor complaint about his last order turned into a 17-minute phone call, framed by an endless waiting loop. An effort he would have liked to have spared himself.

Most customers want their problems solved faster than a customer center can provide. In return, they are prepared to invest some time in researching the problem themselves. For companies, it is also worthwhile for cost reasons, as the bill initially looks very simple: For example, processing via a self-service portal only incurs a few cents per service request for operating and maintaining the system; much less than for personal support via chat, telephone or email for B2B companies.

However, when focusing on the cost side, one crucial detail is overlooked: the service employee.

Unintentional overload

As customers solve their simple queries themselves, fewer simple service queries fall to the telephone support staff. So far, so good. At first glance, this is a win-win-win situation in which customers receive a solution more quickly, your own employees are relieved and costs are reduced.

But appearances are deceptive, because the use of a self-service portal shifts the complexity ratio in customer support, which brings with it new challenges. Increasingly difficult and complex cases are now ending up in first-level support, for which many service employees are often not prepared as they are not sufficiently trained or do not have the appropriate authorizations.

The result: the employee's case processing takes even longer than before. Much to the annoyance of customers who can't understand why they can't find self-help in the portal or why customer service can't help them directly.

Don't neglect your own employees!

If companies only focus on setting up self-service portals and do not invest in appropriate knowledge management, they lose sight of their own employees, their needs and their working environment. This results in a huge gap between expectations and the actual customer experience, which leaves customers dissatisfied and damages the customer relationship in the long term. At the same time, this frustrates the company's own employees.

When investing in a self-service portal, the entire process chain in customer service should therefore be considered and appropriate measures taken at each stage.

The use of knowledge management systems offers an effective solution for this.

Integration of knowledge management in ticketing systems

How can you achieve the fastest possible response in customer service if customers have not found the right answer in the self-service portal? The first step is to integrate knowledge management into the ticketing system, followed by employee training. The reason for this approach is simple: existing systems can be upgraded with active knowledge management support much faster than implementing intensive training measures. In this way, employees learn new processes on the job and become more independent in case processing, but can rely on help from the system. At the same time, you can also give inexperienced or new employees the chance to get fully involved right from the start - and thus reduce training times.

The integration of knowledge management systems directly into the ticketing tool immediately eliminates the time-consuming search for the right information. Thanks to the connection, all service documents, instructions and documentation can be searched from a central location, regardless of format and storage location. Extending the ticketing system with a knowledge database is an effective solution for guiding both experienced and inexperienced employees to the right answer more quickly. This increases efficiency in the processing of customer inquiries and reduces training times at the same time.

Leading providers of knowledge management software now offer standard interfaces for the most common systems such as Zendesk, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce and SugarCRM in order to keep costs low for users and make successes visible more quickly.

5 good reasons for knowledge management in customer service:

1 | Work remains in the familiar system environment

By integrating knowledge management and ticketing systems, hotline employees can work in their familiar system environment. They automatically receive the appropriate information for case processing, which helps them to solve the problem. In the background, the entire database is searched unnoticed for the required service documents, previously solved cases or step-by-step instructions and displayed in a new window. This completely eliminates the need to switch between different systems. Another advantage: the employee can pin the solution directly to the respective case, so that the solution and result can be better understood and evaluated.

AI-based methods for scanning and indexing documents are fundamental to these tools. This is because the available information has to be automatically put into a meaningful context in order to guide the user directly to the crucial information on page 5 of a 128-page document - a huge time saver.

2 | Successful implementation of new quality standards

With the requirement to always serve customers for certain problems according to the same pattern, guided dialogs can be used that lead to the right solution more quickly with targeted questions. This allows uniform standards to be created and a solution to a problem to be identified more quickly. This increases service quality in the long term and is also the ideal support for employees who are new to the system or who are not familiar with every last detail. With guided fault diagnosis, every employee in customer service acts like an expert at all times and always arrives at the same quality-assured solution that meets internal standards and framework conditions.

3 | Employees' skills are developed further

On-the-job training virtually happens all by itself with the aforementioned options and reduces the number of training courses. In addition to maintaining qualitative standards, it is also important to maintain the flexibility of employees and to transfer decision-making and co-design competencies within a certain framework. Good role and rights management is therefore a must.

In addition, you should create a way for employees to write down their knowledge and experience from other cases in order to share it with all colleagues. Feedback and further development are the most important prerequisites for a positive learning culture in the company and increase employee motivation. This creates a positive spirit in the service team, which is also transferred to the customers.

4 | Self-service and hotline work hand in hand

The ideal expansion stage is a holistic system in which all product-related information is available to customers and employees. Access to certain information is then controlled via role-based access.

The advantage of such models: The company only has to maintain one database and has no redundancies in different systems. In addition, self-service portals can be offered not only to customers, but also to sales partners. Some companies, such as Bosch, also use such approaches for new business models and refinance their service portals by making them available for a fee.

5 | Knowledge management creates more satisfied customers and employees

Customers are no longer dependent on hotlines and the associated waiting times. Frequently asked questions are answered within minutes - regardless of business hours. This ensures a positive service experience and increases customer satisfaction.

The use of self-services by customers and partners reduces the workload of service employees and frees up more time for solving (more complex) customer problems. This improves the overall process quality in the service organization and increases its effectiveness.