Nightmare on Customer Street: Enough with the Web Self-Service Craze

Too many decisions about the design of service are based in costs. The simple fact is to focus on costs increases them . . . always. Nothing represents this better than web self-service, a strategy to reduce costs and what some customer service "professionals" say improves service.

This is not to say that web self-service shouldn’t exist, but the fact remains that the decision is based more on costs than providing good service. Beginning in this spot, we wind up designing service top-down, inside-out rather than from a customer’s perspective. The result is increased costs and loss of revenue.

Many assumptions in management are made about what customers want from broad surveys produced in service industry. The question should always be what do YOUR customers want and the only way to know is to get knowledge and then experiment with method.

For the assumptive manager focused on costs, not getting those pesky phone calls that are costly is priority number one. Driving customers to a cheaper channel, therefore, seems like a no-brainer.

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These sorts of broad assumptions lead to costly mistakes. Not talking to customers may be cheaper, but where is the relationship? Or the ability to find answers quickly? The focus usually turns to refining the self-service rather than re-evaluating it. Ever find a FAQ on a website that takes too long to find the answers to your questions?

The issue is variety in service that makes technology like IVRs and self-service over-prescribed. You see, technology doesn’t absorb variety very well. You may encounter the same general question from customers and put it in a FAQ, but what if I ask the question differently than you see it? If your FAQ doesn’t fit my mental model of the way I see things, then that is variety at work.

Contact center workers, however, can understand these sorts of disparities and thus absorb variety at lower costs than technology.

It matters little whether you are buying insurance, scheduling an appointment or selling products or services. If the customer wants to pick up a phone, chat or email for any reason, they should have the right to do so. The idiotic practice of hiding phone numbers is losing you revenue!

If your service organization gets lots of failure demand (a failure to do something or do something right for a customer - Seddon) contacts, you have a system issue. This means your service design is not working for the customer. A redesign of the work is in order, not the technology.

If you are in the midst of a self-service strategy that lacks evidence or knowledge, stop and take account of your customers! You may find that costs - not the customers - are driving your thinking.

The result will be increased costs.

Do you agree with Tripp Babbitt? Or, do you think customer self-service is crucial in today's market? Either way, learn strategies for understanding and acting on customer insights at Customer Insight !