This July 4th, Don’t Forget to Celebrate Customer Independence

Barbeques, apple pies, parades, baseball, and firework shows are probably among the ways you will likely celebrate the 4th of July this week, but how will you celebrate customer independence? Today’s customers want to solve their problems online all by themselves. So, get ready for your patio party with these Independence Day facts, and then let TTEC show you how to revel in the freedom of self-service channels that will have your customers (and executives) saying, “Oooohhhh…. Ahhhhhhhh!”


Beer and BBQ won’t be the only trends exploding this 4th of July. Customers are exercising their independence and new powers by demanding online self-service tools that allow them to be the leaders of customer service. Is your website pleasing the crowd with an awesome display of self-care pyrotechnics?

Self-service technologies have evolved well beyond static FAQ pages and the days of wading through pages and pages of search results, hoping to find your answer. Today, these question-to-answer matching solutions plug right into your website and map customer questions to one right answer, helping companies gain flag-waving fans.

Here’s the secret to how these answer engines put a smile on your customers’ faces. Advanced self-service technologies recognize and accept conversational language (sometimes even text speak abbreviations) and deliver a single, correct answer even when a customer’s question is asked or worded in many different ways. The self-care system “sees through” human grammatical and spelling mistakes to match a variety of questions with one right answer.

And, companies are achieving accuracy and recognizing results rather quickly. Within four months, a billion-dollar technology retailer was accurately answering 87 percent of customer questions with self-service technology. Ultimately, the company deferred 5,000 customer service inquiries monthly, saving $400,000 in annual support costs. 

So, how should you celebrate customer independence? By freeing your customers from 1-800 hell and reaping the rewards of self-care. Here’s what to look for when you’re ready to invest in the new liberties that technology can deliver.

When investing in self-service technology, look for solutions that:
 

• Can be deployed across desktops, websites, social media networks, and mobile devices
• Provide a consistent answer message across all major interaction points
• Deliver concise, accurate answers (rather than a series of search results) to the most commonly asked questions
• Provide executive level reports as well as detailed, per-question analytical data
• Easily integrate with your existing knowledge management systems

This infographic was designed by Craig Maedgen, but we’re not sure who created it. The original infographic is here.