A Gartner survey has revealed that self-service is still failing to deliver on its promise.
The 5,728 customers surveyed admitted that only 14 percent of their customer service and support issues were fully resolved by a company’s self-service channel.
Indeed, even for issues described by customers as “very simple,” only 36 percent were handled in self-service – highlighting the extent of the disconnect between customers and companies when it comes to self-service.
This imbalance was discussed by Eric Keller, Senior Director of Research in the Gartner Customer Service & Support Practice, who commented:
While 73% of customers use self-service at some point in their customer service journey, it’s concerning to see that so few fully resolve there.
“It’s imperative that customer service and support leaders work to resolve the issues customers face in order to fully realize the value of their self-service investments.”
But why are customers struggling to make the most of self-service?
Self-Service Shortcomings
In short, customers feel that self-service solutions lack the necessary capabilities to adequately handle their queries.
The study revealed that 45 percent of users who began with self-service felt that the company didn’t understand their needs, while the most common reason for self-service failure was that 43 percent of customers couldn’t find content relevant to their issue.
Keller believes that many self-service users find the technology “too rigid to deal with the complexities of their service issues,” which is leading to customer frustration.
“Self-service can offer substantial benefits for organizations and customers, but work is required to ensure that customers’ needs are understood and responded to,” he explained.
For Gartner, companies can correct the disconnect by adopting the following four self-service strategies:
To scale and maintain self-service content, companies should expand content creation responsibilities to their representatives. By integrating knowledge creation into the issue resolution workflow, rather than treating it as a separate task, reps can contribute directly to the knowledge base.
Investing in proactive delivery of self-service solutions is also crucial. By leveraging customer account, interaction, and product usage data, companies can predict customer needs and provide relevant solutions before issues arise.
Another key strategy is to simplify the resolution path on company websites. Implementing a single digital concierge, such as a GenAI chatbot, as the main entry point for customers can streamline the customer journey and make it easier for users to find the help they need.
Finally, it’s important to continuously assess and improve the performance of self-service content. Allowing both customers and reps to flag ineffective content and establishing ongoing processes for quality improvement ensures that the self-service experience remains effective and relevant.
Keller details how these steps will allow companies to maximize the potential of their self-service offerings:
“The realities of self-service journeys, which have many potential paths to a solution, varying expectations for content, and constantly evolving issue types – have limited the success of organizations’ self-service investments.
Organizations need to capture, diagnose and predict customer intent in self-service, and match them with the best-fit solution.
Employee Enhancement Technology
Interestingly, this survey follows a Gartner Q&A from April where Emily Potosky, Senior Director of Research at Gartner, advised companies not to focus solely on self-service and automation technologies aimed at replacing employees.
Potosky echoed several of the points outlined in the survey, suggesting that current self-service tools were often inadequate for fully resolving customer issues – indicating that some form of assisted service would always be necessary.
Instead of replacing human agents, the Director of Research suggested that companies should invest in technology that enhances employee performance.
Implementing employee enhancement technology allows companies to maximize staff potential and improve customer experience without needing to hire more agents or replace existing ones.
More News from Gartner
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Gartner emphasized that while some organizations have reported financial benefits from GenAI, it can be challenging to quantify these gains, as they are often specific to the company, use case, or workforce and may take time to become apparent.
