What is Self-Service Customer Experience?

Self-service customer experience is the perception a person has of an organization based on a collective set of self-service transactions. It's a customer opinion that's formed over time and shaped by multiple interactions with a brand.

Alternatively, the phrase "self-service customer experience" is frequently used in reference to a single transaction or specific self-service solution, as in, "The confusing IVR menu caused John to have a poor self-service customer experience," and "These virtual agents have been optimized to provide a superior self-service customer experience."

In either case, the self-service customer experience needs to be fast, convenient, and effective to satisfy customers' preferences to handle their own matters on their own terms.

How can contact centers improve the self-service customer experience?

Self-service should be a prominent support channel for every customer service operation. After all, most resolution journeys begin with either a website or Google search. Beyond those options, businesses can offer self-service through solutions such as virtual agents, chatbots, conversational IVRs, and searchable knowledge-bases.

The focus of self-service customer experience should be on making customers successful at helping themselves. Here are some key methods for doing that.