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This Is A Self-Service Button: Press With Care

It’s a new economy and marketing renaissance and it may have started with IVRs and Ubers of the world, but has not ended there. Which side of this world do you fall in?

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Pratima Harigunani
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Pratima H

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INDIA: Ad-free Super Bowl, Instant Pickles, A Lazy Super-Man, Bespoke Spouses, Untangled Wires, Shallow Scuba-Divers, Silent Bars: The list is endless and at times falls flat in the face of new realities.

Oxymorons have a way of surprising us. And at times, when they are least expected.

Self-Service Customers used to be in the ‘still-applies’ bracket until technology and new business-model thinkers and tinkerers made the paradox pretty friable. Believe it or not, today’s customers have no qualms or raised-eyebrows in servicing themselves (or at least a part of the chain); and some may even count this as a new value proposition to pluck their high-hanging choices.

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And technology couldn’t have blossomed well at a better time than now – IVR, web, social , smartphones, tablets, traditional desktops/laptops, kiosks, virtual assistants and other high-end tools have morphed the once-one-dimensional service chain into an unprecedented one.

Pause for a moment and run through the list of activities you did yesterday from the time you woke up to the time you went back to sleep, while I do the same, urges Rajeev Sawhney, President, Mphasis. “I woke up to a reminder to pay my utilities. Oh, not again; I set up an auto payment. Then, I transferred money to my son’s account, checked for the weather forecast which was typical of London’s ‘four seasons in a day’. So, hailed a cab on Uber, got to work and realised it was my team member’s birthday…ooops!!no gift!!. Ordered and sent an Amazon gift card.”

He swings his argument with another question. “When did you last go to the teller to withdraw cash or call a realtor to look for property or open an Encyclopedia to search of any trivia? The word is practically at your disposal on your palm. We are in the era of ‘Self –Service’.”

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With technology making inroads into advertising, there is a huge opportunity for marketers to capture the right audience, reasons Kiran Gopinath , Founder & CEO, Adadyn. Pouring in the advertising side of the view, he explains, “A pervasive “always-on” environment with hand held devices and wearables gaining traction among the Indian populace, is paving the way for brands to figure out cost effective and simple self-service interfaces that can help them reach these consumers. Also as marketers are used to self-serve in their personal lives, they are pushing more and more to be able to have these self serve tools available at work.”

The landscape, as he sketches in detail, is evolving as are the consumers who prefer flexibility and variety. For example today you can book movie tickets, manage your finances, trade in stocks, find a physician, plan your vacation, indulge in comparison shopping and more with no assistance.

“This is a sign of things to come where Self-Service is the only way forward, except for extremely complex and technical transactions. The dual advantages of making the shift to systems that align with this trend are that the evolving customer needs can be better met by giving control in their hands while the operational costs for organizations can be brought down significantly. Aside from a reduction in costs, usually self-service also results in heightened efficacy and customer satisfaction.”

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The trend was palpable for quite some time even if it has picked pace last year. An Amdocs research unveiled 75 per cent of consumers showing preference for online self-service over a call centre. Another study by Nuance showed the pattern echoing when 67 per cent people picked self-service over speaking to a company representative. The game has changed to the degree that 70 per cent customers now expect a company website to include a self-service application as a The Real Self-Service Economy report assessed.

As some Wakefield Research findings unplugged about what annoys customers in a service cycle the most, being put on hold came at 49 per cent, having to give the same information or repeating themselves multiple times at 38 per cent and taking the third spot was getting transferred multiple times at 37 per cent.

Can self-service tools fill in some gaps then addressing long and complex service experiences in new ways?

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Experts have pointed out already that analytics is going to seep beyond visualization in 2016 thanks to automation of the chain of turning insights into specific actions.

In ‘Service Innovation in a Digital Wolrd’ in 2015, McKinsey examined that digital attackers tend to thrive on simplicity, adeptly combining new technology with process improvements to make services straightforward and more pleasing. It noted that big incumbents, burdened by legacy IT systems and entrenched processes that have evolved over time, often struggle to keep things simple. Still, incumbents could embrace simplicity in their service operations and start looking at the world the way their customers do, it advised pointedly.

Incidentally, a December 2015 ‘Customer Lifecycle Survey’ by Forrester indicated that 53 per cent of customers are likely to abandon their online purchases if they can't find quick answers to their questions, and as many as 73 per cent felt that valuing their time is the most important thing companies can do to provide them with good customer service.

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Indeed, if straight-forward customer service interactions can be addressed via self- service, complex issues that take longer dwell-time can be catapulted to higher service rungs with better human involvement and as chances to nurture richer customer relationships.

Forrester analysts have also rightly observed that customers increasingly leverage self- service and digital channels for customer service because these channels offer the least amount of interaction friction. Now, this can mean lower operational costs as answers are efficiently delivered, hence, keeping the cost per contact low, and preventing customers from jumping to another (possibly more expensive) channel to get their issue resolved.

Numbers dovetail the wave. Forrester reported online forums/communities use rising from 31 per cent in 2012 to 56 per cent in 2015; virtual agent use from 28 per cent in 2012 to 58 per cent in 2015; and speech self-service 55 per cent of the time this year while online chat adoption touched 65 per cent uptick in 2015.

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Why Suddenly Self-Service?

The key drivers of this trend are changing consumer needs; need for businesses to customize their solutions by consumers and availability of data and demand for cashless transactions, points out Gopinath.

“Customers today, require flexibility, so they are able to transact per their convenience of time and place, and they seek feedback from a community of users across social channels, before making a purchase decision. They want to compare and choose from multiple options before taking an informed decision and at the same time they look forward to a consistent and yet engaging user experience.”

Brands and enterprises that identify this change and the subsequent opportunity are making the shift. They are partnering with or building self-service platforms that can help their consumers transact with minimal to no human intervention.

In fact, Anand Kadur, Vice President – Cloud and Channels, APAC & Middle East, Aspect Software explains this from a three-pronged lens: mobile/app-first, omni-channel and proactive strategies.

“Gone are the days when self-service meant availing of IVR – dial 1 for ‘A’ or dial 2 for ‘B’; that’s not self-service any more. Self-service for customers today means access to information – when, where, and how they require it. Most of our customers are mobile with access to smart phones. They expect to be on an app; they do not expect to have to access the internet, type in a link, enter their details, etc. They expect to be provided with an application that is ‘smart’ enough to be accessed from their smart phone. Apps become a one-stop shop for consumers.”

As to the omni-channel self-service strategy, he dissects how not long ago; enterprises would say that they are providing omni-channel self-service in various channels – voice, email, SMS and so on. “Well, that’s not what omni-channel self-service means any longer!” He contends that the landscape that we are looking at is context-based self-service. “For example, I need to reset my PIN for my credit card and so I get in touch with the customer service (call centre), but I enter an elevator and the call gets dropped. Now, ordinarily, I would have to repeat the entire process all over again. But with context-based self-service, I could easily get on to any platform other than voice and I can be rest assured that the application will know where I stopped and pick up from there.”

Then there is the proactive self-service versus reactive. “You need to anticipate the need of the customer rather than wait for them to get in touch with you when they feel the need to. This is what is going to differentiate you and set you apart. You need to gauge what their next step is going to be and reach out to them proactively.” He adds.

The core benefits of self-service economy are ease of use and resolution, efficiency and low operating costs, Sawhney reckons. “With the adoption of self-service solutions, enterprises are able to cut short the cost in terms of reduced manpower investments as human intervention will be replaced largely by smart and cost effective technology solutions.”

Look at it another way. Forrester had also estimated that an average of $22 million gets poured into unnecessary service costs thanks to channel escalations. Self-service happens to hammer many nails with the same stroke.

Marketer’s tool or Marketer’s toil

The new era peels off many latent opportunities but also presents several new questions and dilemmas.

Of course there are benefits like improved customer experience; reduced time wastage by customer on talking with contact centers; reduced cost of operation for company and potential for direct digital troubleshooting for enabled devices to eliminate costly repair visit entirely.

Besides enormous amount of cost benefits, self-service ensures utmost customer satisfaction through smarter technology interventions, Sawhney distills. “These technologies are designed in a manner that offers high degree of customer friendliness while helping the customer to save a lot of time in trouble shooting and problem solving.”

A lot of enterprises today are promoting app-based solutions as opposed to other offerings such as calling in or web channel because an app is feasible for both, the consumer as well as the one delivering the service.

There are some questions that flank these new, spiffy whiteboards though.

Kadur observes that enterprises are definitely leaning towards new apps and platforms that fit this world but it’s plain to see that there is a huge difference in understanding - in terms of what enterprises feel they are doing versus what their customers feel they are doing. “It’s actually a prerequisite, not so much a choice. 80 per cent of enterprises deliver excellent self-service whereas only eight per cent of their customers believe the same thing. More so, as 55 per cent of high performers predict customer service 80 per cent of the time which means it is almost three times more than the rest.”

“It is critical for marketers to be able to efficiently tailor their creative and messaging to meet the exact needs of the customer. Creativity is actually more important as it needs to be more effective and should be customized across all channels- display, mobile, native, video- for clients, to truly deliver a “one-to-one” marketing experience. In order to do this, data needs to be leveraged to better understand audience intent and target the right audience with relevant content.” The way Gopinath sees it.

Sawhney seconds, “Every enterprise does have to ‘hyper- personalise’ for the customer to make it relevant for them. Analyse the zillions of data collected; surround it with Artificial Intelligence to create a differentiated customer experience for every user. “

Kadur brings in the mindset of a reverse triangle here – the top being self-service and the bottom is the agent. “The self-service economy essentially works this way – if you are a company providing self-service, at least 70 per cent of your customers need to be users of self-service themselves – they need to be able to go and find their own answers; either through an FAQ page, or an SMS-based service, or the community that they are a part of. The reason for this is, at the top of the pyramid, the onus of getting the answer is on the consumer which means the CSAT’s (Customer Satisfaction Score) the highest. As a consumer, if I find the answer myself and it works for me, I praise myself and say that the customer is the greatest.”

What’s in it for the enterprise, he confronts ahead. “Well, the cost is the least at the top of the pyramid – it costs you little or nothing to provide the customer with that service. As you move down the pyramid, you find yourself in a situation where the call center agent has to get involved. Also, the CSAT opportunity reduces whereas the cost increases because manpower comes into play and since I am asking someone a question; the person may or may not be able to answer my query to my liking. So I feel this model has been interpreted well and it’s the reason why the self-service economy is booming and doing well.”

Gopinath sifts that while the Self-Serve economy has immense potential, the service has not quite lived up to the hype and left behind a lot of disgruntled, frustrated and unhappy customers.

“The key lies in making a very simple interface to enable all transactions easily and yet provide that support in case a customer would like to get in touch with a customer care representative. Self-service should actually live up to its name and the user experience needs to be interactive and yet easy.”

Brands and enterprises that identify this change and the subsequent opportunity are making the shift. They are partnering with or building self-service platforms that can help their consumers transact with minimal to no human intervention and deliver the real edge of a self service era.

As to whether brands are able to successfully and smoothly tide over to that terrain remains a question-mark, till the next two years cut open the lid completely.

There you have it - Easy-to-Open Cans. Another oxymoron.

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