The quality of customer service has a massive impact on how consumers interact with the service provider — whether that provider is an internal department, an outsource partner, or a company providing goods and services externally. Studies have shown that one out of two customers will stop doing business with a company because of a poor service experience.
That is why most consumers, 71% in fact, prefer firms that give them the ability to solve most service issues on their own. While this might not surprise you, it might shock you to know that an astonishing 38% of consumers would rather clean a toilet than speak to a customer service representative!
According to the Global State of Multi-Channel Customer Service Report [PDF], 92% of consumers now expect a brand or organization to offer a self-service customer support portal and 78% have found the answer or information they were looking for when searching for an answer or raising a query. Additionally, the number of companies using IT automation in the form of virtual customer assistants (chatbots) is expected to skyrocket from 12% in 2017 to 90% in 2020, showing how self-service is progressing towards a faster, more seamless experience.
For IT teams in close contact with end users as they manage IT migrations and Evergreen IT, or even staff the support desk, this means that self-service becomes a key enabler for these initiatives!
But this does not mean that call centers or support help desks are merely replaced by robots. 42% of consumers still want to speak to live agents to help them handle complex questions and requests. The same is true in IT migration. We often want to self-service the simple requests, but have human interaction where the migration is more complex.
As IT becomes a more customer-centric service facilitator, the expectations of your end users will change significantly. They are now the consumers of the service that IT offers rather than just business units that are dependent on the IT department. They have the same expectations as private consumers when it comes to self-service and customer support — maybe even more so given that internal organizations should, in theory, be better placed to service their own requests. And as much as they love IT, some of them probably would rather clean a toilet than pick up the phone and speak to a support desk staff member.
Therefore, many enterprise IT organizations are working towards putting the user in the driver's seat. Self-service can empower them to become an active part of the process by enabling them, for example, to volunteer for an early Windows 10 migration if they are ready (or even if they are not), rather than telling them what and when it will be done. This empowerment is often considered part of the CIO digital transformation agenda, and a critical element of managing the ongoing Windows 10 servicing mode.
Implemented effectively, end users can benefit from greater visibility and better transparency, which can increase trust and customer satisfaction. For example, by dramatically reducing the cost of end user engagement with self-service, major initiatives such as IT Transformations can become zero-touch processes with a light touch setup and configuration. This can significantly reduce the need for heavyweight resource items such as scheduling, communications, and deployment resources.
Not every organization is ready to offer self-service. They might not have the right technology, or the supporting business processes in place to deliver this new methodology to the end users. Equally, the culture of the organization may not be suitable for it. For example, we are currently working with a government department which includes senior judges as part of the IT transformation project. These individuals may not be the best candidates for self-service as they are used to high-touch IT support.
We have created this quick 10-question quiz to ascertain if your organization is ready to pursue a self-service-driven approach to your IT migration or Evergreen IT initiatives:
So, how did you do on the quiz? Whether you scored "100% ready" or "this might not be for you", you should ask yourself honestly what your user base is expecting. Even if you are pretty sure you know, it might be a good idea to take a quick poll since they might not have expressed their frustrations to you.
If you do decide to go the self-service direction, you should first consider the following questions:
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