The role of providing good ‘customer service’ had gained prominence a few years ago.

It became a part of every business marketing strategy and hence the focus was on delivering a ‘unique experience’. The changing lifestyle and behavior amongst consumers have taken the customer service concept a notch higher. The newest trend that is slowly taking shape is offering ‘customer ‘self’-service’.

People, around the globe, are becoming fiercely independent and busy. Internet connection propels oxygen to their system and keeps them alive. This holds true even when it comes to ‘customer self-service’. They want to find their own solutions and answers instead of resorting to calling up customer support. This is what they do online when they have questions about anything related to a brand or business.

Developing self-service technology can be quite challenging and today not offering a ‘great’ one can be as devastating as not providing one at all. In an article online, “According to Forrester Research, this type of indirect information discovery (also known as “self-service”) is on the rise. Their research claims self-service usage is at 80% of customers across all industries and forum usage is at 60% of customers and increasing. What’s really interesting is that at the same time voice support is deemed by many customers as being for “urgent issues” only.”

Hence, today Internet is the primary option when customers want answers on a company’s products and services. The role of businesses in this regard is to ensure that their research is successful. It is a definitely less difficult task when a voice customer support handles these queries personally. There are ample ways to avoid disappointments. However, on a self-service Portal, the success depends on multiple factors from how convenient and easy it is for the customer to find solutions on the portal to the time they spend looking for the same.

There are many factors that go into developing a successful portal. BluEnt’s expert developers have highlighted 3 key techniques to ensure your self-service portal is easy to use, well defined and enough to meet customer needs.

Content is always the King – but on a self-service portal it is omnipotent

This isn’t an exaggeration. Our mind is a reservoir of knowledge and not to forget ‘questions’. People can come with many generic to even super specific queries about your products and services. This is exactly why your portal needs to have enough and more information. But this also means that there can actually never be enough information and you need to keep improving and updating content very regularly to meet the desired results expected by your customer base.

You need to keep all your products/services updated along with all the data around them. When launching a new product, you need to give ample information about the product – from how to use, tutorials etc.

Deliver more clarity via photographs, videos and screenshots

High-quality content is a great thing however it may not give a complete picture or be comprehensive enough when it comes to certain discussions or subjects. For example, if your product requires a ‘how-to’ content, a video or screenshots can go a long way. The graphic presentation in a video format or via pictures or screenshots can make the step-by-step instruction more digestible. It enables the customers to access it as many times as they need to without getting disappointed or frustrated. After all, it can be embarrassing to make multiple calls for the same question.

Make it on the go

Optimizing the self-service portal for mobile users is not crucial but ‘ very critical’. With Internet connection in their pockets, people do everything on their phones today. It is very probable that they might use their free time (which is almost always while they are traveling or waiting for their doctor to arrive) to look into the information they need. Providing them with a good ‘self-service’ experience on their mobiles can do wonders for your business.

Through a fantastic self-portal service you will be able to offer your customers a super personalized and an engagingly interactive service. Connect with BluEnt leaders and developers to create a portal that can allow your customers to help themselves. Our strategy will enable your customers to find solutions to queries, complete all kind of transactions effortlessly and even submit support issues if needed. You do need their valuable feedback to improve and grow.

Maximum Value. Achieved.