Self service - satisfaction and savings
Self Service is one of the most effective ways to achieve year on year budget savings and improved customer satisfaction. Doing it badly, however – offering inappropriate self-service options, for example, or failing to understand how customers will use the website – represents a major waste of resources and turns customers away.
Today’s customers value their time highly and are becoming accustomed to slick service delivery over the Web and on their mobile phones. Self-service enables your customers to obtain the services they require quickly and efficiently. A positive experience first time will encourage repeat visits and wider take-up. Avoiding ’avoidable contact’ really does save money.
Getting your customer access strategy right in the first place is essential. Don’t just take what you do now and web-enable it. Not every transaction can or should be a lone citizen interacting with the website. The art of designing self service includes recognising when it is not appropriate. Self-service makes even more sense in a shared services context.
Maximising online transactions by sharing systems and customers with other agencies will reduce the cost per transaction for all involved.
Self service also makes your mediated services more efficient and consistent – since if the services are designed to be speedy and efficient for customers to use directly, they will also be efficient when used by council staff to help the customers who need personal service.
How Socitm Consulting can help
- Customer service strategy development
- Website and intranet optimisation
- Improving customers’ online experience
- Ensuring optimal integration of frontend and back-end processes
- Developing a lean systems approach, focusing on eliminating waste and duplication, and consolidating and automating wherever possible