What is self-care?
Times are changing and we are no longer obliged to make a phone call to get assistance (to check the progress of a claim, change account details, or further information etc.). Nowadays, the customer can address a number of issues using different access channels into the company: mobile apps, FAQs, customer portal, automated IVR, or Chatbot etc.
According to Gartner, between now and 2020, 85% of customer transactions will be completed without any live agent intervention.
The purpose of self-care tools is to offer an outstanding customer experience while reducing the actual cost of service.
According to the online magazine Relationclient.fr, "between 30 and 40% of service costs can be reduced by introducing self-care". You just need to be able to calculate the rate of self-care.
The rate of self-care: a simple formula
In order to measure the performance of these solutions, the most important KPI is the rate of self-care or the rate of transferring a call into self-care. The definition of the rate of self-care: The number of management tasks completed via a self-care solution out of the total number the tasks.
The higher your self-care rate becomes, the more efficient your customer service operation. What this means is your call centre agents spend less time on low added-value calls and can concentrate their efforts on the most complex requests.
Having said this, relying too much on this type of service, which is certainly cost-effective for a business, may cause a gradual worsening of the customer experience: if the service has not been designed as customer-centric, it may turn out to be difficult to use and therefore frustrating.
According to Harvard Business Review, reduced customer service focus is the key factor in customer loyalty.
Channel synergy
There may be several channels available to a customer to resolve their problem. It may be difficult for a customer to identify the right one which may result in them using several (replicating transactions, information loss…) or resorting to the tried and tested channel, namely the phone.
The philosophy behind a visual IVR is to offer a customer journey, rather like a tunnel, with the following stages:
Identification (optional)
Needs assessment
Offer of a self-care solution (FAQs, customer portal)
Offer of a contact solution (questionnaire, Chatbot, call back, telephone)
Why calculate it?
The tunnel approach allows us to identify the three KPIs necessary to improve ultimately the rate of self-care.
The session rate which involved a self-care solution
The session rate which involved a self-care solution without any live agent intervention.
The session rate with a self-care solution which involved live agent intervention (a call, back office involvement, Chatbot etc.)
Here is a simple formula to help you understand customer journeys and analyse the Visual IVR.