Feeling overwhelmed with the rising number of routine service desk tickets that need constant processing? Is the cost becoming too much to bear? Do you look to self-service to remedy these pain points but aren’t seeing the results you expect? You’re not alone.
The Gartner Report, Design IT Self-Service for the Business Consumer, states “IT organizations that fail to deliver effective IT self-service will struggle to increase agility and to demonstrate value to the business.”* Self-service has many benefits, and one of the biggest benefits is being able to use self-service to help deflect routine issues to the service desk. But in order to accomplish this, employees must use the self-service portal. Users need to engage with self-service and that’s why it’s important for organizations to design portals with the user experience in mind to help achieve true self-service ROI.
When it Comes to Self-Service Portals, End Users Prefer the Human Touch
According to the SDI study, “Realizing ROI from Self-service Technologies,” the key obstacle to organizations not being able to achieve ROI was because “end users prefer the human touch.” The report goes on to say:
“The most successful organizations were those who benefited from a self-service solution designed with the customer at the heart of the service and realized higher customer preference rates.”
Your goal should be to build a self-service environment that still incorporates a humanized experience for the end users. Learning from consumer service experiences is a great place to start. Companies like Uber, Amazon, and Netflix leverage technology to deliver a better end-user experience so that their services are used more. The same strategy should apply for internal support so employees are empowered to find the answers they need.
So how can Knowledge Management be used to help deliver better user experiences through self-service?
Off the top of your head, you can probably name three issues your service desk constantly receives, which all have a corresponding knowledge base article to help the user resolve the issue themselves. But, they’re still calling or emailing the service desk. This makes it a great opportunity to leverage these knowledge base articles to create a more engaging user experience where users can solve issues faster without the user having to call or email the service desk.
What is Self Help?
A self-help strategy means implementing more engaging and interactive knowledge by delivering a natural Q&A interaction as opposed to traditional knowledge documentation. While self-service is primarily focused on request management, self-help is a more evolved capability that uses the employee’s responses to deliver relevant answers. It requires a sophisticated use of knowledge management techniques that enables employees to solve their own issues, which will help you realize ROI quicker!
See the Financial Value of Self Help with an Estimated Three-year Savings Plan
At the end of the day, it’s about the bottom line. You can see how much your self-service portal can benefit from interactive knowledge experiences with the Self Help Value Calculator.
Simply answer three easy questions regarding your service desk, and the Value Calculator will generate your estimated three-year savings based on using a self-help strategy. You will also be able to download your results in a detailed, one-page report.
After seeing the value that interactive knowledge experiences can have on your organization, you’ll be one step closer to self-service portal success. Start calculating today to see your potential savings!
*Gartner, Design IT Self-Service for the Business Consumer, Chris Matchett, 04 October 2017
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
