{"id":25602,"date":"2021-03-24T10:04:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T10:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=25602"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:01:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T16:01:57","slug":"self-serve-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/self-serve-support\/","title":{"rendered":"The support leader\u2019s guide to scaling smarter with self-serve support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 80% of customers<\/a> are more likely to do business with a company that offers a personal experience. But as your company grows, how do you offer personalized support at scale without burning out your team or budget? Modern self-serve support is key to scaling smarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do I update my password?\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s your cancellation policy?\u201d Answering simple, repetitive questions like these can feel like Groundhog Day for your team. Not only is this time-consuming, it\u2019s also a heavy drain on your support team\u2019s resources and morale. No one wins when your team is stuck running up an endless ticketing treadmill \u2013 especially not your customers!<\/p>\n

Keeping pace with a constant flow of support tickets means all of your customers will have to wait longer for a response. Plus, study after study<\/a> reveals that many customers would rather self-serve than talk to a support rep at all.<\/p>\n

Modern customers are used to living in an on-demand world where their every whim can be met 24\/7 \u2013 think online shopping, instant news updates, and personalized Netflix feeds. Self-serve support satisfies customers\u2019 need for speed, control, and personalization. With contextual help content and bots you can provide customers with on-demand answers to simple questions, like: \u201cWhere can I update my billing details?” and \u201cWhat\u2019s your typical US delivery timeframe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, self-serve support empowers you to scale your support and provide customers with the fast answers they need, when they need them \u2013 without upping your headcount or overstretching your team. Below, we share the latest and greatest self-serve support strategies \u2013 including how to resolve repetitive queries with contextual help content and targeted bots, measure and optimize your self-serve strategy, and ultimately, position support as a core value driver<\/a> for your business.<\/p>\n

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Let self-serve support handle the simple, repetitive queries<\/h2>\n

At Intercom, we use a framework called the Support Funnel<\/a> to deliver efficient, personal support to our customers at scale. It combines proactive<\/a>, self-serve<\/a>, and human<\/a> support capabilities to get ahead of known problems before they arise, automatically answer repetitive queries, and quickly resolve complex issues.<\/p>\n

With the funnel, self-serve and proactive support resolve most simple, repetitive queries, meaning only the most complex, critical issues ever reach your team.<\/p>\n

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Armed with the right self-serve support strategy and tools, you can empower customers to help themselves at pivotal moments in their customer journey, like when they\u2019re onboarding or getting up to speed with a new product or feature. You can (and should) also use self-serve support as an opportunity to educate your customers on how to get the most value from your product or service.<\/p>\n

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By embracing the funnel, you’ll drastically reduce the number of simple, repetitive queries that reach your support team, all while keeping your customers satisfied. And when most of your customers\u2019 questions are resolved through self-serve support, it frees up your team to focus on your most important, complex, and VIP support queries.<\/p>\n

“50% of support leaders plan to invest more in automation, including chatbots, in the coming year”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not only will you take pressure off your team, you can also demonstrate how support is impacting your business\u2019 bottom line with positive customer loyalty and retention figures. With all of these powerful benefits, it\u2019s perhaps no surprise that 50% of support leaders<\/a> plan to invest more in automation, including chatbots, in the coming year to increase the efficiency of their support team.
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Create contextual help content that delivers real value<\/h2>\n

Great help content compounds in value over time. The help content your team creates today will lay the foundations for supporting thousands, maybe even millions, of your customers for years to come. Not only will it empower your customers to self-serve, it can also provide them with proactive guidance from day one of using your product or service.<\/p>\n

“With modern customer support tools, you can deliver help in context to the right customers, at the right time”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s worth taking the time to get this right, so you can offer more help to a greater number of customers and significantly reduce your overall conversation volume in the process. Here are our tips for creating content that delivers long-term value:<\/p>\n

1. Map your help content to your customers\u2019 journey<\/h3>\n

With traditional knowledge bases, the key question is often: \u201cHow can we create articles that satisfy our customers\u2019 search intent?\u201d That\u2019s still a worthy pursuit; however, with modern customer support tools<\/a>, you can take your content one step further and deliver help in context to the right customers, at the right time.<\/p>\n

So the question then becomes, \u201cHow can we meet customers wherever<\/em> they are?\u201d \u2013 whether that\u2019s in your product, or browsing your website.<\/p>\n

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We recommend planning out the different types of articles you need to help customers at each stage of their journey. For example:<\/p>\n