The evolution of self service environments and their potential business impact
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Abstract This paper will explore the growth in self service environments. It looks at: key business drivers; how these environments have evolved; the types of functionality present; how they fit with a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy; the business opportunity they present; and the critical success factors.
Shaun Doyle Cognitive Box (Consulting) Ltd, Sams Barn, The Greenway, West Hendred, Wantage, Oxon, OX12 8RD, UK Tel: ⫹44 (0)1235 821 353; Fax: ⫹44 (0)1235 861 678; e-mail: shaun.doyle@ cognitivebox.com
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INTRODUCTION The last five years have seen a significant growth in the popularity of customer self service environments across a range of business sectors. In the early days these environments allowed customers to record a technical query or service request through some type of web interface. A customer service agent then contacted the customer either over the telephone or by email in response to the query. These self service environments have evolved significantly and now provide rich functional environments for customers to interact with an organisation. DRIVERS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SELF SERVICE ENVIRONMENTS In an increasingly competitive environment, many organisations see
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customer service as a key pillar in the development of sustainable competitive advantage. Often this is part of a broader CRM approach that is concerned with developing a synergistic relationship with the customer. Self service environments provide the opportunity to increase customer choice and extend the opportunities that customers have to interact with an organisation. In these self service environments the customer has a significant control over this interaction. Self service environments can provide a number of positive benefits to a customer. These include: — Choice of channel — in the past, customer service has typically been provided through human channels (predominantly the telephone). The growth of the new self service environments, particularly those over
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Figure 1: Changes in internet usage between July 2000 and February 2003 Source: Research conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Note: Data has been indexed to 100 as at July 2000 to illustrate the trends.
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the internet, has increased the customer’s choice of channels for this type of interaction. Choice of when — internet self service environments give customers the ability to interact with an organisation 24/7, 365 days a year. Choice over type of interaction/transaction — better self service environments do not limit the types of interaction/transaction that may take place through a particular channel. The customers can therefore choose which interactions/transactions they want to perform from a comprehensive set of processes. Choice over nature of interaction — the new self service environments allow customers to choose the nature of the interaction and to avoid face-to-face or telephone inte
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