Digital self-service: how to develop the customer journey?

In a market where customer experience is the great commander of business success and prosperity, investing in digital self-service can be a huge competitive advantage of your company. After all, in addition to bringing greater convenience and practicality to the parties, will increase the efficiency of this journey, the satisfaction and loyalty of the buyer & benefits that depend directly on a careful balance of some factors to achieve this purpose.

As much as no technology replaces 100% human work, there are certain tasks that many of us prefer to drive alone and more quickly and automatically. As proof of this, data from Salesforce shows that 81% of customers prefer to solve problems on their own before contacting a representative.In addition, 73% feel more confident in solving their demands with this option, according to another study by Forrester Research.

What is not lacking are reasons that justify such preference, ranging from a greater speed and effectiveness in service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, factor that increases customer satisfaction and convenience.This, not to mention the reduction of operational expenses related to the required human intervention.

Even if it seems something extremely sophisticated in technological terms, its scalability is also a favorable point that deserves to be highlighted, because any business entity, regardless of its size or branch of activity, has the possibility of entering the digital self-service enterprise. After all, even for those who do not have significant resources to invest in this technology, there are simpler and more economical alternatives that can be targeted first, expanding investments in more sophisticated systems as operations grow and adherence to the model is validated.

This range of options includes the possibilities of tools that can ensure digital self-service internally.Many technologies have the ability to provide advantages to digital self-service, such as voice e chatbots, which, through AI, emulate human dialogues and can be integrated from telephone channels (active or receptive), such as websites, mobile applications, platforms or messaging channels, answering common questions, assisting in user navigation or even performing transactions in an automated way, such as sales, confirmation/reschedule appointments, renewal/contracting plans and even negotiation of open debits.

Still within this feature, we can highlight the generative AI, a technology that is constantly evolving and has as proposal to offer an ability to create various types of content, such as texts, images and videos, autonomously.In the context of digital self-service, it can be used in the production of more complex and personalized responses, making interaction with customers more fluid and natural.

There are also the famous service totems, which allow customers to execute transactions and request information without the need for human interaction, in addition to the mobile applications themselves, these are powerful tools that allow the customer to access services, make purchases and interact with the company in an agile and practical way, directly on their devices. All options are really powerful to revolutionize customer service satisfaction and ROI, but they need to be carefully implemented considering certain points of attention.

In order for your company to be able to invest in digital self-service and obtain excellent results, some care needs to be taken in the incorporation of the chosen technological resource.

An important tip is to ensure that the solution is developed in a personalized way, so that it meets users with answers contextualized to their needs and with maximum precision 2 SO avoiding generic messages that may cause dissatisfaction in your experience. Adjust the responses, conversation flows and functionalities based on customer feedback and performance data.

The solution will also need to be integrated with the other internal systems of the company, making sure that the contents of the tool will be constantly updated and relevant, valuing maximum transparency regarding its capabilities and limitations. This, without forgetting to apply real-time monitoring mechanisms, avoiding mistakes and ensuring accurate adjustments in a timely manner.

Another important tip that will contribute to the good performance of digital self-service is to apply frequent tests to identify possible failures and opportunities for improvement. All this, ensured by an omnichannel support, which is what will ensure the effectiveness of digital self-service solutions, ensuring uniformity in the responses provided, maximizing the power of resolution and ensuring a positive customer experience.

There is no doubt about the benefits that companies and customers themselves will have with this strategy and, if your business has not yet joined this trend, know that you are missing a huge opportunity to have a more optimized, effective and safe solution to increase the satisfaction and experience of your customer throughout the purchase journey.