Why prioritize self-service?

Today's customers are often tech savvy and well-informed. They enjoy the freedom of finding their own solutions, which in turn makes them feel empowered. According to a 2018 consumer behavior survey by Statista, most customers prefer to find solutions to simple questions on their own rather than talking to a support agent. This Do-it-Yourself approach has proven quite beneficial to organizations by:

Self Service Pie Chart Reducing call volumes Minimizing response time Increasing agent productivity Boosting customer morale and confidence

What self-service support channels
are available?

Knowledge base

A quick way to resolve common and simple problems is by providing relatable articles to guide the customer with the information necessary for finding a solution. The knowledge base enables agents and companies to reduce call-assisted service volumes significantly.

knowledge base, self-service channel, zoho desk

Chatbots

Sometimes, when a customer aims to find solutions on their own, they'll find the process too tedious. This is often the case if the instructions are too complex or the help articles are not updated and relevant. Customers may dismiss the process in the middle. Powered by artificial intelligence, chatbots make solving tickets faster and more convenient in the absence of a live support agent. They collect data and keywords from past interactions to anticipate when a customer needs help. This is one reason they have become an increasingly popular channel in the modern self-service segment.

Zoho Desk guided conversations response formats
Guided conversations automated chat Guided conversations email input Guided conversations select an option Guided conversations flow Guided conversations select an option Guided conversations flow Guided conversations ticket in Zoho Desk

Community forums

The credibility of a potential resolution may be in question when the customer is doing their own troubleshooting. This is easily remedied through community/online forums. Forums provide a platform that helps agents and customers interact about challenges, possible resolutions, and product details.

Community, self-service channel

Interactive voice recognition (IVR)

With the rapid increase in digitization, assisting customers through IVR is an easy alternative to a live phone call. The IVR channel enables a customer to interact with an automated representative that guides them through a series of self-help options to find a resolution.

IVR, self service channel

Why should you employ self-service
business intelligence?

Self-service analytics, also referred to as self-service business intelligence (BI), makes it easier to access, analyze, and share data across teams. A self-service analytics tool helps teams create and share data reports to democratize information.

Zoho Desk offers support teams and product owners the ability to view or create custom data reports for self-service channels, such as knowledge bases, community forums, and Zia. These reports help users understand their customers' requirements and requests in more depth, and easily analyze a channel's performance. Zoho Desk can be seamlessly integrated with Zoho Analytics for more in-depth insights.

Zia prediction Knowledge base dashboard Community dashboard
zia prediction knowledge base analytics community forum analytics

The right way to implement a Do-it-Yourself
self-service solution

Customer self-service portals have been in high demand for the past few years, and have been proven to be helpful in cutting down costs and improving agent productivity. But it is no easy task to ensure that the customer makes it all the way to the resolution step. Doubt and anxiety can kick in, preventing the customer from reaching the desired results. It is also a possibility that not all issues can be resolved through self-service. To increase the chances of a Do-it-Yourself resolution, and reap the many benefits of self-service platforms, self-service options should:

Provide tutorial videos or visuals for topics that need more in-depth explanation. Be updated and checked for relevance on a regular basis (This affects the credibility of your channel). Allow the freedom of personalization and help a brand collect and collaborate on data from different channels accordingly. Make customers feel confident that they can reach the resolution step without resorting to a live channel. Allow your brand to closely monitor all the community forums and FAQs to ensure appropriate recommendations are being made.Make it easy to access assistance through various channels. Be easy to locate and access.

Why Zoho Desk self-service is the right match for your business?

Self-service is the way forward, and at Zoho Desk, we believe in the many benefits it offers. Zoho Desk includes a wide range of features with its self-service support channel. The knowledge base, Zia, ticketing system, community forums, and Guided Conversations (a rule-based chatbot), ensure your self-service strategy is precise and effective. To encourage your customers to try self-service channels, we provide an easy-switch platform called ASAP. Meanwhile, read how 5paisa benefited by implementing Zoho Desk's self-service tools.

At the most fundamental level, Zoho Desk enables us to receive requests from our teams and help them in a timely manner. We love the ability to have a self-service portal where they can look up FAQs and find answers to common questions instantly.

Shoaib Qureshi

Head of Customer Service

Offer exceptional customer experiences with Zoho Desk.

Most frequently asked questions

Expand All
Who uses customer self-service software?

Customer self-service software is one of the best ways a business can empower its customers. Businesses of all sizes and types can implement self-service tools.

Customer service teams: Self-service software helps customer service teams strategically manage their workloads. With the help of a knowledge base portal or community self-service tools, customers can easily access simple solutions without relying on a customer support representative.

Sales and product managers: Self-service software can be beneficial for sales teams as well as product managers. Self-service analytics tools help these departments identify the major pain points and issues their customers are facing. Businesses/organizations can provide customer support with Zoho Desk's comprehensive self-service software tools, such as the knowledge base portal, Guided Conversations (a rule-based chatbot), community forums, and Zia (an AI chatbot).

How to buy self-service business intelligence software?

If you are looking for self-service business intelligence software, then you have arrived at the right page. Zoho Desk is comprehensive customer service software with a strong self-service component that helps businesses streamline their customer support processes to provide effective and reliable service to their customers. It's also affordable (starting at US$ 14/agent/month). For further details and pricing plans, please click here.

What are some customer self-service portal trends?

Customer service software leaders are always enhancing their self-service tools to meet the ever-evolving demands of consumers. Let's take a look at some popular self-service trends:

  • With the rising popularity of automation, artificial intelligence has gained a lot of momentum. Zoho Desk features, like Zia and Guided Conversations, help organizations streamline simple resolutions for customers. Support teams can formulate smart response flows with appropriate solutions based on previous response data to minimize the need for direct engagement. This leads to quick resolution times, reduced agent workloads, and increased cost efficiency.

  • Features like knowledge bases and community forums help businesses easily convey crucial information to their customers. Customers with basic questions about products/services can visit these pages for quick resolutions.

  • With Zoho Desk, businesses can easily embed self-service tools in their business websites in the form of a widget, browser extension, or mobile SDK. This one-stop destination approach for problem redressal helps businesses keep customers invested in the product.

Can we use Zoho Desk as employee self-service software?

Employee satisfaction contributes significantly to a positive work environment. It supports business growth, increased revenue, and reduced operational costs. Zoho Desk provides HR departments with a customizable solution to respond to employee needs efficiently. As the organization grows, the employee count often grows too. Zoho Desk's self-service software capabilities help reduce the workload on HR, regardless of company size, and minimize resolution times.

Self-service business intelligence examples with Zoho Desk:

Today, most customers want to minimize human interaction and receive quick solutions to a problem. This has led to increased demand for self-service tools. With the help of analytics and business intelligence tools, businesses can make informed and strategic decisions.

Zoho Desk offers self-service platforms with business intelligence tools to strengthen support agents. Organizations that wish to democratize their data can create dashboards for their knowledge base, community forums, and Zia (AI chatbot). This helps in spreading awareness of each channel's performance and increases the visibility of customer feedback.