Did you know that 61% of customers prefer to solve their support issues on their own online? Yet, only 13% actually succeed without any help from a human agent.

Self-service support lets customers tackle their problems independently, without needing to reach out to a support team member. This can include tools like knowledge bases, chatbots, and community forums.

When done right, self-service creates a win-win situation. It leads to happier customers, boosts team morale, and helps businesses thrive.

To help you master self-service support, we've gathered insights from top customer experience leaders. Here's what they recommend for making self-service a success.

To deliver a self-serve support experience customers will love, follow these five rules:

Make it easy and intuitive: Help customers quickly find the answers to their issues.

• Easy-to-navigate menus or homepages: Make it simple for users to find what they need.
• Organized support content: Let customers jump to relevant help center articles or topics.
• Simple and direct language: Use clear and easy-to-understand language.

Offload work to automation and AI: Scale support by saving time on simple inquiries and manual work.

• Automation: Route inquiries to the right teammate and assist with responsiveness.
• AI-based resolutions: Ensure accuracy by maintaining a strong knowledge base.
• Focus on complex tasks: Allow your team to concentrate on knowledge management, optimizing chatbot flows, and deeper support analysis.

Stay on top of upkeep: Ensure your self-service resources are accurate and up-to-date.

• Regular audits and refreshes: Keep your support content accurate with regular updates.

Maximize visibility: Increase awareness of your self-service options to improve deflection rates.

• Promote your self-service: Make sure customers know about the available resources.

Measure impact: Track and measure the performance of your self-service support.

• Monitor and analyze: Continuously assess and improve your self-service options.

By following these rules, you can create a self-serve support experience that delights customers, boosts team morale, and helps your business thrive.

Maximize Visibility

You've put in the effort to maintain your self-service resources, so let's make sure your customers can find and use them effectively. When customers use self-service support, you should see your deflection rate go up—meaning more issues get resolved without needing a human agent.

Share your knowledge base content as widely as possible. Think about all the different ways customers interact with your brand and make sure they can easily access your resources.

Ensure your chat experience is user-friendly and doesn’t frustrate customers. It’s still crucial to offer the option to escalate to a human agent for a seamless experience.

Engage your community in fun and creative ways with exclusive events, influencer perks, early access to beta programs, and more! Our self-service support guide includes examples of our favorite company communities for inspiration.

At Ariglad, we're transforming self-service support with our AI-driven platform. Integrating with tools like Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom, Notion, and Jira, Ariglad keeps your knowledge base up-to-date and automates routine tasks. This ensures your self-service resources are effective and easily accessible, improving customer satisfaction and boosting agent productivity. Discover how Ariglad can elevate your self-service support with a demo.