Salesforce-Desk_Self-Service Support for Fast-Growing Companies

7/29/2019 Salesforce-Desk_Self-Service Support for Fast-Growing Companies

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FAST-GROWING COMPANIES

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

SELF-SERVICE SUPPORT FOR

2013 desk.com. All rights reserved.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE AGE OF SELF-SERVICE SUPPORT

III. GETTING STARTED WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND LAYOUT BEST PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SELF-SERVICE SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX


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I. INTRODUCTION


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I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

III. GETTING STARTED

WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

I. INTRODUCTIONTHE RISE OF SELF-SERVICE SUPPORT

Self-service support is on the rise customers want it and support teamsneed it. If you are a fast-growing company, can you afford to not takeself-service support seriously?

Its ocial...consumer expectations of customer support has reached new heights that nobody believed possible.

Whats worse, is that fast-growing companies are feeling the brunt of this force as their rapdily-growing customerbase has forced management teams to make massive adjustments in a short amount of time. But should that stop

them from providing absolutely stellar customer service? Absolutely not.

One form of customer service on the rise is self-service support - a cost ecient and eective way to provideaccurate product information to customers. In fact according to Forrester, 72% of customers prefer self-service toresolve their support issues over picking up the phone or sending an email.1In this Ultimate Guide, we will be

touching on the foundation of self-service support primarily, what this level of support means to fast-growing

companies as well as their customers and organization.

We hope you walk away with the following insights:

A rm understanding of the various types of self-service support and their benets

The agent productivity advantages and monetary value of investing in self-service support tools

Steps on getting started with knowledge base content and how to keep it fresh and relevant Examples of awesomely designed support centers and what makes them eective

How to measure the success of a support center and ROI of self-service support

You will be exercising both sides of the brain as you learn about the nitty gritty numbers of the ROI of self-service

and the creative aspect of designing a great experience for your customer. Complete with visuals, case studies as

well as concrete facts and gures, we hope you enjoy this guide and walk away with a better knowledge for your

self-service support eorts!

1 Forrester Research, Do Your Customers Want to Telephone Your Service? 2010.
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I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

Self-Service

Self-service is the act of a customer resolving hisor her question using product information provided

by the company.

Self-Service Support

Self-service support is an organizations eorts to

supply their customer base with accurate product

information in hopes that they can resolve their ownquestions. Self-service support tools may range

from a support center, FAQ, instructional guides or

step-by-step videos.

Support Center

An online support center (also known as a

customer portal or help center) is a self-service

portal for customers to seek a knowledge base ofinstructional articles, FAQs, how-to videos and

more. They typically contain product or service

information that allow customers to actively resolve

their own questions.

Knowledge Base

A knowledge base is an entity within a supportcenter. The content of a knowledge base is

unchanging information presented in a logical order

and is written in an manner determined by the

company, rather than the user community.

FAQ

FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions are predominately

found in a support center. An FAQ is a perfect format forcustomers that typically have the same problems.

Community or Forum

The basic structure of a community or forum is a setof discussions written and promoted by the users or

consumers. They encourage product usage as well as

provide users with the opportunity to collaborate withone another.

Tickets or Cases

A ticket or case is an incoming inquiry from a customer.

Agents

Agents are a businessess team members that receive

and resolve tickets or customer inquiries. They are anessential component of a customer support strategy as

they are the individuals that serve the customer day in

and day out.

I. INTRODUCTIONSELF-SERVICE GLOSSARY


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A support center is an online resource for all product information and is the beating heart of self-service support.

With a well-constructed support center, customers can accurately resolve their problems at all hours of the day.However, a support center is only as good as the tools that populate it. Unfortunately, not every size ts all so it is up

to the company to make the necessary strides to nd which tools are the most eective for them.

Some adequate self-service support tools include:

Video

There is no better way todescribe a step-by-step

process than through a

video.

FAQ Frequently AskedQuestions

Create an FAQ to avoid

repetitive questions from

customers.

Community

Provide customers the

opportunity to connect

and interact with fellowusers to encourage the

usage of best practices.

Knowledge Base

A knowledge base

holds all of the product

information within a

support center.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

I. INTRODUCTIONWHAT IS A SUPPORT CENTER?
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II. SERVING IN THE AGE OF SELF-SERVICE SUPPORT
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In todays world of speed, immediate solutions and interconnectivity, customers expect resolutions to their

problems in the snap of a nger. SNAP! Unfortunately, these expectations have forced fast-growing companies toquickly resolve customers problems or risk losing their business. Expectations including:

69% of customers said they were on hold too long when seeking help from a company

41% of consumers expect an email response within 6 hours

30% of consumers that tweet a customer service question expect a response within 30 minutes

71% of online chat customers expect assistance within 5 minutes

One can only imagine the stress of meeting these expectations with limited personnel and a rapidly-growing

customer base. That is why fast-growing companies are investing in support centers as they realize the cost benet.According to a study from Gartner, the self-service industry has grown from $600 million in 2011 to $1 billion in

2012.2Self-service support oer benets to customers and companies alike. Companies benet by providing

cost-eective alternatives while customers can solve problems on their own time.

Fast-growing companies that invest in self-service

support, such as an online support center, have noticed

numerous benets including:

A decrease in ticket volume

An increase in customer satisfaction Better use of their product or service

More collaboration between users

An increase in agent productivity

[Self-service support] is a critical necessity

for agents who rely on standardized answers

to eciently answer customer inquiries. Itis also important to customers, as 60% of

consumers use web self-service knowledgeto nd answers to their questions. Expect

companies to adopt best practices inknowledge management.

- Kate Leggett,

Principal Analyst, Forrester

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

II. SERVING IN THE AGE OF SELF-SERVICE SUPPORTTHE RISE OF SELF-SERVICE SUPPORT

2 Gartner, Serving the Self-Service Customer, 2013.


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Investing in self-service support is a huge undertaking for any organization - especially fast-growing companies -that often do not have the time or resources to take on such a huge venture. It requires time, patience and

manpower. However there is clear evidence that the benets outweigh the time and energy spent. Support team

managers or executives uncertain about investing in a self-service support should consider asking the

following questions:

Does our organization have the exibility and time to constantly respond to our growing customer base?

Does it simply seem like there is not enough time in the day to keep up with our ticket volume?

Are customers wishing for self-service support from us?

Do we have international customers that are not getting questions resolved due to time dierences?

If these questions are dicult to answer or if there is a considerable amount of pressure from customers, it might be

time to invest in self-service support, such as a support center. A solid support center gives customers the answersthey need 24/7, cuts down on cases and can also be extremely cost-eective.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

II. SERVING IN THE AGE OF SELF-SERVICE SUPPORTUNCERTAIN ABOUT SELF-SERVICE SUPPORT? SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK

At Desk.com, we use our

self-service support tools to easily

create knowledge base articles

and manage our support center.


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A well-built support center that is maintained by a company and is highly utilized by customers, has the potential

to be a huge cost-saver for support teams. The table below is a study from Forrester that represents approximatecosts of specic customer service channels per customer contact. A self-service contact from a customer is easily

the most cost-ecient. To put this into a better perspective, the cost of 25 web self-service contacts equals about

one email contact from an agent.

Self-service support is not only evolving as a cost-eective customer service channel, it has also developed into a

huge demand from consumers. A 2012 study of more than 13,000 consumers by the Customer Contact Council

found that 57% of customers preferred to use self-service over the Web - compared to phone-based

interactions with agents at 42.3%.3 The implementation of a support center is no longer a want, its a necessity.

Customer Service Channel Approx. Cost Per Contact

Call center technical support $12 and higher

Call center CSR $6 and higher

Web chat or callback $5 and higher

Email response $2.50 to $5 and higherWeb self-service $0.10 or less

Source: Forrester Research

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

II. SERVING IN THE AGE OF SELF-SERVICE SUPPORTUNCERTAIN ABOUT SELF-SERVICE SUPPORT? SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK

3 1to1 Media, Serving the Self-Service Customer, 2013.


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With a rapidly-growing customer base, not only do agents need to be productive, they need to be fast and agile as

well. Customers place a heavy emphasis on resolution times especially when determining where to invest theirmoney. In fact, 82% of consumers in the U.S. said they stopped doing business with a company due to a poor

customer service experience - of these, 55% said a companys failure to resolve their problems in a timely

manner drove them away4. Unfortunately for fast-growing companies, the r ise of customers means the rise of ticket

volumes - a huge problem when executives are performing a balancing act between building a business and

answering customer questions as quickly as possible.

Nothing throws a stick in the spokes of an agents speed better than having to deal with a series of repetitive

customer inquires - password resets, warranty registrations and plenty more. Fortunately, there is a solution to this

problem: self-service support.

Of the numerous benets self-service

support provides, increased agent

eciency is a huge value. Self-servicesupport keeps repetitive customer questions

from ever reaching email or the phone lines

- allowing agents to be more productive.

Though a good self-service experiencerequires time and money investments in

stellar knowledge base content as well as a

strong support center layout, ticket volumescan be dramatically reduced allowing agentsto focus on their speed and more pressing

issues.

One important example of increased agent eciency comes from Desk.coms customer: TicketLeap. BeforeTicketleap added their support center, agents spent 80% of their day on the phone helping one customer at a time.

After investing in self-service support, TicketLeaps team began seeing massive improvements in productivity. Today

agents spend 20% of their time on the phone with complicated cases and 80% on email leveraging articles from theknowledge base.

Primary Benets from Implementing Self-Service Technologies

Increased eciencies 33.3%

Reduced costs 17.7%

Greater customer satisfaction 15.6%

Reduced number of support requests 15.6%

Customer demand 6.2%

Improved protability 3.1%

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

II. SERVING IN THE AGE OF SELF-SERVICE SUPPORTREDUCE TICKET VOLUME, INCREASE AGENT EFFICIENCY

Source: Supportindustry.com survey, 2009

4 RightNowTechnologies, The Customer Experience Impact 2010 Report, 2010


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III. GETTING STARTED WITH CONTENT


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Keep it Simple and Press On

Building support center content is a daunting and rather arduous task - most notably, writing articles for your

knowledge base. The hardest part is getting started. What are customers looking for? Am I making sense? Thequestions are endless. The key to getting started is to keep content simple - keep articles painless and easy to

understand than go from there. Senior Customer WOW Manager of Desk.com, Graham Murphy states:

Make sure youre agging cases that have a need for self-help content. Keep a list and keep writing up those

articles. Iterative improvement is the key. Its not easy to write effective, successful documentation. Its important to

remember, though, that it saves time in the long run. Just keep at it, even one a day if thats all you can do. Just

start.

The best tip is to star t with a small set of very broad topics or categories and work down from there. Over-structuring

with too many categories that are too specic can lead to confusion for your authors as well as your readers. Over

time, opportunities for more forum headings or categories will become clear that will in turn, grow your knowledgebase organically.

Identifying New Content

Once the basic knowledge base articles are created, count on

more to follow in time. A great practice is to empower agents

to recommend new knowledge base articles from repetitivesupport cases. When similar case inquiries pile up, agents can

ag the tickets as a candidate for creating a support center

article. Once this practice has been implemented, there will be a

signicant drop in repetitive questions.

At Desk.com, we empower agents to ag knowledgebase content candidates using our labels feature. When

a Customer WOW agent experiences multiple customer

inquiries with the same question, they label them as

Support Center Candidates where the ticket is then

evaluated as a possible new piece of content.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

III. GETTING STARTED WITH CONTENTITS A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT


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Breaking down the different types of customers and addressing their

needs individually is really important. Also, a solid foundation of good

documentation reinforced with plenty of product visuals helps customers

learn more effectively. Documentation is an essential tool for the entire

company when addressing features of the product, whether or not that is

in a support setting.

Talton Figgins, Support at Disqus

We had tried creating text how tos in the past and we found that our

customers, with their busy work days, that they didnt want to take the

time to read and try the steps on their own. With video, weve seen a lot

more interest from customers knowing that they can see exactly how to

do what they want to do, but keeping in mind that were still here to help

them out in case the video doesnt match their situation exactly.

Corey Maertz, Support at DealerFire

I started when Rdio was in beta so I had the unique ability to create

knowledge base articles as support cases came in. I think it can be really

overwhelming when youre starting to write ar ticles not knowing what youre

going to put in there. You need to slowly track that stuff and pay attention

to it and put it in your knowledge base daily rather than feeling like you have

to have everything right at the get go. It will help you and it will help your

knowledge base have everything that people are actually asking about.

Madelyn Taylor, Head of Support at Rdio

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

III. GETTING STARTED WITH CONTENTHOW ARE THE PROFESSIONALS DOING IT?


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The rst step of researching and preparing knowledge base content is to categorize customers habits, common

problems and preferences, using the words and phrases they would use when searching for help.

Content is King

Completing any task in a fast-growing company requires eciency and organization. Building knowledge base

content is no dierent - the key is to lay out content in a simple and visual way such as a diagram. Putting

together a diagram of knowledge base content is an absolute must for organization. Below is a simple, yet eectivediagram for building knowledge base content.

Keep the customer experience in mind through a series of broad topics (marked in purple). These can be

specic products that may require multiple articles, getting started resources, FAQs and much more. Once this has

been accomplished, designing the website will be a piece of cake. Remember, the design and layout of a supportcenter should be built around the content - a support center should not be designed and then lled in with content (it

wont make any sense to the customer).

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

III. GETTING STARTED WITH CONTENTPUTTING TOGETHER KNOWLEDGE BASE CONTENT


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Getting started with content is 50% of a self-service support strategy. The other 50% is maintaining the knowledgebase content so that it is fresh and constantly relevant to the customers needs. If one loosens the reins and forgets

to update content, customer satisfaction will immediately go down and it is much more dicult to catch up than to

constantly maintain. Below are a couple of methods to always having fresh and relevant knowledge base articles.

Add an Expiration Date

One the easiest and most eective tips is to put an expiration date on knowledge base content. Product features

change as well as interfaces - its easy to forget to go back and refresh ar ticles. However, once a date is on the

calendar, teams are most likely to uphold a content refresh initiative.

Include a Rating System

Another very simple and important way to maintain fresh content is to implement a rating system into knowledgebase articles - meaning readers can rate their satisfaction with the content. A rating system is a key and almost

mandatory feature to have in knowledge base content.

Customer service evangelist Greg Meyer suggests: Identify the top 10 highest rated and lowest rated knowledgebase articles that your customers use, and rewrite them on a content calendar.By refreshing your highest rated

articles, you are keeping popular posts fresh.

Using Desk.com, readers are able torate knowledge base articles. Our

Customer WOW team constantly

monitors these ratings to gauge the

health of articles and determine if itneeds a refreshment.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

III. GETTING STARTED WITH CONTENTMAINTAINING FRESH, RELEVANT CONTENT


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1. Curate your content thoughtfully and organize it

clearly

2. Provide a feedback mechanism, (and listen to the

feedback)

3. Review content frequently to make sure information

is up to date and useful to customers

4. Moderate forum discussions; it is important that the

brand has a strong presence

5. On your website, guide the customer to self-help

options. Provide a single entry point for help options,

dont confuse them with too many choices

6. Always keep Search front and center, easy to and

easy to use

7. Oer one nal try to match the request with suggested

answers before an email submission

8. Recognize the user; dont bother them by collecting

extraneous information as if they were strangers

9. Use links within the product or application that point

to self-help choices, and keep that information current

10. Provide mobile self-help options

11. Provide an easy and clear escalation path. Dont

make it dicult to contact you directly

Getting started with content and your support center layout is an enormous undertaking. However, with a solid planand a little elbow grease, the benets are endless. Here is a list of eleven best practices from professionals that have

years of experience in the eld of customer service and self-service technologies.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

III. GETTING STARTED WITH CONTENTTOP 11 BEST PRACTICE TIPS FROM THE PROS

Best practice tips from Graham Murphy, Dan Stern, Madelyn Taylor and Talton Figgins


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IV. DESIGN AND LAYOUT BEST PRACTICES


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This support center layout is very common.Some of the key highlights include:

Search bar is front and center and easy to locate

Articles organized into topics makes navigation

very easy for the user

Contact information is a click away in case theuser can not resolve their issue

A support center built with an emphasis on simplicityand clarity is always eective. Here are some

highlights:

Iconography is a great way to break up the clutter

of help topics and is visually appealing

Contact information is clearly dened

Search bar is the key asset of this page

Self-service support is a key tenet of a great customer experience - sharing information with the customer motivates

them to help each other and increases product usage in return. However, simply having a support center availabledoes not guarantee customers will nd it useful. Unfortunately, customers have a low tolerance for information they

can not locate so the design and layout of a support center are critical factors.

Check out some common layouts of support centers to help get the creative juices owing:

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

IV. DESIGN AND LAYOUT BEST PRACTICESGETTING STARTED WITH DESIGN


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Fitbit has multiple products in their product line.

Unfortunately, with each product comes unique

problems. By using iconography to lay out each

product, users are easily able to locate the product

they have and solve their problem from there.

A Most Viewed column is a great way to bubble

up common questions for the user to see. This

is also a great way to reduce annoying, repetitive

tickets agents might commonly see in their inbox.

Fitbits search bar is easy to nd and includes

topic suggestions that makes an easier search

experience. Search bar is their main priority and it

pays o for the customers experience.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

IV. DESIGN AND LAYOUT BEST PRACTICESAWESOME SUPPORT CENTERS


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The Space Heroes support center is fun anddesigned around their brand. The customer feels

they are in their element and overall comfortable

with the support center.

If a customer can not nd the article he/she is

looking for, Space Heroess contact information is

only a click away. Make sure an escalation path iseasily laid out for the customer.

Browse by Topic is a simple and eective way

layout for customers to easily navigate. With just

a few clicks, customers can locate and

read the article they are looking for.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX



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Search bar is front and center along with an FAQ

section. This is a great layout as simple questions

can be taken care of right away in this division of

the support center.

SquareSpace takes the customer experience very

seriously as they lay out three important topicsright o the bat. The customer is able to

immediately get started or escalate an issue.

SquareSpace allows users to create their own

website. Videos are easily at their disposal to

learn the product with ease.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX



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Presenting customers with self-service options and sharing product knowledge can vary in numerous ways and is

determined largely by your strategy. The trick is to determine which option is the most eective for your customers.Communities have grown to be a major success for a number of companies.

Are Communities Right for All Fast-Growing Companies?

Communities are generally very positive for almost every company. They encourage product usage as well as

provide users the opportunity to collaborate with one another. However, businesses should consider where to focus

their self-service eorts - for some organizations, it might not be in a community.

If a product can be congured in many

ways - meaning there might be more than

one way to be successful with it -customers may appreciate networking

with other users to gure out best

practices or compare methods. Readingabout the dierent strategies and

experiences can inspire customers and

increase product usage. Or, they may

discover more ecient ways of achievingan outcome.

If a product or service is straight

forward and there are lit tle methods forusing it, a community might not be a

priority. In which case, a solid knowledge

base will probably be the best route togo. Desk.coms customer, Fitbit, oers a number of solutions and services

that can be congured in many ways. To encourage product usage and

inspire customers, they embedded a community into their support center.

All questions, discussions, ideas and problems are recorded and routed

straight to Fitbits support team.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

IV. DESIGN AND LAYOUT BEST PRACTICESFEATURES TO CONSIDER: COMMUNITY


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Not only do customers want their issues resolved in the shortest amount of time, they also want them resolved on

the go. Consumers are increasingly seeking self-serve customer service content such as knowledge base articlesand forums using their mobile devices. In fact, 50% of smartphone users would prefer to use a mobile customer

service app to try to resolve their issue before calling a contact center.8

Mobile self-service support oers fast-growing companies a revolutionary opportunity to provide self-service

experiences of higher quality in the wake of a less lenient and more demanding customer base. Through this form ofsupport, companies will reduce inbound ticket volumes, unify support channels and reduce waiting times - all while

serving one of the largest growing audiences: mobile customers.

Is Mobile Conguration Right for All Self-Service Support Strategies?

There is little doubt that consumers are going mobile. While statistics vary, thepopular consensus is that within a few short years the usage of smartphones

will exceed PCs. With steam quickly picking up in the direction of mobile andself-service, businesses in nearly all industries should consider in this

investment to preserve the customer experience.

The mobile self-service support benets include:

Customers can solve their problems on the go

Decreased ticket volume

A unied self-service opportunity across multiple channels

Reaching a mobile demographic

50% of smartphone users would prefer to

use a mobile customer service app to try to

resolve their customer service issue beforecalling a contact center.- Echo Research

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

IV. DESIGN AND LAYOUT BEST PRACTICESFEATURES TO CONSIDER: MOBILE SELF-SERVICE SUPPORT

8 SpeechCycle and Echo, SpeechCycle and Echo Research Study, 2011.


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Power users can do some amazing thing with Desk.com, especiallywhen it comes to implementing custom code to expand the core

functionality of our product. Despite having a team of support rockstars

on staff, theres always a point where a request is simply beyond the

scope of what we can handle. Providing a community Q&A environment

creates the opportunity for customers to help each other in such

situations, while simultaneously making our support center more robust

than ever.

Graham Murphy, Senior Customer WOW Manager at Desk.com

We want to offer customers a way to nd answers to their questions

easily and efciently. The objective of the Desk.com implimentation is to

have a clean and easily navigatable Support site so people can quickly nd

answers to your questions. If Im a customer, Id prefer to nd the answer

to my question myself rather than calling or writing an email to a support

rep.

Jay Kershner, Senior Director Customer Service at Fitbit

When you track Google Analytics, over time youll get amazing data.

Madelyn Taylor, Head of Support at Rdio

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX


HOW THE PROFESSIONALS ARE DOING IT?


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VI. CONCLUSION


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According to Forrester Research, we are now in the Age of the Customer. Self-service support is no longer

considered an advantage but a pinnacle factor in the success of a company. Today, customers are connected tomore options than ever before. Being the customers rst and remaining choice is a critical competitive advantage -

and competition is ercer than ever. To win, fast-growing companies must be laser-focused on understanding their

customer base and engaging them better than anyone else.

Enabling self-service support is not an easy deployment. It requires time, money and structural

changes that many fast-growing companies can not sacrice. Meanwhile, many companies that have made the

change are reaping the benets of better customer satisfaction, reduced ticket volumes and increased revenue.Furthermore, they have in turn become more agile, performance-oriented and customer-focused.

Unfortunately, online support centers are only as eective as they are designed and utilized by customers. Thelayout and design of a support center is crucial as customers are increasingly losing their patience and falling o at

the slightest obstacles. Content is equally important as stale or confusing content can lead to customer frustrations

and ultimately, loss in business. Companies must stress the importance of design and content to get the full benets

of self-service support.

As customer expectations continue to rise, self-service is no longer a nice-to-have or a maybe for companies on

the rise. Rather, self-service support plays an increasingly crucial role in the retention of customers and

encouragement of further growth. By measuring the ROI and the success of their self-service strategy, fast-growingcompanies will easily notice the success of their customers.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

VI. CONCLUSIONSELF-SERVICE SUPPORT: THE ESSENTIAL FOR FAST-GROWING COMPANIES


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APPENDIX


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Keeping Customer Support DIY

Last year TicketLeap did $52 million gross ticket sales, which means they powered a lot of events. One way theyvehelped users stay DIY is with the TicketLeap support center, powered by Desk.com. The support center is updatedon a regular basis and kept current with useful articles.

Before Ticketleap added the support center with Desk.com agents spent 80% of their day on the phone helping one

customer at a time. We selected Desk.com specically for its ability to easily build a knowledge base, says formerTicketLeap CTO Keith Fitzgerald. Today agents spend 20% of their time on the phone with complicated cases and

80% on email leveraging articles from the knowledge base.

Tips for Creating a Top-Notch Support Center

So how did TicketLeap turn the support center into such a useful and powerful tool? Our knowledge base isregularly updated every two to three weeks, says Allison Berger, TicketLeap community manager.

TicketLeapss Tips for Keeping the

Knowledge Base in Shape

After each product update, check related

articles to ensure content is still relevant

If a customer asks a question and a topic

doesnt exist yet, create it Add images and use the html code

We want to make ticketing the best

possible experience for buyers and

patrons and fans to get into the event

versus being looked at as the barrier

of entry.

- Tim Raybould, President & COO of

TicketLeap

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

APPENDIXTICKET TO SUCCESS: THE TICKETLEAP SUPPORT CENTER


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The hot startup Nextdoor is a hyper-local online network that is all about neighbor-to-neighbor communication.

Nextdoors growing user base relies on the website every day. Its growing so quickly that dealing with the inux ofcustomer requests is a top priority.

Homegrown Challenges and Desk.com Solutions

Nextdoor also wanted to have a system in place that supports their neighborhoods leads usually the Founding

Members of Nextdoor neighborhoods who are strong inviters and active community leaders who typically have

unique and more complicated support requests. For example,leads set up their neighborhoods and might need

expert attention right away, while a community member can nd answers to frequently asked questions in the helpcenter. Using custom elds in Desk.com, support specialists can record whether the case is from a community

member or a lead. That way, when they reach out again, inbound interaction rules correctly route cases and can

even send them to a specic support specialist.

I try to provide support in a timely manner

and nd ways to improve the process and

the content. If I nd something that is

confusing in a help article, I can easily go in

and edit it to make it more clear.- Theresa Burns, Support Specialist at

Nextdoor

I. INTRODUCTION

II. SERVING IN THE

AGE OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT


WITH CONTENT

IV. DESIGN AND

LAYOUT BEST

PRACTICES

V. MEASURING THE

EFFECTIVENESS

OF SELF-SERVICE

SUPPORT

VI. CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

APPENDIXNEXTDOOR BUILDS COMMUNITIES ONLINE AND OFF

Before implementing Desk.com,the team at Nextdoor used a

shared email account for

support emails and an internal

tool to create a very basic FAQpage. Almost immediately after

implementing Desk.com, the

support team deected a lot of

member questions and emailsdue to the searchable

knowledge base that is full

of tailored articles. Supportrequests dropped by almost

50% after the team moved help

articles to Desk.com.


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http://www.desk.com/blog/self-service-simplified-introducing-multi-brand-support/http://www.desk.com/blog/self-service-simplified-introducing-multi-brand-support/http://www.desk.com/blog/self-service-simplified-introducing-multi-brand-support/http://www.desk.com/blog/self-service-simplified-introducing-multi-brand-support/


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GET STARTED WITH DESK.COMSSELF-SERVICE SUPPORT FEATURES!

o Join thousands of fast-growing companiesthat chose Desk.com to help build theironline support center

o Easily add and update knowledge basecontent with just a few clicks

o Create an intricate, beautiful online supportcenter to match your brand and website

ASK FOR A FREE DEMO
http://offers.desk.com/get-a-deskcom-demo-self-service-supporthttp://offers.desk.com/get-a-deskcom-demo-self-service-support

Documents

Salesforce-Desk_Self-Service Support for Fast-Growing Companies