10 Customer Self Service Modules You Can Implement Today
May 27, 2024
Olivier van den Hoogen
Co-founder Turf
What is customer self service?
Customer self service means your customers are able to find the answers to their questions, on their own. Your customer self service modules should make it as easy as possible for your customers to solve their own problems and become self-sufficient.
What are the benefits of customer self service?
Why do you want your customers to become self-sufficient and perform self-service? Well, on top of the reduced number of support tickets and support costs, customers that are self-sufficient and can find answers by themselves are happier customers. 67% of customers prefer to solve product issues on their own, rather than having to rely on a company's customer service.
Customer self service has a huge impact on your customers. A report by Forrester found that companies with effective self-service capabilities experience a 76% improvement in customer satisfaction scores. This means that allowing your customers to perform self service will significantly reduce your customer churn rates. Harvard Business Review mentions that self-service solutions, including knowledge bases, can lead to a 65% reduction in customer churn rates.
10 examples of customer self service modules
Now knowing the impact of allowing your customers to perform self service support, what kind of self service modules are there and which ones can you launch for your customer base?
Community forums 🗣️
Community forums enable in-depth discussions and conversations between your customers and enable self service by answering each others questions and performing niche-specific discussions. Community forums allow your customers to solve each other’s problems and find their own answers in an ever-growing knowledge base of customer to customer communications. Salesforce reports that 68% of service leaders say their company’s service organization uses communities to drive customer engagement and support.Knowledge bases 📚
Knowledge bases are comprehensive repositories of articles, guides, and video tutorials about how to use your product. Your knowledge base should allow your customers to find their answers in your articles, guides, and tutorials. To be able to effectively find answers, your knowledge base needs to have a very good search engine, a logical categorization, and always up-to-date & complete content. The Salesforce State of Service report indicates that 89% of millennials use a search engine to find answers before making a call for support, highlighting the importance of having searchable knowledge bases. All in all, a study by Coleman Parkes Research found that 91% of respondents would use an online knowledge base if it were available and tailored to their needs.Academies 🎓
An academy allows your customers to follow courses and other educational content about how to use your product. A survey by Skilljar found that 86% of customers who receive comprehensive training are more likely to be satisfied with a product and 64% are more likely to continue using the product. On top of that, the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) reported that customers who take advantage of educational resources and certifications have a 68% higher renewal rate compared to those who do not.Roadmap displays 🏗
Publicly accessible roadmaps showcase upcoming features, improvements, and updates to the product. A public roadmap enhances transparency, and allows customers to see what’s coming next, often leading to increased customer engagement, product feedback, and less support questions about when customers can expect certain features. According to a study by ProductPlan, 83% of customers feel more confident about a product when they can see the company’s roadmap.Feature request boards 📋
Feature request boards are environments where customers can submit ideas for new features and vote on suggestions from other users. It engages customers in the product development process, making them feel valued and heard, and allows them to post their much needed features by themselves without needing to be in contact with an employee. According to UserVoice, products that use feature request boards see a 41% increase in customer satisfaction due to increased transparency and customer involvement.Bug reporting 🐞
Bug reporting tools allow customers to report bugs or issues they encounter to the development team, without needing to be in direct contact with an employee. It provides a direct line of communication for users to report problems, leading to quicker resolutions and continuous product improvement. Zendesk reports that effective bug reporting systems can reduce bug resolution time by 30% and increase overall customer satisfaction by 25%.Changelogs 🆕
A public changelog is a detailed log that records all the changes, updates, and fixes made to the software. It keeps users informed about the latest updates, ensuring they are aware of new features, improvements, and bug fixes. According to GitHub, maintaining an updated changelog can reduce support tickets related to known issues by up to 50%, as users stay informed about resolved bugs and implemented features.Technical documentation 🛠️
Technical documentation consists of comprehensive manuals needed for technical teams trying to work with a software. It is essential for developers and advanced users, ensuring they have all necessary technical information and instructions when trying to work with your software. A study by IBM found that effective technical documentation can reduce support calls by up to 40%, allowing technical support teams to focus on more complex issues.Chatbots 🤖
AI-driven chatbot tools offer 24/7 support, handle common inquiries, and guide users through troubleshooting steps. These chatbots are usually trained on your knowledge base articles, which means its effectiveness greatly depends on the quality and quantity of your knowledge base content. According to a survey conducted by Statista in 2021, 37% of respondents worldwide stated that they prefer to use a chatbot for customer service inquiries.In-app help workflows 🏁
In-app help workflows are proactive help pop-ups and tooltips within your software to guide users as they navigate your product (e.g. onboarding pop-ups). It is aimed at educating your customers as they are going through your product, so that possible future support queries about how to use your product can be deflected. According to research by Userpilot, applications that utilize effective onboarding pop-ups experience a 50% higher activation rate and a 30% higher retention rate compared to those that do not.
Conclusion
Now that you know which customer self service modules there are, start implementing some of them! As mentioned before, companies that have self-service solutions, including knowledge bases, can see a 65% reduction in customer churn rates. Besides that, McKinsey & Company estimates that businesses can achieve cost savings of up to 80% by shifting customer support interactions from traditional channels to self-service options.
Turf allows you to easily create and launch the majority of self-service modules that a software company would need. Claim your 14-day free trial here and try it out now. You can launch your customer self-service modules with one click of a button!
