Customer self-service: what it is, why it's important, and how to get it right

The best support ticket is the one that never gets created. Instead of asking customer service reps to put out every fire, empower customers to find their own solutions whenever possible. Self-service is a key component of any help desk when building a customer support operation.

When your company masters customer self-service, it makes it easy for consumers to solve their issues without starting a chat, sending an email, or making a call. This dramatically reduces costs, increases your live agent efficiency, and improves the overall customer experience.

More in this guide:

• Key customer self-service channels
• Benefits of customer self-service
• 5 tips for optimising your customer self-service strategy
• Frequently asked questions
• Set the stage for stellar self-service

Key customer self-service channels

Companies are adding more self-service options to reduce ticket volume and meet customer demand for always-on support. It’s important to remember that not all channels are created equal—always consider your customers’ preferred means of communicating when looking into a self-service strategy.

Here are a few examples of customer self-service options.

AI agents

These intelligent bots are pre-trained on billions of customer experience (CX) interactions to answer questions, provide suggestions, and guide customers towards solutions. They’re purpose-built for CX and are designed to anticipate, not react to, customer needs. They also seamlessly integrate with your backend systems.

AI agents are capable of understanding and fully resolving even the most complex customer issues in just seconds, boosting customer satisfaction. And with no-code conversation flows, agents don’t have to have advanced technical know-how to keep the conversation moving along. This gives customers instant and accurate responses using existing knowledge base content—and it does so in multiple languages with omnichannel support around the clock.

Customer portal

A customer portal is a dedicated online hub for self-service where customers can manage their relationship with a business. It might include features like a ticketing system for submitting and managing support requests, an order tracker, and a community forum.

Portals that are easy to set up and easy to use encourage customers to actually use them. And clear, intuitive interfaces make it simple for customers to find what they need. This, in turn, boosts satisfaction and reduces the number of inbound support tickets.

Knowledge base

In order to run a fluid self-service operation that maximises efficiency, companies need to have an AI-powered knowledge base to house relevant information. A knowledge base is a centralised location to house articles, how-to guides, troubleshooting tips, video tutorials, and more.

Today’s most powerful knowledge bases can help you manage them automatically. For example, Zendesk uses AI Content Cues to flag content gaps or outdated articles, helping ensure knowledge base content is always fresh. And if a knowledge base tool has AI agents, it can also create entirely new help articles using just a few bullet points—meaning teams can expand their help centre content easily and rapidly.

Community forum

A community forum is a type of web self-service for users to ask questions and receive answers from other users, as well as search previously asked questions. Companies can operate a community forum as part of their knowledge base or as a separate area of their website. Forums typically have community moderators, with some oversight from company admins.

Companies need a forum because sometimes the best people to address customer issues are other customers. They’ve interacted with your product as a real-world user, so they can see issues that people in-house may have overlooked. Furthermore, they may have helpful insights on workarounds or customisation for specific use cases. Customers also trust the objectivity of fellow users because they’re not trying to sell the product or sugarcoat problems—they usually just want to share their expertise and enthusiasm.

FAQ page

FAQ pages are a key form of self-service support that contains answers to customers’ most common queries. The FAQ for a retailer will probably include “What is your return policy?” followed by a brief explanation. The key word here is brief—FAQ pages need to be simple and concise.

One guideline for good FAQ page design is to provide links to other resources, such as a knowledge base with more in-depth articles, a customer support phone line, or a live messaging service.

Mobile app

Customers can use a mobile app to trigger a support workflow automation. For example, Grubhub partnered with Zendesk to significantly ramp up its mobile customer support operations, helping 300,000 restaurants and 30 million diners. Diners can use the mobile app to make changes to their orders and get refunds with the tap of a button. Likewise, with their mobile app for delivery drivers, users can report delivery issues without calling dispatch for support.

IVR technology

Even in the age of emails, texts, and DMs, phone calls and supporting technology play an important role in customer service.

In a self-service scenario, a customer calls a company to solve a problem without speaking with a live support agent. Interactive voice response (IVR) technology makes this type of customer self-service possible. Combined with automated voice menus, IVR can also provide pre-recorded answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) like “What’s your mailing address?” or “What’s the status of my order?”

Benefits of customer self-service

It’s true: customers prefer to help themselves these days, and most CX leaders don’t see that changing anytime soon. When done well, self-service increases customer satisfaction and improves live agent efficiency and the company's bottom line.

According to the Zendesk AI-powered CX Trends Report, 83 percent of CX leaders project a five-fold increase in customer self-service interactions. This means businesses need to prepare for the swell with efficient, productive AI self-service tools.

Here are some of the top benefits of offering self-service options.

Higher customer satisfaction

Self-service empowers customers to take control of their experience quickly and directly, leading to increased customer satisfaction. When customers can quickly find answers to their questions or resolve issues independently, they feel more in control and less frustrated, and they don’t need to wait on hold for help—as partial as some might be to the greatest hits of hold music. This sense of empowerment fosters loyalty and advocacy.

Additionally, the 24/7 availability of self-service options means customers aren't limited by a time zone. Global customers can access information and support whenever needed, enhancing their overall experience.

Increased efficiency and scalability

AI-driven self-service tools ensure consistent, accurate, high-volume support. Whether it’s a still-growing team or an enterprise help desk, businesses can provide service at scale without sacrificing any quality. Since self-service solutions deflect tickets away from your team, you can handle great support volumes with ease and get time back to complete other tasks.

The best of today’s self-service resources come with reporting and analytics functionality, giving business leaders access to data-driven insights for more efficient and effective decision-making. With AI features like agent copilot, your admins even get access to macros and suggestions to automate new workflows for even more efficiency. That ensures a self-service tool is agile and flexible enough to scale with your company as you grow and evolve.

Lower costs for companies

It can be scary to think about facing your bottom line when you want to scale a support operation—or it used to be until AI and automation enabled companies to use self-service to triage more of their support ticket load without ballooning staffing costs like hiring or overtime. Businesses can use self-service resources to expand their customer support capabilities while relying on their existing human support team.

Unity, the world’s leading development platform for interactive real-time 3D content, knows the power of Zendesk for service when it comes to running a leaner, more efficient operation. David Schroeder, senior manager of services support at Unity, says: “Last year, we deflected almost 8,000 tickets due to self-service enabled by Zendesk. That amounts to about $1.3M saved due to the reduction in tickets.”

Any competent self-service tool should be as easy to set up as it is for your customers to use. Out-of-the-box solutions that are ready to go from day one with no-code apps and integrations—like the 1,600+ in the Zendesk Marketplace—make setup fast and effortless for your administrators—no expensive developer team required.

5 tips for optimising your customer self-service strategy

Creating a stellar customer self-service experience requires careful planning and execution. These tips can help you build a self-service operation that not only meets but exceeds customer expectations.

1. Build self-service content quickly with the help of generative AI

Generative AI is a game-changer for creating self-service content. AI can rapidly generate high-quality articles from a few words or bullet points, speeding up content creation and helping you keep your knowledge base fresh and comprehensive. By leveraging AI, you can efficiently address a wider range of customer questions and concerns.

Miko, an advanced consumer robotics lab, knows that generative AI can unlock new levels of CX efficiency. That’s why they chose Zendesk for their self-service solution and achieved a 93 percent self-service solve rate as a result. They also saw a 20 per cent increase in self-service usage, with a 12 to 15-fold spike in CX volume during the winter holiday season.

2. Leverage AI agents

AI agents are essential for providing immediate and round-the-clock support. These intelligent bots can help reduce wait times, increase customer satisfaction, and free up agents to focus on issues that require the human touch. Since AI agents can detect customer intent, sentiment, and language, they bring advanced insights into every customer interaction to help you provide more beneficial service and support.

Kajabi, the leading platform for knowledge creators, uses AI agents to work smarter and nearly double its targeted deflection rate. With Zendesk AI agents that offer faster access to support, Kajabi has seen a 100 percent increase in self-service usage.

3. Keep knowledge fresh with AI-powered reporting tools

Your self-service knowledge base must constantly evolve to address new questions and demands. Utilise AI-powered reporting tools like Content Cues that analyse customer interactions, identify trends, and flag knowledge gaps or outdated content.

You can prioritise content updates and enhancements by understanding which topics generate the most enquiries and where customers encounter difficulties. This data-driven approach helps you tailor your self-service offerings to meet ever-changing customer needs.

4. Offer alternatives for customers to escalate requests when needed.

While self-service is valuable, providing clear pathways for customers to escalate issues when necessary is essential. Offering multiple channels for escalation, such as live chat, email, or phone support, demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction. You will build trust and loyalty by making it easy for customers to connect with a human agent when needed.

5. Measure self-service effectiveness

It's crucial to track key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the success of your self-service strategy. Help desk metrics such as self-service deflection rate, customer satisfaction score, and average handle time can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your efforts. Self-service rates can also give you insight into how helpful your resources are, possibly suggesting a necessary update or improvement. If you let customers upvote and downvote articles, you get direct feedback without sending a survey. By regularly analysing these metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and optimise your self-service channels accordingly.

Ethical cosmetics brand Lush uses Zendesk AI to ramp up efficiency in their self-service strategy and measure its effectiveness in saving costs. The company saw 50 percent higher productivity and a 369 percent ROI on Zendesk in the first year, plus around $434K in annual savings.

Frequently asked questions

Set the stage for stellar self-service

By understanding the fundamentals of customer self-service and implementing the strategies outlined above, you're well on your way to creating a truly exceptional customer experience. Remember, self-service isn't just about providing information—it's about empowering customers to find solutions independently and efficiently. When done right, it can strengthen customer relationships, boost loyalty, and drive business growth.

With Zendesk help centre software, you have access to a comprehensive suite of AI-powered CX tools to help you build a robust self-service strategy and streamline your support operations.