• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

DB Kay & Associates - Strategic Consulting for Sustainable Knowledge Programs

  • Home
  • What We Do
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Training & Workshops
    • KCS Practices & Certification Workshop – October 2023
    • KCS Coach Workshop – October 2023
    • KCS Overview – October 2023
  • Who We Are
  • Contact Us

How Self-Service Fails

February 17, 2011 by David Kay

Photo credit: Arrr! Via Flickr. Creative Commons Attribution license.

Often, the first step in making something work really well is to figure out how it can fail…and then making sure it doesn’t.  In the case of self-service, most studies show that customers are successful less than half of the time (sometimes far less.)  So clearly, there’s plenty of failure to eliminate!

Here are some ways we’ve seen self-service fail, from our engagements with clients and from our own personal experience.  How many of these barriers to success might frustrate your customers?  And how many of them can you eliminate or reduce?

  • The answer to my question isn’t here. (This often speaks to traditional, slow-moving knowledge management practices—consider KCS.)
  • Or, if it’s here, I can’t find it. (Is knowledge written from the customer’s point of view, using their words and context?  Do you have a competent search engine that returns relevant content from any source?)
  • I found the answer, but I don’t like it very much.  I’ll try calling. (Are you more flexible on polices, for example, warranty returns, if your customer calls?  You teach people how to treat you…)
  • My eyes are glazing over. (Is your portal neat, clean, and streamlined?  Just because someone created a tool doesn’t mean that it deserves a link on your support home page.)
  • Huh…what? (Do you require your customers to learn your organization and your jargon?)
  • Don’t blow sunshine up my skirt. (Look on the bright side of life, but don’t try to rewrite a break-fix answer as a how-to.  Self-service is not the place to spin the facts–that will just send users to find someone they do trust.)
  • I bet you know, but you aren’t telling me. (This is what web maven Steve Krug means when he says a website should “be a mensch.”  If people think you know about a problem but aren’t talking about it, they lose faith in you and your product or service.)
  • I wanted an answer, not a dissertation. (Any words that don’t take customers one step closer to a resolution should be eliminated.  Link to more complete background explanations—right now, let’s make it “just the facts, ma’am.”)
  • The answer isn’t showing up on Google. (Is there any way you can make at least some of your content available without a login?  And have you invested in Search Engine Optimization (SEO?)  Increasingly, whether we like it or not, search engines are the self-service portal of choice.)

What self-service problems are you trying to avoid?

Filed Under: self-service

Primary Sidebar

Search This Site

Upcoming Events

Oct 17
October 17 @ 8:00 am - October 19 @ 3:00 pm

KCS Practices & Certification Workshop – October 2023

Oct 24
October 24 @ 8:00 am - October 26 @ 1:00 pm

KCS Coach Workshop – October 2023

Oct 25
8:00 am - 12:00 pm

KCS Overview – October 2023

Nov 1
November 1 @ 9:00 am - November 2 @ 1:00 pm

Intelligent Swarming Insights Workshop – November 2023

View Calendar

Subscribe to the Blog

Subscribe to our blog and receive a FREE guide to recognizing good and bad knowledge sharing cultures, as well as eleven ways to improve yours.
* = required field

Categories

AI and ML Announcements Coaching Content Management Culture Customer Experience Intelligent Swarming KCS KDE KM Knowledge Representation Lynchpins Measures Program Management Rants Resources self-service Social Support Strategy Technology Uncategorized Video Voice of the Customer

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Use Strategy to your Advantage
  • Change Management and KCS
  • What Does the KCS Council Do?

Stay Connected

    

Contact Us

talk: 408.568.3551
fax: 408.354.8187
info@dbkay.com
18275 Knuth Road
Los Gatos, California 95033

© Copyright 2023 David Kay & Associates · All Rights Reserved ·