Self Service can be the Best Service

Your customers are becoming more web oriented every day. For some of them it is their preferred method of communication. They don't want to have to call and talk to someone just to get a new version of a user's manual. They are fully capable of downloading the latest software version and installing it themselves, thank you very much. They want to contact others with the same product and share experiences. They want to be able to search for answers themselves.

An investment in a self service center solution will pay for itself many times over by deflecting support calls for routine or minor requests. When a support call can cost so much and a web portal could can perform many of the same functions, wouldn't it be prudent to offer this channel? It is a win-win. Your save money. Your customer saves time. Done well, a self support solution can help retain customers and bring new ones on board. You can grow your business without growing the support budget.

Link to an example of a self service center solution.

PhaseWare is part of the answer to Vince Kellen's "Fourth Age"

Vince Kellen, of the Cutter Consortium, blogged June 7 about a "Fourth Age" in the evolution of organizational structure. The first three evolutions encompassed the changes from owners controlling their organizations themselves to the military type top-down organizational structure to today's structure that is becoming flatter and is less manager-employee oriented; instead it is powered by individual contributors known as "information-based knowledge specialists".

The Third Age organization, as illustrated by Mr. Kellen, is cross-functional in nature. Presumably knowledge sharing comes along with it. Unfortunately it seems we haven't quite embraced this type of structure due to several issues, including the need to share information over distances. But we are getting there and as we become more decentralized, more highly connected through currently available technology we can start to move to that Fourth Age.

One aspect of that fourth age is beginning to appear. A rapidly growing component to many customer support and help desk solutions is the self service center and the web portal for mobile employees. The self service component can contain forums for customers and agents to interact, knowledge bases open to customers and agents to answer questions about common issues and operational techniques, even ways for customers to log their own trouble tickets without going through a phone agent, telling their story, and the details being input by a third party. The portal for mobile employees allows agents who are not locally based or who are in continuous movement to access the customer support system just as though they were in the office.

PhaseWare's Self Service Center and TechWeb components contain all of these functions and are easily integrated into the Tracker and Event Engine system which, in turn, is readily integrated into supporting systems such as e-mail solutions and databases. The collaborative tools of today's information technology, just like social networking, have made possible a truly decentralized business that is efficient and cohesive without losing all human contact. These technologies bring customers and business together in a way never before possible. With careful deployment, the customer can partner with business rather than simply consume a business' output or await resolutions for issues without any knowledge of their status. Remote agents can come together and access the same information as those who are at an office computer. Resources are used more efficiently which increases the ROI of the systems that make this cultural change possible within a company.

With multiple channels of contact, business and customer come closer together with the convenience of technology without wasting time and money. PhaseWare, Inc. is a place to start.

Knowledge is Power: Knowledge Management for Today's Customer Service

I was watching a video of School House Rock with my kids and a line from the lyrics caught my ear: Knowledge is Power.

Conquerers certainly know this; the first thing they do is destroy or capture the knowledge the competition has (or assimilate it as the Borg do). And businesses know it. Business Intelligence is one of the modern watchwords as is Knowledge Management. But what does it mean?

Some businesses have determined that if they save all the information they can find about any part of the business, then they will have business intelligence. Then they discover that they don't have information, they merely have data. It won't become information until it is put in a form that can be used to answer questions. In comes Knowledge Management. KM, as it is oftened shortened, takes that data and sifts it, classifies it, makes it searchable so that it can become information. In turn that information can become intelligence when used as part of a plan to increase business, improve processes, and decrease defects.

Knowledge Management makes information accessible and when used as part of a customer self service application, it makes information empowering. Increasingly, customer service is including methods of helping the customer help themselves. Customers can access Forums, Knowledge Bases, FAQs, and myriad content that will keep their business going without a single phone call. In turn, those phone calls that are never made are no longer blocking those calls that represent new business or a frustrated customer who needs personal care, or that simply bog down the service desk with routine, easily handled matters to the detriment of service agents and customers alike.

Managing Knowledge to strengthen business. Now that's power.

For a demonstration of a self service center web portal, visit http://tracker.phaseware.com/selfservicecenter/

Or go to www.PhaseWare.com to learn more about other customer support and service solutions.