Designing a Great Web Self-Service Experience Best Practices to Improve Usability, Findability and Escalation

Transcription

1 Designing a Great Web Self-Service Experience Best Practices to Improve Usability, Findability and Escalation

2 Designing a Great Web Self-Service Experience Table of Contents Introduction 3 Design for Usability 4 User Interface Design 4 Navigation 5 Design for Findability 6 Improving the Search Experience 6 Beyond Search Guiding the Self-Service User 7 Making Results More Useful 8 Design for Relevance 8 Authoring for Freshness and Relevancy 9 Relevance Through Community 9 Personalizing the Experience with Contextual Relevance 11 Design for Seamless Escalation 12 Escalation Options 12 Seamless Transaction 13 Promoting Self-Service During Escalation 14 Conclusion 15 For More Information 15 2

3 Introduction When it comes to getting help and answers, more customers want the convenience of Web selfservice. Adoption of this always-available customer self-service channel has shown remarkable growth in the past few years, especially with the explosion in mobile device usage. For many companies, Web self-service can be a key differentiator in creating a satisfying customer experience. At the same time, it presents a significant opportunity to reduce costs by shifting customers from human-assisted channels to Web self-service. The cost savings can be dramatic. Some Web self-service sessions can cost just a few cents. However, as customers have grown more Web-savvy, they have come to expect a lot more from Web self-service sites. Unfortunately, while websites abound with search capabilities, FAQs and other forms of content designed to support Web self-service, too often, these sites make it hard for customers to find the answers they need. In general, most customers will use an organization s Web self-service solutions, but, if these solutions are complex, confusing and lack in-channel Web support, then the customers will abandon the Web channels in favor of phone-based support. i How can you avoid failed Web self-service? In this paper, we will look at best practices to help you deliver Web self-service that aligns with customer expectations while helping to contain service costs. These best practices are the result of many Web self-service implementations by KANA customers around the world. Here, you will find guidelines and tips for four crucial aspects of great online customer self-service: The usability of the Web self-service site The ability to find information quickly and easily (findability) The freshness and relevance of content to the specific user, and The need for a seamless escalation experience i Determine the True Costs of Web Self-Service, Johan Jacobs, Gartner, July 6,

4 Design for Usability The starting point for the intentionally designed online customer service experience is usability, which includes the interface to the self-service knowledge base and site navigation. These combine to create a self-service environment that offers a consistent, simple and intuitive user experience. User Interface Design A successful interface to the knowledge base offers an appealing presentation, including clean layouts that users can quickly and easily understand, industry-standard icons, an appealing color palette that matches corporate branding, and appropriate use of white space. Rich Internet applications can be effectively used to offer an engaging self-service experience that improves user satisfaction and increases efficiency. For example, panes that can be resized based on customer preference and visual aids to illustrate use of the site help reduce errors and improve the experience. Other examples include using visual cues to orient the user in a multipane environment. Users can be focused to a single active screen by dimming all other open screens on their desktop. Multimedia can also improve the experience by providing step-by-step examples in a clear context that the user understands. Another important element is the consistency of content presentation, which can be helped through the use of templates. For example, when headings are consistent in their wording and structure, reading is easier as users experience a simple, repeated pattern that minimizes the time they must take to understand the topic. Different templates should be used for the many types of content that will be presented, such as a how-to template, another for troubleshooting and a third for general information. You can further increase the uniformity of the knowledge site by using a consistent vocabulary and voice for the content. It is often a good idea to create a glossary of terms that all authors use when creating or editing content. This glossary can be made available to self-service users to help them quickly understand information. 4

5 Navigation Navigation through a self-service site goes hand-in-hand with interface design. Navigation must be easy and intuitive so that first-time visitors and repeat customers can easily find their way through the knowledge base. Breadcrumbs, recently viewed pages, visual cues and navigation aids, including tabs that are color coded, are all techniques that help orient users. Navigation is greatly improved by organizing content into logical categories that make sense to users and provide a consistent approach for resolving self-service inquiries. Navigation can become even more user-focused when users can tag frequently used content to have it readily available as they navigate through a site. This allows them to easily conduct such activities as searching for specific content, browsing the details of the located content, viewing images, downloading files, comparing products, saving or bookmarking content, and signing up for automatic alerts and product notifications. As a result, users can get the information they need on their own terms and in the way that they want to receive it. Finally, helping users navigate by giving them choice in the way they find content leads to our next best practice designing for findability. 5

6 Design for Findability The most time-consuming part of the self-service process can be figuring out how to find information that will answer a question. A self-service site must provide reliable methods for locating valid, relevant and clear results the findability of information. Typically, search is the primary finding method, and search is certainly fundamental to any self-service site. Improving the Search Experience However, search is frequently presented as the only option for finding answers. Unfortunately, this does not account for the search skills of many users. Many search inquiries lead to zero results, a common problem for users who are unfamiliar with the terminology for a particular set of content. And users who do not know how to search effectively can be easily overwhelmed with too many irrelevant answers. The search experience can be improved in multiple ways: Techniques to make search smart can be built into the search function. For example, automated learning can promote documents to the top of a results list based on use or subject-matter-expert weighting. Aids, such as automatically corrected spelling or suggestions for mistyped words, simplify the search process. 6

7 Repeated searching is easier with the ability to save searches, replay previous searches and automatically complete search terms as they are typed. Clarifying questions help users more easily find relevant content when a search returns a broad set of results. By answering specific questions, chosen by the system because of their relevance to the current set of results, the initial results list can be refined and limited to the most relevant solutions. Beyond Search Guiding the Self-Service User For many self-service users, search is a perfectly acceptable method to find information. But because users have varied levels of search experience and domain knowledge, those who are not proficient can benefit from higher levels of guidance when trying to find information. Findability will be most improved by offering additional guidance methods that address different levels of skill and comfort. Many techniques can help, such as frequently asked questions, prominently displayed service alerts and hot topics; dynamic question paths that guide the user from a general topic or issue to specific solutions; and browsable topic trees that map to how customers perceive your company s products or services. 7

8 Making Results More Useful Equally important to the process of finding information is the way in which results are displayed. Consider the following techniques to help the user quickly find and recognize the most relevant answer: Use navigation aids, including automatically generated and fly-over document summaries, so that users do not have to open each solution to review the content. Allow users to scroll through search results lists and highlight search terms within each listing. Provide a count of how many times a solution has been viewed, making it easy to identify the most popular answers. Offer background information about a solution, such as the type of document (Adobe PDF, Microsoft Word, etc.), the last date modified, which indicates content freshness, and the content s location in the topic tree. Design for Relevance A prime driver of self-service success is content that is always relevant to users. Relevance depends to a great degree on the content freshness and the strength of the content s relationship to the user and the user s current situation. 8

9 Authoring for Freshness and Relevancy Creating and maintaining fresh, relevant content starts with an authoring methodology that streamlines the development and review process for information that will be included in the knowledge base. The most effective authoring method is to fully integrate customer service agents into the knowledge creation and maintenance process. Agents should be able to contribute in multiple ways, such as flagging existing content for rework, creating new solutions and rating content for relevance. Agents must also be able to actively and efficiently contribute content without stepping outside their support roles. Best-practice authoring models, such as the Consortium for Service Innovation s Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS), can be highly effective at promoting agent contribution. KCS focuses on creating knowledge as a natural by-product of the day-to-day interaction between agents and customers, which creates a just-in-time authoring environment. With streamlined workflow, the content can quickly be made available to self-service customers, increasing the freshness of material contained in the knowledge base on a continuous basis. Just-in-time authoring should be combined with reporting and analytics to better understand information usage trends and determine where gaps in knowledge exist, such as: Tracking the use of content over time to identify solutions that are rarely used and can be deleted to streamline searching and content maintenance. Analyzing self-service search terms to better understand the language of users and more closely map content to their vernacular. Analyzing search results lists to identify which solution answered a user s question best and where it appeared in the list, so that solution ranking can be optimized. Regularly tracking the amount of content that is being added, modified or deleted to ensure that knowledge is continuously refreshed and improved. Relevance Through Community Relevance can be enhanced by creating a community in which self-service users participate in content development. This can be achieved in several ways: Allow self-service users to comment and rate content via feedback forms appended to all solutions. Based on the feedback, content can be reworked to bring it more in line with user needs and expectations. 9

10 Integrate forums, wikis and blogs so that users can recommend content to be added to the knowledge base. Let users rate the quality of contributors. Contributors with consistently high ratings can be afforded expert status so that they have the privileges of a knowledge base author and can add content to it, which is then subjected to standard internal review processes. In addition to providing useful new information, user contributions and ratings can also help you understand the dynamic nature of content and continuously fine tune it, such as enhancing answers by tagging key phrases, updating synonyms and adjusting categories. The volume of suggestions in particular subsets of the content can also help to identify problem content areas. While allowing self-service users to contribute is important, these contributions must be carefully managed to give more weight or preference to approved solutions in the knowledge base. Make sure that the ability to search the broader pool of potential solutions does not confuse users or mask approved solutions with unapproved contributions. 10

11 Personalizing the Experience with Contextual Relevance By incorporating the context of the user s interaction to match the experience to the individual, the self-service experience can become more personalized. For example, when a service is not available in all parts of the country, ask for the site visitor s postal code up front. Then, automatically filter content that is not relevant to their location out of the search results, offering only solutions and information for which the user is eligible. Doing so saves the user time and effort, and avoids frustration. While there is nothing wrong with delivering conventional, passive solutions or information, usefulness can be greatly enhanced by going beyond the users expectations when helping them reach the desired outcome. For instance, when customers ask about return policies, provide them with an accurate answer and then go one step further by offering them the opportunity to fill out the Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) request form online and print a return mailing label. This type of active relevance can be particularly valuable as a way to support sales during self-service interactions. An answer that describes how an accessory or upgrade to a product could solve the user s problem can be accompanied with an Order Now button so that customers can immediately add the accessory to their shopping cart. 11

12 To deliver this level of personalized relevance, you will need to identify the intelligence necessary to enact the behaviors that will provide a more tailored, higher-value experience, including: The back-end system integration required to access information that will personalize an interaction, such as customer profile and preference data from account or CRM systems. Business rules needed to make such decisions as to which information or experience is applicable based on such factors as location or customer life-time value. Integration to transactional information and systems required to move from a passive interaction to one, which enables an active outcome, such as presenting an online order form. Design for Seamless Escalation No matter how good the self-service experience, at times, users will not be able to find answers and will require a higher level of assistance. Users must have an easy way to opt out of the selfservice environment and into agent-assisted service. This means that seamless escalation to assisted service must be a part of the self-service design. Effectively integrating escalation into the self-service experience requires several considerations: Escalation options: Where, when and over what channels will escalation be available? Seamless transition: What information about the user s self-service activities will be captured for use by the agent? Self-service promotion: How can self-service be given another chance even during the escalation process? Escalation Options For customers, the most important aspects of escalation are ease of use and availability. Displaying escalation links prominently rather than burying them deep within the site makes self-service users aware that escalation is easily available should it be needed. Ideally, multiple channels should be available to the self-service customer, such as , interactive chat and phone support. While multiple escalation channels make sense, all channels do not have to be available to all customers. Availability can be tied to a variety of criteria, such as the value of the customer, the problem type or time sensitivity. 12

13 Seamless Transaction Self-service customers need to perceive the transition to assisted service as seamless. Make sure they do not have to start over when contacting an agent. Several techniques help ensure seamlessness between channels. A history of the user s self-service activities should accompany the escalation and be visible to agents. When agents can see what pages the customer visited, what solutions were viewed and at what point the user got stuck, there is no need for redundant problem discovery, and agents do not waste time suggesting solutions the user has already tried. Encourage agents to let customers know they have this record of their problem description and recent effort. The customer is not likely to know this is going on in the background and will be pleasantly surprised to hear, I see that you have a problem with your printer. Please give me a moment to familiarize myself with your situation, instead of How may I help you? A complete view of the customer, including a universal interaction history of past and pending requests across all channels, is also important to seamless escalation. With a holistic view, agents can better understand an inquiry s context, reduce the number of back-and-forth interactions and ensure that customers receive answers tailored to their particular situations. Another way to smooth the escalation process is to use Web forms for escalation. Freeform s are sometimes acceptable, but Web forms can make the transition faster and more transparent. A Web form helps ensure that all required information is captured, eliminating back-and-forth s between the customer and the agent. The form s data can be analyzed to automatically route incoming requests to appropriate queues and agents. Form data can also be used to improve the quality of reporting to better understand and tune queue usage to meet SLAs. 13

14 Promoting Self-Service During Escalation While escalation channels need to be readily available to self-service users, this does not mean agent assistance is the only way to help. By incorporating passive de-escalation into the escalation process, you can give customers one more chance to find the right answer, while still responding to their requests for help. Passive de-escalation uses the data the user has entered in the escalation form to automatically search the knowledge base for relevant articles, and then presents those articles before the request is sent. This can work because customers who are writing for live assistance often restate their issue in different terms than they used for the initial self-service search. Smarter search engines can make good use of these more-specific descriptions and the context provided in the escalation form. The user can review the suggested articles and, if they still do not answer the question, continue to submit the escalation. 14

15 While passive de-escalation can be useful for promoting self-service, do not force customers to perform a minimum number of knowledge base searches or view a minimum number of selfservice solutions before being given the opportunity to escalate. This practice should be avoided as it simply provokes more phone calls from website visitors unwilling to try the self-service route. (However, it is always a best practice to promote the use of self-service by including links to knowledge base articles when sending replies to escalated inquiries.) Conclusion With these best practices, you can create a self-service experience that not only meets, but also exceeds customer expectations. But, as you design your company s self-service experience, keep in mind that great customer self-service isn t a static state. It is a continuous process of measurement, redesign and improvement. Once you have designed your self-service experiences, test the ideas with unbiased participants, focus groups and independent evaluators to garner feedback before you begin implementing the site and creating content. Then, with your design implemented, it is time to start over again go back to the first best practice and continually review the usability, findability, relevance and escalation capabilities to identify new ways to improve the self-service experience. About KANA, A Verint Company KANA, A Verint Company, is a leading provider of cloud and on-premises customer service solutions. KANA helps global organizations including many of the Fortune 500, mid-market businesses and public sector agencies optimize their engagements with consistent and contextual customer journeys across agent, web, social and mobile experiences. Using KANA solutions, organizations can reduce operational costs, increase resolution rates and improve brand loyalty. Learn more at Copyright 2014 KANA, A Verint Company. KANA and the KANA logo are registered trademarks of KANA. Other company, product and service names may be service marks of their respective owners. 840 W California Avenue, Suite 100 Sunnyvale, CA T F Contact us at Linkedin: Facebook: All Rights Reserved