The adage goes that if you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. But if you teach him to fish, he will eat for a lifetime. The same holds true for customers reaching out to your contact center. By adding self-service solutions you can empower customers to resolve issues independently, and—at the same time—lower costs and free up your agents to field more complex inquiries. 
When customers take advantage of self-service solutions such as interactive voice response (IVR) or interactive text response (ITR), two key indicators of contact center success are impacted:
- The cost per interaction is reduced with every inquiry fielded through self-service.
- The ratio of agents to customers is also improved, enabling managers to streamline personnel to avoid overstaffing and excess overtime.
Research has shown that many of your customers may prefer self-service already. According to statistics aggregated by Salesforce, 72 percent of consumers surveyed consider self-service support a fast and easy way to handle issues.
Not only will self-service contact center solutions satisfy a growing number of customers, but they will help to optimize your personnel. More available agents will give you the opportunity to provide more thorough support to customers who truly require an agent’s attention. This will lead to higher rates of resolution, a more satisfying customer experience and, ultimately, a more attractive brand image.
Furthermore, you need to keep an eye on the competition, as investment in contact center capabilities is on the rise. According to market research from IDC, contact center spending is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 17.7 percent through 2019. To justify the spending, organizations must ensure that their investment not only helps to grow revenue, but also helps cut costs at the same time.
Self-service solutions help to do just that.
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