A lot of businesses are growing their customer service strategy through models based upon customers desiring to help themselves. I have talked about this before as relating to the growing customization of life that is desired by people.
When I say "customization" I mean more than desire of colors of something and gadgets etc. I mean more in the area of multiple choices that certain customers prefer over others.
One of the industries that have been entering into this big time for a while has been the travel industry. From airfare, hotels, car rentals and the other related services offered to travelers, they have been providing more and more online self-service options for their customers.
As people become more familiar and comfortable with this idea, this is going to eventually grow into the preferred way of doing things.
An interesting new extension of the model is in the area of integration with the call centers of certain companies. For example, Priceline.com has adopted this as a model. In their travel search part of the web site, customers are encouraged to use self-service and e-mail as options before picking up the phone.
If companies can convince their customers that this can be a more quick and efficient way of doing things, it could go a long way toward relieving their sometimes overwrought service centers, and increasing customer satisfaction, which in the end is all that matters.
The major challenge will be to create the systems that will be so easy to use that there isn't a backlash against this option.
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