Self service: The very term suggests downsized call-center staffs and vast savings as customers move their inquiries to the Web.
But self service can lead to greater costs and aggravation when it is not done right, according to Esteban Kolsky, senior research analyst with Gartner.
“Not only will customers call, but they will call and start yelling at you,” he said during a session at Gartner’s Spring CRM Summit in Chicagto on Monday.
And it can take time even when you know what you’re doing. “Do not believe what vendors tell you,” Kolsky said. “You will not save money with self-service right away.”
Then why were we attending this session on a snowy afternoon?
Because some companies have made a go of it, Kolsky continued.
For example, Kodak built a system for customers to get information from the Web.
The result was that 130,000 answers were delivered in the first 90 days. And a survey determined that 13% of these customers were people who use would have called if the site had not existed. In addition, Kodak reduced incoming e-mail from people who couldn’t find the answers
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