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Gladly Raises the Stakes on Personalization by Giving Customers a Self-Service Sidekick

 

It’s become almost a cliché to say that no one wants to pick up the phone anymore. But there is plenty of empirical evidences to back up that statement. According to research from ​Harvard Business Review​, customers want to help themselves more than ever — 81% of them attempt to take care of matters themselves before reaching out to a live representative. Gladly, a company that hangs its hat on providing what they call ‘Radically Personal Service’, recently introduced a robust self-service component to their customer service platform that empowers customers to take advantage of the opportunity to self-serve with the added benefit of localized, context-based answers that relate directly to their current behavior and shopping history.       

Gladly’s new self-service chat widget, dubbed ‘Sidekick’, provides non-generic responses to frequently asked questions, providing the customers the answers they need immediately while allowing front-line personnel to focus on more complex issues. Self-service gives customers the tools to find answers on their own – without needing to wait for an agent or spend time clicking through pages in search of information. Customers no longer need to exit the page they are looking at to go to a FAQ or Help Center page. Self-service capabilities are embedded in Sidekick, allowing for content to be accessed across all pages the customer is navigating. Answering capabilities include: 

• Answers in Context – Self-service gives customers answers to common questions based on context derives from ongoing behavior, with a goal of accurate, up-to-the-moment responses to busy customers. For example, if a customer is checking out in an online purchase, they’ll have access to specific answers related to payment processing, return policy, and more through Sidekick.
• Personalized Answers – Sidekick Self-service can also personalize the information it provides customers to keep the promise of providing customers with Radically Personal service. If a customer is dialing into a company’s IVR, Gladly can provide answers to personal questions — such loyalty points balance or upcoming flight information — directly to the customer.  
• Multi-Lingual Answers – Businesses can localize their public FAQs from one central knowledge base across different languages with Self Service, allowing them to manage many different types of content in different countries where language and specific instructions may change.   

For businesses, Gladly’s self-service provides benefits that keep customers engaged and agents productive. According to Forrester​, 66% of U.S. online adults say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to deliver a positive online customer experience. Companies that acknowledge customers’ rising expectations for effective self-service options   are better positioned to inspire lifelong relationships based on trust.

While it may seem counter-intuitive, self-service also has the side benefit of making live agents more effective. Because when agents are better informed, they’re ready to serve customers faster and make them happier. By arming agents with the context, history, and details they require to assist customers, Gladly enables them to seamlessly pick up conversations without missing a beat in situations where a customer requires extra help without having to go back over territory that has already been covered, saving the average five to seven minutes often spent rehashing previous interactions

It’s proven its efficacy: 64% of customers never went on to start a chat, which indicates that self- service was able to accurately answer any pertinent questions. “There is this common misconception around self-service — people think it’s meant to deflect customers from talking to agents, but that’s really not the case,” said Mike McCarron, VP of Sales at Gladly. “Instead, self-service is about giving customers choice and putting the answers they require at their fingertips, so businesses can deliver the most personalized customer service possible. Helping customers help themselves also reduces wait times for the customers who still prefer to connect with a live agent.” 

McCarron also noted that Gladly has already seen upwards of 50% of retail customer service inquiries related to order or shipping status easily addressed through self Service. “By using intel gathered from customers’ ongoing behavior, Sidekick answers in context — so customers can find answers on their own and get time added back into their days.”