Self-Service Imperative
Thursday: September 20, 2007 6:06 AM
Yesterday, we had one of the major vendor’s stop by for an hour overview of his new products. We talked about how we service so many customers with only a few resources. He commented that we could encourage more people to call his organization for help when needed. I tried to explain that would be the worst thing we could do since that would not enable any kind of reuse. While in the short run we could reduce a small percentage of the work, this would not work in the long run. Why? We have few rules inside our group but one that we try to live by is that if two customers ask the same question then it needs to be documented online in a FAQ, best practice or in the “Tips and Tricks” area. If we allowed the outside vendor to provide the service then none of that would be captured and integrated into the support environment.
While we are on the topic of self-service, I wanted to talk about what is an acceptable percentage of this model. Most folks would assume that collaboration and social software can be implemented in a 100% self-service model. While that might work in a consulting or technology oriented organization, it simply won’t in a large organization. We estimate that 95% of our products and services are self-procured, which is wonderful. Unfortunately with 25,000 collaborative sites, 5% full service means that 1,250 sites need special attention. What would your Intranet group say if you told them that had to build 1,250 sites in the next 6 months? The main point of this post is help you understand the importance of client-support and doing everything possible so customers can self-service their collaborative needs. While it might not seem that important in the beginning, it becomes your only means of survival once you start maturing.
Yesterday, we had one of the major vendor’s stop by for an hour overview of his new products. We talked about how we service so many customers with only a few resources. He commented that we could encourage more people to call his organization for help when needed. I tried to explain that would be the worst thing we could do since that would not enable any kind of reuse. While in the short run we could reduce a small percentage of the work, this would not work in the long run. Why? We have few rules inside our group but one that we try to live by is that if two customers ask the same question then it needs to be documented online in a FAQ, best practice or in the “Tips and Tricks” area. If we allowed the outside vendor to provide the service then none of that would be captured and integrated into the support environment.
While we are on the topic of self-service, I wanted to talk about what is an acceptable percentage of this model. Most folks would assume that collaboration and social software can be implemented in a 100% self-service model. While that might work in a consulting or technology oriented organization, it simply won’t in a large organization. We estimate that 95% of our products and services are self-procured, which is wonderful. Unfortunately with 25,000 collaborative sites, 5% full service means that 1,250 sites need special attention. What would your Intranet group say if you told them that had to build 1,250 sites in the next 6 months? The main point of this post is help you understand the importance of client-support and doing everything possible so customers can self-service their collaborative needs. While it might not seem that important in the beginning, it becomes your only means of survival once you start maturing.
