The customer service landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by advancements in technology. Now, customers wish to get assistance 24 * 7, which is not feasible for the companies owing to the shortage of human resources.
Better yet, customers are now more inclined towards catering to their own issues than seeking assistance from a customer service representative. The study conducted by Zendesk clearly illustrates that 91% of customers would prefer a knowledge base or self-service owing to the flexibility and independence offered.
This is indeed proved to be favorable for businesses, and customer self-service is evolving into a cost-effective way of offering customer support. The days of direct in-person conversations and phone calls have given way to new channels, such as chatbots and self-service options.
This progress has made customer service simpler and more seamless than ever before.
As a business, adopting the right customer service tools is the key to success in this changing landscape. Thriving companies often stay ahead of the curve, while those grappling with outdated methods may need to play catch-up.
By leveraging the best customer self-service software available, companies can empower their support teams to handle customers efficiently and provide a 5-star service that keeps them returning.
How using customer self-service software can reduce business operation costs?
Customers’ preference for self-service options is a growing trend in various industries. Self-service options empower customers to find answers to common queries independently, reducing the need for direct interaction with support agents.
This preference has several benefits for customers and businesses, including cost reduction and improved customer satisfaction. Here are some data and research findings to support these claims:
- Increasing Popularity of Self-Service: According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends report, most customers, precisely 69 percent, prefer to address and resolve their issues using customer self-service options independently.
- Cost Reduction: Research conducted by Gartner indicates that self-service solutions offer valuable benefits to customers and present cost-effective advantages for businesses. Compared to live channels such as phone calls and emails, which incur an average cost of $8.01 per contact, self-service options have a significantly lower cost of approximately $0.10 per contact.
By investing in self-service capabilities, businesses can not only reduce support costs but also improve customer satisfaction and provide quick issue resolution, catering to the needs of today’s tech-savvy customers.
However, the challenge lies in the sheer number of software available in the market. Evaluating, comparing, and selecting the right ones can be overwhelming and frustrating. We have compiled a list of the top customer self-service software to alleviate this challenge.
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is designed to enhance your customer self-service operations by providing comprehensive support across multiple channels. The software offers features like guided conversation to offer quick and valuable help to a customer wanting to self-serve themselves and quickly find answers to their queries.
It delivers powerful features that enable you to effectively engage with customers and streamline follow-ups, eliminating the need to switch between different screens. With Zoho Desk, your agents can easily manage cross-functional processes and tickets from a centralized place.
This cloud-based customer service software seamlessly integrates with popular tools like Slack and Trello, enhancing the overall customer service experience.
Features:
- Integration with internal CRM for advanced customer support
- Automatic ticket tagging
- Integrate customer service with popular instant messaging channels.
- Real-time notifications for ticket activities
- Display relevant solutions from the knowledge base to the customers.
Freshworks
Freshworks is a comprehensive customer self-service solution that utilizes advanced bots, a knowledge base, and web widgets to help customers quality get answers to their queries. The solution aims to enhance the quality and interactivity of customer conversations.
Leveraging artificial intelligence and automated bots enables faster response times helping you to help your customers.
A unique ability of Freshdesk is to analyze past discussions and issues raised by the customers to help them find answers to upcoming issues seeking minimal attention from your support agents.
Features:
- Multi-language support for a global support feature
- Scale your content for multiple products to design a knowledge base
- Use drag and drop capability to design a self-service web page.
- The help widget allows you to integrate the knowledge base into your website.
- Community forums for customers to ask questions and carry out product discussions.
Salesforce
Enhance customer satisfaction and streamline operations by seamlessly integrating self-service capabilities into your CRM. Salesforce empowers your customers to easily access information and solutions through a personalized and branded help center.
Salesforce maximizes the potential of automation by structuring your current workflows to seamlessly present standard business procedures to customers through a user-friendly self-service interface.
It also offers additional features such as field service and AI tools as add-ons, enhancing the platform’s capabilities.
Features:
- Self-service customer portal with pre-built templates with drag-and-drop functionality.
- AI-powered Einstein bots automate routine requests and guide customers through the next steps.
- Support for omnichannel communication across multiple channels.
- Powerful analytics tools to gain valuable insights.
HelpScout
Trusted by brands like Pwc, Deloitte, and Accenture, HelpScout is a knowledge-backed software that provides comprehensive tools to support your expanding customer base and meet their escalating demands. It minimizes customer inquiries by implementing a customer-oriented knowledge base that empowers self-service.
You can also customize your knowledge base extensively with custom CSS, enabling you to personalize every aspect. Utilizing the Beacon help widget feature provides customers with relevant knowledge base articles, reducing the influx of email requests.
Features:
- Advanced filters and custom views enable efficient sorting of customer data.
- Pre-designed templates to design a self-service customer portal.
- Offer alternatives for outreach in Docs.
- Auto-generated sitemap and SEO choices for each content.
- Gain insights from Beacon activity.
Zendesk
Zendesk continues to be a leading customer self-service tool, providing exceptional connected communication and conversational experiences for customers across multiple channels.
With Zendesk, you can effortlessly create, organize, and maintain reusable content that can be utilized across numerous articles and help centers simultaneously through Content Blocks.
It also offers multiple help centers that serve various audiences, regions, or brands. You can customize content to suit specific locales in more than 40 languages.
Additionally, Zendesk boasts a vast marketplace where users can discover and integrate their preferred tools, enhancing the overall customer experience.
Features:
- Robust reporting and analytics capabilities.
- AI-driven automated responses.
- AI-powered suggestions with Content Cues.
- Flexible customization options for integrations and workflows.
- Seamlessly integrated self-service help center and community forum.
HubSpot
HubSpot’s Service Hub stands out with its array of customer self-service features which help brands fulfill the customer’s needs whenever they need it.
By seamlessly integrating with HubSpot’s shared inbox, Its customer portal ensures uninterrupted communication between customers and representatives, providing transparency regarding the progress of their concerns.
By integrating customer portals with your company’s knowledge base and tailoring them to reflect your brand’s identity, Hubspot delivers a cohesive, branded experience that empowers your customers. Say goodbye to repetitive tasks and embrace a streamlined process that nurtures customer trust.
Features:
- Connect help desk and shared inbox features.
- Customer interactions from different channels into a single unified inbox.
- Automate standard responses and tasks.
- Secure place to track and manage open and closed support tickets.
- Customer portals for easy access to account information.
- Omnichannel access to ensure seamless customer experiences.
KnowldgeOwl
KnowledgeOwl offers a user-friendly and streamlined solution for creating and managing knowledge bases, making the process simple and intuitive for customers and employees.
Enhance customer satisfaction effortlessly with KnowledgeOwl and reduce support costs. Plus, its pre-built search functionality guarantees immediate accessibility to the information you include in your knowledge base, enabling quick retrieval for those in need. You can add unlimited articles, categories, and files to your knowledge base without any restrictions.
Features:
- The support knowledge base is accessible 24/7 to assist customers.
- User-friendly technical and help documentation.
- Both trial and paid accounts receive complimentary customer self-service support.
- To experience a demo, you can schedule a session with a team member.
Gladly
Gladly is an intuitive self-service software that eliminates the need for complex integrations and provides hassle-free call support. With Gladly, your business can effortlessly implement self-service options and swiftly offer personalized assistance.
The platform integrates a self-help framework with a multichannel approach, enabling efficient customer support. Integrate its extensive knowledge base directly into your website, ensuring your customers receive consistent answers through the FAQ section.
Gladly also incorporate automated channel like IVR to conveniently access important information regarding orders, including delivery status, previous bookings, and upcoming reservations, through the IVR system, empowering the customers to find the answers they seek efficiently.
Features:
- Web chat widgets.
- Self-Service Threads faster resolution.
- Personalized IVR for past bookings and upcoming reservations.
- Answers in multiple languages across multiple channels.
- Deliver fast, personalized responses based on everything the previous customer queries.
Document360
Document360 is a self-help software solution that offers a user-friendly help center site. With Document360, you can easily customize the appearance of your help center, selecting your own branded colors and creating a custom domain.
The software also features an advanced search engine powered by artificial intelligence, ensuring customers can quickly find the information they need. Furthermore, Document360 provides a responsive design, optimizing user knowledge across various devices and screen sizes.
Features:
- Create Online PDF user guides, tutorials, and reference docs
- Standard Operating Procedures.
- Self-service knowledge base for your SaaS products.
- Automatically generate customizable API Documentation.
- Design SOPs like employee handbooks or sales/marketing playbooks.
Gorgias
Gorgias is a specialized customer self-service software platform that shares many similarities with mainstream platforms like Intercom and HubSpot. It offers advanced automation capabilities that streamline your process, enabling you to efficiently handle pesky and repetitive questions.
With a comprehensive set of self-service and automation features, Gorgias empowers you to provide diverse options, allowing your customers to choose the solutions that best meet their needs.
By leveraging this cutting-edge self-service tool, you can effectively enhance customer satisfaction while simultaneously lowering your customer support costs.
Features:
- Self-service order management with automation add-on
- Ability to track customers and modify orders
- Helps reduce tickets in the helpdesk by 50%
- Build an interactive help center for your customers
- Interactive quizzes, tutorials, videos, and forums
Intercom
Streamline customer support and enhance self-service capabilities with Intercom‘s comprehensive solution. If your goal is to establish robust personal connections with customers, Intercom is a tool that should immediately capture your attention.
Create a centralized hub where customers can easily access essential information, helpful tips, and reliable answers. The Messenger feature is embedded in every article, initiating instant conversation for additional assistance. Improve accessibility for your global customers by developing multilingual articles, enabling faster self-serve resolution.
Furthermore, maintain brand consistency by customizing the help center’s color scheme, logo, header, domain, and other elements.
By utilizing Intercom, you access a unified inbox that consolidates all customer conversations across various channels. This ensures that chat history is stored and agents have immediate access to all essential customer information.
Features:
- Customer data platform for enabling personalized interactions.
- Pre-built templates are available for customer onboarding.
- Integrated knowledge base to deliver self-help to customers.
- Seamless integration with popular tools such as Jira, Stripe, and Salesforce.
- Customizable bots to collect specific customer data.
Conclusion
Now that you have become acquainted with the top customer self-service software in the market and its features, you can make an informed decision that aligns with your long-term growth objectives.
To identify your requirements, it is essential to consider the needs of your teams and customers. You need to determine whether you require a self-service knowledge base, live chat functionality, or a simple help desk solution to manage the inflow of tickets effectively.
Although the tools above share many similarities, they each possess unique characteristics. Some offer better features, others are more affordable, and some provide more powerful integrations.
You may also explore some best knowledge base platforms for your business.