CIO — Self-service applications remain a hot topic as the potential to lower costs by enabling employees or customers to help themselves proves extremely compelling to senior management—and increasingly to end users. However, while self-service can clearly enable greater efficiency (a trip to the airport, local bank branch or supermarket provides a real-life example), can it also deliver better service? This is a fundamental question whose answer determines the success of new consumer and business-oriented self-service models, and ultimately whether the current wave of self-service applications and tools will continue to be viewed as worthy IT priorities or simply the last “next big thing.”

Taking a more user-centric approach by adopting CRM v.2 models (see Is CRM Dead?) can be an important step in plotting your self-service road map. So can evaluating the latest in knowledge management, collaboration and even new tools such as user forums, blogs and wikis to add to your service and employee productivity “stack.” Better customer satisfaction, lower cost of sales and service, and greater knowledge sharing are ultimately the goals.

But in practice, as our consultants often see in the field, how to deploy and optimize self-service remains an inexact science for many organizations. In many cases we see IT, business units and support organizations making some of the same mistakes when it comes to planning, developing and deploying new self-service applications.

The Top 10 Self-Service Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them
In the spirit of late-night top-10 lists, some of my colleagues at eVergance and I have compiled a list of the foremost self-service mistakes as a way to highlight what works—and doesn’t work—when fielding and supporting self-service applications.

10. Thinking “if we build it, they will come”
Almost all large organizations have a corporate website, support portal and online content. A number have tools for online account management or e-commerce. Yet if employees or customers are comfortable with their current (non-self-service) options, what is going to cause them to change? Self-service options must offer at least as good an experience, if not a better one than alternatives, and offer a payoff for both initial and continued use.

9. Viewing cost savings as the only goal
Early self-service applications like vending machines or Web portals were about both reach and efficiency. They provided convenience and lowered the cost of a transaction or interaction. However, along the way, too many organizations started viewing self-service as only a lower-cost channel. Cost savings is typically a key benefit of self-service, but must be coupled with other goals like creating a better user experience, improving satisfaction or gaining greater insight into customer needs.

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