Allstate Senior VP, Carla Zuniga discussesd the importance of Self-Service on a flying 4 day visit to Northern Ireland. The question is- what is web self-service?
TechTarget defines it as
“Web self-service is a type of electronic support (e-support) that allows customers and employees to access information and perform routine tasks over the Internet, without requiring any interaction with a representative of an enterprise. Web self-service is widely used in customer relationship management (CRM) and employee relationship management (ERM).
When the support is specific to online employee interactions, the practice is known as employee self-service (ESS). When it is specific to customers on the Internet, it is called customer self-service (CSS).
For employees and customers, self-service offers 24 hour-a-day support and immediate access to information without having to wait for an email response or a returned telephone call. Ultimately, the success of Web self-service depends upon the quality and quantity of information available and the ease with which it can be accessed.
Deploying Web self-service applications benefits a company in a variety of ways. The most prominent motivation is the lower cost, as compared with telephone or email service delivered by a company representative.
A more controversial enterprise benefit of self-service is the ability it affords the company to gather personal information about the people who use it. Tracking and analysis software may be used to create a pseudonymous profile of the user for research and targeted marketing purposes.”
CRM New states
“While phone-based interactive voice response (IVR) systems are still the largest channel for customer interactions, self-service via the Web and mobile channels are quickly gaining ground, according to the findings of a new survey conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, the parent company of CRM magazine, in partnership withIntelliResponse.”
What this means for business like Allstate is that we can be more effective, cost wise, and offer our paying customer more channel options to access our products and services. Just as important is the effect of how this translates to Allstate NI. As a fully functioning and operational arm of our parent company, Allstate NI has a vested interest in these developments.
If you’d like to know more, click on the here for an article from ‘destinationCRM.com’
Blog post by Roy Samuels, Business Skills & Communications Training/Coach-on-deck co-ordinator at Allstate NI.
