Selfcare: all the tools you need to look after your customer relations

By Nathalie Pouillard

Published: October 27, 2024

The self-care trend has undeniable benefits not only for conversion, but also for customer retention and loyalty.

It is therefore more than advisable to integrate it into your omnichannel customer relationship management strategy.

But what is the definition of selfcare? How do you translate this customer relations concept into French, and what are its tools and benefits? Here are some examples.

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What is the definition of selfcare in customer relations?

Selfcare: translation and definition

Selfcare could be translated as taking care of yourself. Among the synonyms you'll come across are self help or self support.

🤓 In customer relations, the notion of selfcare is defined as :

the principle of leaving the customer to fend for himself,
to find quick answers to their questions,
through access to online resources,
made available by the company and its communities.

The trend towards empowering customers through online assistance is not new. However, it has taken on a whole new dimension with the digitization of customer relations and the changing habits of users, who are increasingly demanding, volatile and in a hurry.

Examples of self-care in the customer journey

According to Digitalisim, self-care has become a real expectation of customers, to the point where 70% of them hope that the website they visit will offer this customer relations service.

Choosing delivery and tracking options, questions about product availability or operation, billing errors - many consumers no longer wish to contact customer service by phone, let alone be put on hold.

Whether it's an article, a video or a knowledge base, customers want to find the answers themselves, without having to call an advisor, whenever possible.

Here are a few examples of self-care and its application throughout the purchasing process:

pre-purchase technical questions,
list of delivery options and charges during the purchase,
post-purchase advice on use and maintenance.

What are the advantages of selfcare?

Because it improves the customer experience (or user experience), selfcare meets new needs and real customer expectations, making it an essential loyalty-building tool.

It's a win-win situation for companies and customers alike.

For the customer

The advantages of self-care for the customer:

they receive immediate answers in just a few clicks, even outside business hours and on the move;
logged into their customer account, they don't have to enter countless frustrating details (customer number, invoice number, model of product purchased, etc.);
multi-channel exchanges are personalized, for an adapted and contextualized response;
customers, especially those who are independent and in a hurry, are free to search for information on their own, then call customer service if they can't find the answer, thanks to the suggestion of other customer support options. The choice is theirs.

For the company

The benefits of self-care for the company:

selfcare removes some of the disincentives to purchasing, 24/7, improving conversion and customer satisfaction;
for complex queries, the selfcare solution can provide the beginnings of an answer, then redirect the customer to the right person if necessary;
historizing exchanges and requests helps to improve the customer journey;
offering multiple channels enables you to cover more contact points and improve customer retention, as well as your company's modern, service-quality image;
an active community or automated tools can reduce flows to the contact center by 20 to 25%, especially those with low added value, and thus reduce customer support costs.

According to a Zendesk study, 81% of customers try to solve their problem themselves before contacting customer service.

And according to Smart Tribune, over 70% of requests to advisors can be automated anyway.

What are the main self-care tools?

A selfcare solution is a self-service assistance portal.

For example :

a knowledge base,
tutorial
an FAQ,
forum,
or a chatbot.

The knowledge base

The knowledge base is a page on the website dedicated to supporting the customer by offering content that responds to recurring themes, questions and problems, such as machine maintenance, like a digital instruction manual.

It can also take the form of a blog, offering tutorials in the form of articles or videos.

The tutorial

The tutorial explains in several steps how to operate, repair or install a product yourself.

Many brands post this type of expert content on their blogs or social networks, to anticipate questions and relieve customer service bottlenecks.

Shareable on the web, it also helps build brand awareness.

Frequently asked questions

The FAQ centralizes the most frequently asked questions and answers, in a dedicated space on the website or application.

Nowadays, we often speak of dynamic FAQs, when the intelligent search engine searches through the database of questions and answers, using keywords, to find the most relevant results.

The forum

The online discussion forum (or community self-help platform) is a bit like an FAQ, but fed by users and customers.

Users and customers ask each other questions and ask for information on how a product works, or how to rectify a bug, with the possibility of an advisor intervening to complete or correct the information.

The forum also makes it possible to collect and analyze customer feedback, both satisfactions and bottlenecks.

The chatbot

This conversational robot is an intelligent tool that interprets key words and dialogues with the customer.

The chatbot can not only handle easy questions, but also fulfill an advisory service for which it has been programmed. It can also offer redirection to an available, competent advisor.

The exchange is interactive, personalized and fun.

Software to coordinate these tools

How can we centralize the management of these different tools?

There are now omnichannel platforms that bring together all the tools needed to optimize the user journey, from the very first interaction with self-service media (FAQs, guides, chatbots, etc.).

Twilio Flex

Twilio Flex is an intelligent platform that lets you create a tailor-made omnichannel contact center. By connecting Twilio to all your tools through its APIs, interactions are centralized in the interface whatever the channel used, to offer personalized, high-performance service to your customers.

With Twilio, you can automate part of your interactions via an intelligent chatbot, which you build by selecting and configuring pre-configured widgets in thevisual drag-and-drop Studio tool. It will be able to trigger actions on its own, or hand over to an agent when needed.

Also set up an interactive voice server (IVR) that offers intuitive, fast and qualitative call experiences, thanks to natural language understanding and AI.

Zendesk

Zendesk enables you to manage all customer touchpoints with the brand, and collect all your customer data on a single interface, without multiplying applications. It helps your Customer Service, Support and Customer Success teams to take over as soon as necessary, by providing them with all the information they need.

As a result, they gain in efficiency and agility in handling customer requests, and are better able to add value directly, whatever the customer's preferred communication channel.

The result? Optimal, outstanding service and a consistent, top-quality customer experience - the best conditions for satisfying your customers and building loyalty.