John Ziniades, CEO of self-service specialist, Consology, says that self-service started changing the world several decades ago: as far back as 1916, the first convenience store in the US came up the ingenious idea of allowing customers to help themselves to goods in shopping aisles and take them to a payout point, rather than making them ask a clerk behind the counter to pick their groceries for them.
 
This innovation was followed by the advent of the first ATMs and vending machines later in the twentieth century. Most people now make use of some form of self-service technology nearly every day without giving it much thought. 
 
Buying movie tickets from a self-service kiosk, paying for parking at a mall pay station, drawing cash from an ATM, getting a bank balance from an interactive voice response (IVR) system, paying for a flight on an airlines Web site  these are all examples of transactions that used to demand human interaction but no longer do.
 
Ziniades defines self-service as a set of technologies that enable customers, employees and other stakeholders to transact with companies, perform routine service and support tasks, manage accounts and conduct product research themselves with little or no need for interaction with an employee at the company they are dealing with.
 
Self-service allows companies to create an automated and integrated channel for service, empowering customers and other stakeholders to perform functions themselves that might otherwise go through a call centre, retail outlet or other distribution channel. Web sites, kiosks, ATMs, IVRs, vending machines and cellular phones are among the many channels that companies can use to deliver self-service.
 
Self-service encompasses four major elements, all or some of which may be present in a particular self-service application:
 
1. Manage: allowing someone to manage their own account and relationship with the company;
2. Transact: allowing customers to execute transactions such as bill payments;
3. Research: giving customers access to the information that will allow them to answer their own product and service queries without needing to call the sales or support call centre;
4. Interact: two-way communication between customer and organisation, with a clear audit trail of the process.
 
The reason that self-service has taken off is that it allows businesses to provide more convenient and consistent services to their customers at a lower cost through automation. With the growing maturity of electronic channels such as the Internet and the cellphone, companies are able to automate more and more transactions using self-service, says Ziniades.
 
Self-service is one of the fastest growing segments in the world of e-business. By implementing self-service solutions, organisations can give their customers, employees and partners direct control over a full range of account-related tasks.
 
Self-service solutions have helped companies in SA and the rest of the world to improve customer loyalty, to deflect calls from their call centres, to automate bill dispute processes, to speed up collection of payments and to make significant cost savings on paper and postage, adds Ziniades.
 
In industries such as telecoms, up to 80% of call centre enquiries are related to account issues. Companies can achieve significant cost savings by allowing customers to download historical statements or initiate bill disputes at an online portal, says Ziniades. Telephonic support is up to 15 times more expensive than self-service, according to Forrester.
 
Self-service is also a critical part of successful CRM, providing companies with an ideal opportunity to create relevant, personalised services that improve customer loyalty and reduce churn.
 
Concludes Ziniades: By transitioning physical processes into the electronic world, companies can combat the rising costs of providing service and support to customers, employees and business partners while providing a faster and more efficient service.
 
While electronic channels will never completely replace human customer service employees, we can expect to see more and more of the routine transactions and interactions we conduct move into the realm of self-service.