From attracting sufficient staff to customers preferring to take control of processes themselves, there are many challenges and changes in the eCommerce domain. To manage these in a structured and reliable manner, it may be a good idea to provide your customers with a self-service environment. In this blog, we discuss what self-service is, what you can use it for, and its pros and cons.
What is self-service?
In an
earlier blog, we described what you can do to improve customer satisfaction. Self-service is one of the solutions. Before we dive into the pros and cons of self-service, it's important to establish a basic understanding. In the eCommerce domain, self-service refers to offering tools and options that allow customers to fulfill their needs independently, without direct interaction with a staff member. Specifically, you can think of things like:
- Managing invoicing and payments: customers can independently view, download, and manage their invoices and payments.
- Profile management: customers can manage their personal information, passwords, and preferences.
- Order history: access to previous orders and the ability to make repeat purchases.
- Order tracking: options for customers to track their orders and receive updates.
- Self-service returns: easy processes for requesting and tracking returns and refunds.
The shift to self-service in B2B eCommerce
The examples above show that self-service in B2B eCommerce impacts various aspects of business operations and different stages of customer contact. Automating and digitizing this customer contact may seem like a strange step within B2B eCommerce, where personal contact is currently one of the biggest
differences from B2C.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we've seen a shift in the demand for less human contact within B2B eCommerce. According to
Forbes, B2B customers are increasingly placing less importance on this contact and are more interested in self-service options. Research from
McKinsey even suggests that customers expect the rule of thirds in their interactions with a seller: equal parts of personal (physical) contact, remote contact (such as phone or video calls), and self-service. Finally, there is a generational aspect to this shift. Younger generations often prefer to work digitally and with automated channels, and they are
increasingly the ones making purchasing decisions, which also requires a change in your strategy.
Challenges and solutions in implementing self-service
Implementing self-service comes with challenges. Below are the main challenges you need to consider and how you can address them:
- Investments: As you automate processes, you will face implementation and development costs. These initial and maintenance costs need to be weighed carefully. However, you will certainly recover the investment by automating routine tasks, which eliminates the need for labor, and because tasks are executed faster due to digitalization.
- Implementation: During implementation, you'll need development capacity to implement and secure self-service functionalities. By choosing a smart platform, you ensure support during implementation and further development, and you won't have to worry about it. You'll also want to choose a solution that, for example, automatically updates, so your platform and self-service environment are always up-to-date and secure.
- Customer adoption: Despite the shift toward less human contact in the (sales) process, personal contact is still often the standard in B2B. Therefore, include customer feedback in the implementation process and actively communicate back to customers what you've done with it. During the implementation and transition phases, it is wise to keep personal contact available for questions, returns, etc.
- Staff: The investment in self-service may be perceived by your staff as a cost-cutting measure. Even if you're choosing self-service to address a staff shortage, it's important to clearly communicate that you're actually creating new opportunities. By automating routine tasks, more time is freed up for colleagues to focus on strategic tasks or deepen customer contact.
Benefits of self-service for your customers and your organization
In addition to the challenges you need to consider, there are also clear benefits to implementing self-service options.
The possibilities that self-service offers contribute to a better customer experience. Business customers now expect a B2C experience. You not only contribute to advantages for your customers, such as automatically staying informed about the status of a shipment or the convenience of (automated) order lists, but there are also significant benefits for your organization:
- Efficiency and cost savings: After the initial costs of implementation, as mentioned earlier, you also save on personnel costs. This is not a cost-cutting measure but an investment: you can do more with the same staff. An additional efficiency advantage is that you don't have to worry about the self-service, and information is now available 24/7.
- Increasing customer satisfaction: By automating processes, you benefit from the fact that collected data can automatically be included in your analyses. You can use this data to make better decisions with Business Intelligence (BI) and further improve customer satisfaction. BI enables you to respond to customer needs and helps optimize your marketing activities. By smartly using the collected data and fostering a learning environment within your organization, you contribute to the growth and customer satisfaction of your organization.
- Scalability: When a self-service environment is well set up, it can be easily scaled to serve more users without significantly impacting the associated costs or labor. This scalability makes it easy to expand your services.
Self-service: is it worth it for me?
Self-service offers significant benefits for eCommerce companies facing staff shortages and meeting the (emerging) demands of customers. By automating routine tasks and providing customers with the tools to act independently, companies can improve their efficiency and increase customer satisfaction. Is it worth it for your business? That depends: it's a scalable solution, allowing you to focus more on strategy and customer engagement. You give your customers the tools to act independently and can adapt the self-service to the current market demands. The decision will ultimately vary from company to company, but it's likely that self-service is worth the effort.
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