Are customer experience and self-service a contradiction? Self-service is often seen as an innovative cost-saving measure in companies. “Then the customer can do this and that. They can decide for themselves what they want. They can get advice if they need to.”
Self-service is supposed to make shopping or the dining experience faster, more convenient, and more modern. But anyone who stands at a terminal, especially a ticket machine, on a website, or at one of these checkouts today quickly realizes that self-service does not make customers happier because they have to do the work themselves. The term “self-service” only obscures this and shows that there is a lack of desire to engage with the customer.
One thing is certain: this is not user experience or customer experience. Under no circumstances.
It’s about E for efficiency, not experience
The customer scans, weighs, pays, packs, books tickets, changes reservations, searches the FAQs for solutions, chats, and waits for responses to their “service tickets.” No smiles, no conversation, no service. The digital voice or country page says: Thank you for your visit, purchase, etc.
Customer experience and self-service—a contradiction? Would you recommend this self-service option to others?
A real-life example: When customers leave the store after using the self-checkout, they are asked to show their receipt and bag at the exit, as if they had to prove their own honesty.
Trust is good, control is better. Customer experience: A shitty feeling. But who has to trust whom?
What was once celebrated as “customer experience” is becoming ironic.
The customer becomes an unpaid cashier, a link in a streamlined process that no longer has anything to do with experience, trust, or loyalty.
Self-service saves on wages, but it costs relationships. It replaces personal encounters with screens, chats, and agents, and dialogue with beeps, avatars, and icy voices.
What should be the positive consequence of the idea of “self-service”?
When customers do everything themselves, there is not much left of the “experience” and the much-cited empathy – except for the realization that efficiency cannot replace relationships. Or to put it another way: as long as customers do what the company wants, “everything is fine.” But woe betide them if they don’t…
And the question arises again and again: what is my advantage as a customer? Customer experience versus self-service – a contradiction in terms? Absolutely.
A 2017 study says: 60% of all online searches result in a desperate phone call.
I still remember a US study from 2017: 60% of all B2C online searches (whether self-service, ordering, or purchasing) result in a phone call. This means that the customer searches and finds no solution, and then calls. And then? They end up on hold or on voicemail.
Thank you for calling! Were you satisfied with our service? Would you recommend this service to your friends? All I can say is, “Thanks for the ‘nice’ conversation.”
MarTech or call center software is important, but it is not the only solution for a positive customer experience.
Customer experience and self-service: a contradiction? An attempt at a conclusion
The great danger in using all these tools is that companies only optimize internally and lose sight of the advantages and needs of their customers.
Some literally hide behind tools, portals, websites, and hotline queues. This applies to bookings (hotels, airlines) as well as to the purchase of tickets (travel, concerts) or self-service (restaurants or fast-food chains).
And the question always arises: What do I, as a customer, get out of it?
Is it faster? Do I get a price advantage? Do I get a bonus or more points credited to my bonus account? If customers don’t feel the benefit immediately, sooner or later they will look for alternatives.
PS: Not every customer wants to use self-service, even if it makes sense for the company.
Certain customers do not want this (at least in certain situations). They still prefer personal conversations on the phone or face to face. If the self-service process stalls shortly after it starts, frustration arises and the process is abandoned.
As the saying goes: Life is about give and take.
Or to put it another way:
If I am to provide a service for you (the company) that you previously provided for me, then please explain to me how I will benefit from this.
And let me share in “your benefit” in whatever form that may take. Then it will be a fair deal. Price advantage, extras, bonus points, etc.
