Omni Core · Customer Support · Module
Self-service and knowledge
What customers can resolve without contact, and whether the material is good enough that they would choose to.
The idea
How it works
Customers use whichever route gets them an answer soonest. Self-service that is slower or less certain than asking a person is not used, however much it cost to build.
The best source of knowledge content is the support team’s own answers, written once when the question is answered rather than as a documentation project.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Write from actual questions
The support queue is the content plan. Frequency of the question decides what gets written.
- 02
Make it faster than asking
Findable in one search and answered in the first paragraph, or the customer will contact you anyway.
- 03
Measure deflection, not visits
Whether a contact was avoided rather than whether a page was viewed. A visit followed by a contact is a failed article.
- 04
Keep it current or take it down
Wrong documentation is worse than none, because it is trusted.
One level in
The components of self-service and knowledge
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
A self-service visit followed by a contact is a failed article, and it is counted as a success in most reporting.
The other modules in customer support
Getting help
How customers reach support, how easily, and whether the route matches the urgency of what they need.
LearnResolution
Whether the problem actually went away — measured properly, rather than through closure rates that can be met without solving anything.
LearnEscalation
What happens when the first line cannot resolve it — where most of the memorable failures occur, because the customer repeats themselves and waits.
Learn