^{Why your digital, self-service strategy is underperforming}

There's been a lot of focus on meeting customers where they are - on your website, chat, text, Twitter or by phone. But when your customers can’t resolve their issue completely in a digital channel they reach out to a live rep to solve their problem.

If your customers are accessing these digital channels, and they haven't stopped using more expensive live channels, even for one step in their journey, resolving their issue can cost 80-100x more.

This approach adds more stress and pressure to your over-burdened origination or servicing teams, especially in the current labor market where top performers are scarce, expensive and in demand.

“While there will always be live service, that type of service should be treated like a precious resource.” 

-Gartner

Why can't you be more like Amazon?

Most people have grown accustomed to online experiences where they can resolve their request in minutes, like placing an order on Amazon. Imagine filling your shopping cart and waiting hours or days for a confirmation that you can buy those items. And if you have an issue with the purchase, how often do you call Amazon to resolve it?

Instead of making customer service reps available for every small issue, Amazon empowers customers to find their own solutions on their site whenever possible. Amazon adopted a self-service dominant approach to close new business and provide ongoing service to merchants and customers. FIs can learn from this for their front and back-office teams especially as Amazon itself is attacking financial services from every angle.

Many FIs focused investment on digital strategies with the goal of improving the customer experience at a lower cost. Yet, those benefits haven't been realized. Why is that?

Getting self-service right can help FIs see the financial benefit of their digital investments. But when customers switch between channels, the cost goes up for each live interaction they access to resolve their issue. Focusing on containing customers in the self-service channel so they can resolve their issue can have measurable financial benefits.

Let’s look at an example of 1,000 FI customers engaging with their FI.