Self-service is always better than no service

Pete Grigg | March 13, 2014

If you are here to learn about how I was able to make such an incredible image, I am very sorry. Adobe Illustrator skills like mine cannot be taught. If, however, you came here to learn about why you should build a great documentation system…welcome! Pay no heed to the first line, you are in the right place.

Duke’s Advocate

Get it?? Because of their mascot??? Well anyway, I figured to be fair I would lay down an argument against the need for great documentation before I completely and irrevocably convince you of the opposite.

Mr. Docworst ranks self service pretty low. His argument is pretty convincing too. At least at first. In his mind, if your customer doesn’t contact you, you lose a chance to wow them with your service.

He’s got a lot of good data behind the importance of customer service too. Companies like Zappos have structured their entire business model around customer support and have been very successful in doing so.

Whelp, Fight’s Over. I lost.

Wait hold on! While he is absolutely right about the huge benefit that your company can gain from rocking an awesome support team, he’s forgetting about the nature of humans. I mean, even Zappos has a knowledge base.

“I no want talk humans now!”

Let’s face it. Sometimes the last thing in the world that you want to have to do is contact support. Maybe it’s 4:30 am and you’ve been watching Netflix for 18 hours straight. You’re just sitting there in your boxers, thinking about how your current subhuman state would not be conducive to human interaction. You need to forward an email but can’t figure it out! Why can’t you figure it out?! If only they had better documentation!!

Or, maybe that’s just me. Either way, I think most of us have had software moments where we just give up on doing something rather than contacting support for help.

Self Service can Still be Great Service

Mr. Docworst is overlooking the fact that while a knowledge base isn’t human, most of the time they are written by one. If you make your documentation match the tone of your customer service, which is hopefully upbeat and fun, customers can still have a great experience.

You can also wow them by making your documentation super easy to find. If a customer get’s stuck, clicks on help, and then see’s an article that answers their question, that can have a pretty good wow effect. Again, most people won’t be upset that you answered their question without making them contact you.

Out With the Old, In with the New?

To be clear, I am in no way advocating for you to make it harder for your customer’s to contact you directly. In the online software world, any time we get a chance to actually hear from our customers directly is awesome.

What I am saying, is that the easier you make it for people to help themselves, the more people will. If you can reduce your overall support volume through self service, do it. Make your awesome support scale with your awesome business.

Your Move

Putting this in here seems silly after writing such an amazing and thorough argument for documentation, but I guess for good practices and whatnot I will ask. Are there any other good reasons out there to not have a great documentation system? Your thoughts are welcome!

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