Self-service usability
Making it easy for people to help themselves
Trent Mankelow

Agenda
• What is self-service?
• Channels
Kiosks
–
Phone
–
Online
–
• Self-service strategy
• Self-service usability tips
• Backlash
• Conclusion: the future of self-service

What is self-service?
• Automating routine transactions so that
citizens can help themselves
• Saves an organisation money
• Offers the citizen choice and convenience

Welcome to National Discount Brokers!
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Common e-government services
An analysis of 1,687 government web sites in 198
countries in 2007 revealed the following common
services:
• Visa application
• Passport application and renewal
• Voter registration
• License application and renewal
• Job listings and application
• Electronic document filing (including filing taxes)
• Ordering publications and statistical reports
• Complaint forms
From www.insidepolitics.org

“Thinking about how your company typically interacts with
customers, what change (if any) do you expect to see in the
volume of interactions over the next two years?”
Web
Email
Phone self-service
Kiosks
Retail outlets
Call centres
Base: Survey of 140 North American firms with annual revenues of US$500 million or more
Source: March 15, 2005, Forrester Big Idea “The Customer Experience Value Chain”

Self-service strategy
• Which transactions should be automated?
• What transactions should be offered on what
channel?
• How are you going to measure?
• How are you going to shift citizens?

“How effective have these tactics been in shifting
customers to self-service channels?”
Improve usability
Proactively market benefits of self-service
Use email to drive customers to self-service
Have phone agents train customers in self-service
Offer monetary incentive to use self-service
Advertise self-service on phone when
callers are on hold
Have retail agents train customers on self-service
Hide phone contact information of the Web
Very effective Somewhat effective Ineffective Didn’t use or don’t know
Base: Survey of 140 North American firms with annual revenues of US$500 million or more
Source: March 15, 2005, Forrester Big Idea “The Customer Experience Value Chain”

Self-service usability tips
• Have a strategy!
• Be consistent across channels
• Leverage the strengths of each channel
• Focus on transactions that already exist
• Bite off less than you can chew
• Self-service takes service

Backlash avoidance

Backlash avoidance
• Accept that not everyone will self-serve
• Carefully consider how to incentivise self-
service
• Balance with conventional service
• Create a quality experience

The future of self-service
• Expectations will continue to grow
• More people will prefer self-service
• Serving yourself will become the default?
• Self-service not just about efficiency, it’s
about satisfaction and insight

The future of self-service

Questions?
Trent Mankelow
Optimal Usability
trent@optimalusability.com