Self-Service Support 101: Types, Examples, and Best Practices
Picture this: You’re desperately waiting for a support team agent to respond to your query so that you can finally complete an overdue task and head home for the weekend. But it never arrives, not before Monday, because the support agents have already clocked out.
If you can feel the pain, you already appreciate the importance of self-service support.
In this article, we share additional reasons why self-service resources are key to your product’s success. You will also learn about different types of self-support resources and best practices for implementing them.
What is self-service support?
Self-service customer support is a system that allows customers to resolve their issues independently without needing assistance from a support agent.
To achieve this, SaaS companies use resources like knowledge bases, FAQs, chatbots, and community forums.
Why should you provide self-service customer support?
Here are four main reasons why a SaaS company should offer self-service support.
Improves customer satisfaction by providing immediate assistance
Let’s face it: customers are impatient. When they come across a problem, they want an immediate solution.
But what if there’s no support agent available? For instance, at night?
Well, self-service support resources don’t sleep. They offer assistance outside of business hours. By providing such resources, you help users achieve their goals more efficiently.
And guess what? 67% of customers prefer to access help via self-service channels rather than speak to an agent. Harvard Business Review data shows that 81% try “to take care of matters themselves before reaching out to a live representative.”
Increases product adoption and retention
Increased satisfaction leads to higher customer loyalty and retention. If customers are happy, why would they look for other tools?
There’s more:
Self-support resources, like onboarding flows, in-app tutorials, or how-to guides, help users discover the relevant features and learn how to use them effectively. They need this to experience the product value and adopt it as a solution to their pain points.
Speaking of pain points: by helping users sort out their issues immediately as they arise, self-support resources reduce the risk of them dropping off and never coming back.
Reduces customer support costs while scaling operations
Self-service resources reduce support costs, which is vital for sustainable growth.
Think about it: there’s a limit to the number of support agents you can hire. If you’re growing quickly, your support teams won’t be able to handle all the inquiries and requests.
By helping users resolve their problems independently, self-service resources reduce the load on your teams. Growth Mentor managed to reduce the number of support tickets by a whopping 83% when they implemented self-service onboarding and support resources (built using Userpilot).
Enhances efficiency and productivity of customer support teams
Self-service resources also make the support teams more efficient and productive.
Self-service deflects repetitive questions and simple problems. Thanks to that, support agents can focus on high-value, complex inquiries that require personal attention.
And even when the resources aren’t enough to solve the problem, trying out common solutions before contacting support means the agents can help them in less time.
Self-service tools also help support teams route customer inquiries and improve access to information.
When is offering self-service options a bad idea?
Despite its benefits, self-service support isn’t always suitable.
It’s brilliant for handling routine tasks and straightforward questions. However, if your product is particularly complex, such resources might not be enough to resolve issues. A more high-touch approach here is necessary.
Moreover, to be effective, self-service resources need to be reliable and of adequate quality. If you don’t have the resources to develop and maintain such tools, implementing self-service can harm customer satisfaction.
Take Your SaaS Self-Service Support to the Next Level with Userpilot
8 types of self-service resources to leverage (+ examples)
What kinds of self-serve support resources can you use? Here are eight commonly used ones.
1. Knowledge base
A knowledge base is a searchable library filled with various support resources for both your customers and staff.
For example, Loom’s knowledge base includes onboarding resources, how-to guides, FAQ pages, troubleshooting tips, the Loom community, product webinars, and use case-specific guidance.
Knowledge bases are popular among users. 91% of customers say they would use a knowledge base if available and customized to their needs.
However, to fulfill their role and satisfy customer expectations, knowledge bases need to be well-maintained and organized.
2. AI chatbot
An AI chatbot is like a virtual assistant available 24/7 to provide answers and guidance. They are ideal for handling simple queries, creating support tickets, and directing customers to the right resources.
Their main strength?
Speed. Chatbots can offer answers to customer queries 3x faster than a live agent and are always available. That’s why over 60% of customers would rather engage with them than wait for agents.
Invesp estimates that chatbots can answer up to 80% of routine questions, but, of course, they aren’t as effective when dealing with complex issues.
Their inability to handle more nuances queries can be a source of frustration, especially when you forget that you’re dealing with a bot.
3. FAQ pages
FAQ pages are a simple yet powerful self-service tool that tackles the most common inquiries and problems.
For example, Asana offers a FAQ page with expandable sections where users can get help with its features. The questions are divided into categories like “Top features to discover,” “Keyboard shortcuts,” “Asana Certification,” or “Goals.”
An FAQ page is a straightforward and cost-effective solution that solves repetitive questions, but not without limitations. Such pages offer only brief answers, so they need to be used together with other resources.
4. Video tutorials
Video tutorials provide visual, step-by-step instructions, ideal for onboarding, troubleshooting, and showcasing product features. They’re especially effective for complex tasks where written instructions may be less clear.
For example, Miro offers tutorials on how to use its AI features, build presentations, or share boards.
Video tutorials are more effective than written guides: viewers retain up to 95% of a video message as opposed to 10% when reading the text version!
However, producing high-quality video content requires time and resources, and frequent updates may be challenging if information changes. This, however, is getting increasingly cheaper and easier thanks to AI-powered video tools like Synthesia.
5. In-app guidance
In-app guidance offers real-time help within a product, which is perfect for onboarding new users and introducing new features. Think of tooltips, checklists, and interactive walkthroughs that guide users step-by-step.
The main benefit of these self-service resources is that they accelerate product adoption and reduce the need for face-to-face training. For example, one of our customers, RecruitNow saves hundreds of hours of training every month by implementing in-app flows with video tutorials and tooltips.
However, the main downside of in-app guidance is that it can be pretty intrusive and frustrating when poorly implemented. And users can get desensitized to in-app messages if they appear too often.
6. Community forums
Community forums provide a space for customers to connect, ask questions, and share knowledge.
Users can tap into the expertise of other customers, access resources generated by others, and find practical solutions and tips that might not be in official documentation.
Community members may also be quicker to respond than support agents. Once they do, the answer will stay on the forum to help users with similar issues.
It doesn’t mean you can leave the community forum members to their devices. You still need to manage and moderate the forum to ensure that assistance is accurate and community rules are followed.
The main challenge, however, is creating the community. It takes time to grow, so you can’t implement it overnight.
7. Feedback surveys
Feedback surveys don’t provide any guidance as such.
However, customer feedback can give you the insights that you need to inform your self-service strategy. For example, it can highlight issues customers face regularly that your resources don’t address.
You can also use them to gather direct feedback on the quality and effectiveness of the resources.
In-app surveys are easy to create and tend to have higher response rates than other survey types, but their impact depends on the quality of the questions you ask and the timing.
For example, if you wait too long to collect feedback about their interactions with your knowledge base, you won’t get valid responses because the experience won’t be fresh in their minds anymore.
8. Case studies
Case studies show how other clients have successfully used your product to achieve their goals, which makes them invaluable self-support resources for current customers. This is especially true for those new to the product who haven’t adopted the more complex functionality yet.
For instance, Userpilot case studies provide users with insights into how other companies leverage our onboarding features to drive product adoption.
Case studies are excellent marketing resources showcasing the product value and can affect the purchasing decisions of prospective customers.
Their main downside is that they’re labor intensive, and getting consent to disclose customer data may be tricky.
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Self-service support best practices for maximizing customer satisfaction
Now that you know what self-service tools are available, let’s look at best practices for implementing them.
Provide a wide range of self-service support options
As the needs and preferences vary, so should the range of self-service support resources that you offer. For example, by offering audiovisual resources like video tutorials, you make your product more inclusive for dyslexic users who may struggle to absorb text-based ones.
Moreover, various types of resources have unique strengths and complement each other.
For instance, a tooltip or a modal doesn’t have enough real estate to provide in-depth guidance. However, you can enhance them with CTA buttons that take the user to product documentation.
Localize self-service solutions to cater to different segments
Another way to make your support resources more inclusive is to localize them for users around the globe.
Think about it: resources in your native language are easier to understand, which increases their effectiveness. And they make users more engaged.
Professional localization services aren’t cheap, but they may be the only way to translate complex technical resources.
However, you can often localize simpler content using AI-powered features (check Userpilot) that automatically translate content based on the user’s language.
Update content resources regularly
Your support resources should evolve with your product.
Added new features? You need new resources! Redesigned the page layout or the navigation menu? Update the screenshots and GIFs! Removed features? Get rid of the obsolete knowledge base articles! You get the drift.
It doesn’t stop there.
Imagine you learn about new user needs. It doesn’t mean you need to build new features to address them. But you need to update the resources to cover the new use case.
Make self-service support easy to find and access
People won’t use your support resources if they can’t find them. Or if they have to run through an American Ninja Warrior obstacle course to access them.
To maximize user engagement with your resources and their impact, make them easily accessible. For example, include links to all materials in a resource center and place the button that opens it in a visible part of the UI.
Contextually trigger in-app guidance
Context is everything when it comes to in-app guidance. If the tooltip or modal doesn’t address a need exactly when the user is experiencing it, they will ignore it.
Fortunately, thanks to event-based triggering, you can serve contextually relevant in-app guides.
Imagine you have a social media platform with scheduling features. The problem? Not all users use the scheduling feature. To increase their adoption, you can create a tooltip that appears as soon as they create a new post. That’s how you attract their attention to the feature and show them how to use it.
Monitor the performance of your self-service strategy and improve it
How can you tell if your self-service strategy is working? Or identify ways to improve it?
I’ve already mentioned feedback surveys as one potential source of data.
The other is product analytics.
First, track metrics like the number of support tickets and resolution time to assess the high-level impact. If the number of customer support calls declines, it’s a sign that the resources are making a difference.
Don’t stop there: measure user engagement with specific resources, such as resource center modules, video tutorials, or onboarding flows. For instance, if people watch only a few seconds of a video, it may mean it doesn’t give them what they need.
Finally, look at correlations between resource usage and user behavior. For example, if users access a guide on how to use a particular feature a lot, but its adoption is low, it may mean the guide is lacking information.
Transform your customer self-service support with Userpilot
Userpilot is a product growth platform offering a range of tools for self-service support.
The main one is the resource center, where you can embed resources in different formats: text documents, videos, hyperlinks, or in-app flows.
Creating the resource center modules requires no coding, thanks to the WYSIWYG editor.
The resource center isn’t the only powerful Userpilot feature, though!
The in-app guidance functionality is also a robust feature.
The tool allows you to create UI patterns like modals, tooltips, slideouts, or driven actions to guide users through bottlenecks in their journey. This is possible thanks to the event-based triggering, which I mentioned before.
Finally, there are analytics for monitoring customer behavior, their engagement with support resources, and their impact on key product metrics. And you can collect user feedback through in-app surveys for a more complete picture.
So, a resource center, in-app guidance, analytics, and surveys – all under one roof. That’s what our customers love about Userpilot.
Conclusion
Self-service support allows users to solve their problems independently so that they can get back to smashing their targets with minimal disruption.
This kind of support is also more cost-effective and scalable. Once you create the resources, there’s no limit to how many customers they can help. This isn’t the case with support agents who can handle only so many inquiries.
Want to learn more about Userpilot and how it can help you optimize your self-service efforts, book a demo!
Optimize Your SaaS Self-Service Support with Userpilot
