Several local companies remain reluctant to embrace self-service as a strategy as they think the technology is complex to implement, has associated risks, and demands that businesses rethink their business processes.
This is according to John Ziniades, CEO of Consology, who adds that many of the obstacles of the past have fallen away, and the roadblocks to self-service that remain are not insurmountable for most companies.
"A lot of companies run into serious issues with legacy systems as they roll-out self-service. Poor response times, for example, or customer requests for information slipping between the cracks of poorly integrated back-office systems and constraints in the functionality that they can deploy because of a lack of flexibility in their legacy applications," he says.
"Although integrating legacy and self-service systems can be complex, maturing integration technologies and service-oriented architecture are providing the means to overcome this obstacle."
He explains that although SA has low Internet and broadband penetration, the success of online banking and airline bookings illustrates the online population is still large enough to be viable for self-service deployments.
"Cellular phones and kiosks can be used to reach customers that do not have Internet access."
Ziniades believes process orchestration is the most difficult area to address with self-service solutions.
"Some self-service interactions require system-to-human interaction, which often introduces process inconsistencies that mar the self-service experience for the customer and undermine the cost and efficiency gains the company hopes to achieve. Processes need to be mapped and redesigned to accommodate automation."
Many local companies count large numbers of uneducated or even illiterate people among their customers, resulting in the worry that these customers cannot be migrated to self-service solutions. However, he says the success of ATMs in SA shows that this is not the case, as nearly anyone can learn to use a well-designed self-service interface.
Although organisations and people alike are made nervous by the shift away from the human-touch environment of the past, he says 60% to 80% of customer interactions are mundane tasks that can easily be handled by the customers on their own.
"Taking this burden away from services representatives frees up their time to deal with more complex and value-adding transactions," he concludes.
Share