The evolution of self service environments and their potential business impact

Abstract

This paper will explore the growth in self service environments. It looks at the key business drivers; how these environments have evolved; the types of functionality present; how they fit with a customer relationship management strategy; the business opportunity they present; and the critical success factors. In an increasingly competitive environment, many organizations see customer service as a key pillar in the development of sustainable competitive advantage. Simple self service environments have played an important role in the financial services and other key sectors for many years. The last few years have seen the evolution of functionally rich portal environments that support e-commerce, customer service, value added services and content provision. These sites demonstrate that self service environments can drive real business benefit for an organization, while enhancing customer choice and experience. In the future, enhancement of self service supporting and customer interaction technologies will mean that these capabilities will become available in a wider range of channels and sectors.