Selfcare: all the tools you need to look after your customer relations

By Nathalie Pouillard

Published: 27 October 2024

The self-care trend has undeniable benefits not only for conversion, but also for customer retention and loyalty.

So it's highly advisable to make it part of your omnichannel customer relationship management strategy.

OK, but what is the definition of selfcare? How do you translate this customer relations concept into French, and what are its tools and benefits? Here we take a look at some examples.

See all software Customer Support

What is the definition of selfcare in customer relations?

Selfcare: translation and definition in French

Selfcare could be translated as the principle of taking care of oneself. Among the synonyms you will come across are self help or self support.

🤓 In customer relations, the concept of selfcare is defined as :

the principle of giving customers the opportunity to sort things out for themselves,
to find quick answers to their questions,
thanks to access to online resources,
made available by the company and its communities.

The trend towards empowering customers through online assistance is not new. However, it has taken on a whole new dimension with the digitalisation of customer relations and the changing habits of users, who are increasingly demanding, volatile and in a hurry.

Examples of self-care in the customer journey

According to Digitalisim, self-care has become a real expectation of customers, to the extent that 70% of them hope that the website they visit will offer this customer relations service.

Choosing delivery and tracking options, questions about the availability or operation of a product, billing errors - many consumers no longer wish to contact customer service by telephone, let alone be put on hold.

Whether it's an article, a video or a knowledge base, customers want to find the answers themselves, without having to call an advisor, whenever possible.

Here are a few examples of self-care and its application throughout the purchasing process:

technical questions before the purchase,
a list of delivery options and charges during the purchase,
advice on use or maintenance after purchase.

What are the benefits of self-care?

Because it improves the customer experience (or user experience), self-care meets new needs and real customer expectations, which is why it is an essential loyalty-building tool.

It's a win-win situation for companies and customers alike, and we'll explain why.

For the customer

The advantages of self-care for the customer:

They receive immediate answers in just a few clicks, even outside opening hours and on the move;
by logging in to their customer account, they don't have to enter countless pieces of information (customer number, invoice number, model of product purchased, etc.), which can be a source of frustration;
multi-channel exchanges are personalised, for a tailored and contextualised response;
customers, especially those who are independent and in a hurry, are free to look for information themselves, and then to call customer service if they can't find the answer thanks to the suggestion of other customer support options. The choice is theirs.

For the company

The benefits of self-care for businesses:

self-care makes it possible to remove certain obstacles to purchasing, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which improves conversion and customer satisfaction;
for complex queries, the selfcare solution can provide the beginnings of an answer, then redirect the customer to the right person if necessary;
recording the history of exchanges and requests helps to improve the customer journey;
offering multiple channels means you can cover more contact points and improve customer retention, as well as the company's brand image, which is modern and committed to service quality;
an active community or automated tools can reduce flows to the contact centre by 20 to 25%, particularly those with low added value, and therefore reduce customer support costs.

According to a Zendesk study, 81% of customers try to resolve their problem themselves before contacting customer service.

And according to Smart Tribune, more than 70% of requests to advisers can be automated anyway.

What are the main self-care tools?

A self-care solution is a self-service assistance portal.

For example :

a knowledge base
a tutorial
an FAQ
a forum
or a chatbot.

The knowledge base

The knowledge base is a page on the website dedicated to supporting customers by offering content that responds to recurring themes, questions and problems, for example on machine maintenance, in the same way as a digital user manual.

It can also take the form of a blog, offering tutorials in the form of articles or videos.

Tutorials

A tutorial explains in several steps how to operate, repair or install a product yourself.

Many brands post this type of expert content on their blogs or social networks, in order to anticipate questions and relieve the after-sales service.

It can be shared across the web, and also helps to raise a company's profile.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions and answers are centralised in a dedicated space on the website or application.

These days, we often talk about dynamic FAQs, where the intelligent search engine searches the database of questions and answers using key words to find the most relevant results.

The forum

The online discussion forum (or community self-help platform) is a bit like an FAQ, but fed by users and customers.

Users and customers ask each other questions and seek information about how a product works or how to rectify a bug, with the possibility of an advisor being called in to complete or correct the information.

The forum also makes it possible to collect and analyse customer feedback, both satisfactions and bottlenecks.

The chatbot

This conversational robot is an intelligent tool that interprets key words and engages in dialogue with the customer.

The chatbot can be used not only to answer simple questions, but also to provide the advice for which it has been programmed. It can also suggest redirection to an available and competent advisor.

The exchange is interactive, personalised and fun.

Software to coordinate these tools

How do you centralise the management of these different tools?

There are now omnichannel platforms that bring together all the tools needed to optimise the user experience, from the very first interaction with self-service media (FAQs, guides, chatbots, etc.).

Twilio Flex

Twilio Flex is an intelligent platform that allows you to create a tailor-made omnichannel contact centre. By connecting Twilio to all your tools via its APIs, interactions are centralised in the interface regardless of the channel used, to offer a personalised, high-performance service to your customers.

With Twilio, you can automate some of your interactions via an intelligent chatbot, which you build by selecting and configuring pre-configured widgets in thevisual drag and drop Studio tool. It will be able to initiate actions on its own or hand over to an agent if necessary.

You can also set up an interactive voice server (IVR) that offers intuitive, fast and high-quality call experiences, thanks to natural language understanding and AI.

Zendesk

Zendesk makes it possible to manage all customer contact points with the brand and collect all your customer data on a single interface, without multiplying applications. It helps your Customer Service, Support and Customer Success teams to take over as soon as necessary, by providing them with all the information they need.

As a result, they become more efficient and agile in handling customer requests, and are better able to add value directly, whatever the communication channel used by the customer.

The result? Optimal, outstanding service and a consistent, top-quality customer experience - the best conditions for satisfying your customers and building their loyalty.