The answer to that question is a very resounding NO.
The painful truth is two-fold:
Forcing customers to shift to an online model for support when there was no indication that they would ever want to go may just backfire on you in the end with dis-empowered customer support agents, dissatisfied customers, and worst of all, lowered revenue due to attrition because you didn’t provide the right experience.
Implementing a front-end online support system that is poorly integrated with the other key systems that make your organization tick will backfire in a few critical and often overlooked ways:
- You systematically break the line of communication from the current natural upstream flow to a dump of unorganized data that flows into one system and gets lost. The right people never receive valuable feedback to improve products and services. Worse yet, fixes that are implemented never head back downstream to the customer.
- Without upfront integration with key systems, you create a very big data mess for later down the line when you realize your mistake.
Before you make the decision to shift your support model to an online powerhouse that promises to save you 23% to your bottom line in operations costs, make sure you are able to have an honest conversation about if you are setting your customers and company up to succeed.
Annie Tsai 