Companies can benefit from providing self-service in many ways: increased customer satisfaction, reduced costs and better sales conversion rates. The question therefore is not whether to implement self-service but how to implement it effectively. Reviewing what other companies are doing is a first step in the right direction, but it is particularly important to keep in mind that one size does not indeed fit all. Self-service involves far more than logging into a portal or using an app; self-service encompasses a complex architecture of various channels, multi-channel links and functions. Achieving excellence means mastering the interdependencies and optimizing the architecture and processes in the right place, at the right time and in the right way.

1. Best practice in self-service
IBP View
Iskander Business Partner

2. August 2013
Iskander Business Partner GmbH
Nora Egressy
Armin Iskander
Companies can benefit from providing self-service in many ways: increased customer satisfaction,
reduced costs and better sales conversion rates. The question therefore is not whether to implement
self-service but how to implement it effectively. Reviewing what other companies are doing is a first
step in the right direction, but it is particularly important to keep in mind that one size does not
indeed fit all.
Self-service involves far more than logging into a portal or using an app; self-service encompasses a
complex architecture of various channels, multi-channel links and functions. Achieving excellence
means mastering the interdependencies and optimizing the architecture and processes in the right
place, at the right time and in the right way.
IBP View
1
Best practice in self-service
Iskander Business Partner

3. Why self-service?
DIY (do it yourself) customer service is on the
rise because it is mutually beneficial for
customers and companies. Today, customers
demand faster solutions, 24/7 access to
services and the feeling that they are in
control. Many are wary of calling hotlines, to
be put on hold and are instead turning to
alternative self-service channels e.g. SMS,
chat, virtual agents.
According to a Forrester study, 72% of
customers prefer using a company’s website to
solve their issues. However, only 52% find the
information that they require.
This is only one of many examples that depicts
the significant gap between the quality of self-
service that customers expect, and what they
are able to receive. Indeed companies could
benefit greatly from closing this gap between
expectations and reality. Promoting a culture
of self-service in one’s customer base can over
time lead to cost savings, higher customer
satisfaction levels and better sales
opportunities for the company. An example:
the cost of checking in a passenger with an
airline agent is € 2 compared to less than
€ 0.10 with a mobile. Furthermore the
customer benefits from shorter waiting times
and increased flexibility (direct choice of seat
etc.) This is reflected in higher satisfaction
ratings; mobile check-in achieves the highest
satisfaction levels. The greatest challenge for
a company is to match the self-service function
to the right channel and thereby succeed in
giving the customer a better overall expe-
rience; the ‘wow effect’.
Many industries have embraced self-service in
the past decades and looking at best-practices
can provide some key learnings.
A well-known example is Amazon. Amazon has
revolutionized the world of e-commerce and
they are also pioneers in self-service. To a
large extent, Amazon owes its success to solid
back-end processes; the order process, returns
process etc. were by design set up to limit
customer contacts. An important learning for
the telecom industry, is the way Amazon
creates transparency around problem
management and the manner in which
customers are effectively channeled to the
right point of contact. Also noteworthy is the
utilization of customer data e.g. an intelligent
recommendations system, based on previous
2
Optimal channel for online check-in
Self-service best practice
790
800
810
820
830
840
850
860
870
0 1 2 3
counterkiosk
Mobile Optimal: reduced cost,
increased customer
satisfaction, more
effective marketing &
sales
USD
Satisfaction(max=1000)

4. lable in each price category, bringing more
transparency into the booking process and
incentivizing customers to book ASAP.
While there are limitations in terms of comp-
aring an Amazon or a Lufthansa to a telecom
operator, it is possible to break down single
self-service processes and use these as best
practice examples. For example: pro-actively
sending status notifications and providing links
to track an order via an online portal. Or
providing different levels of self-service to
different customer groups (high value vs. low
value.
3
purchases and purchases of customers with
similar profiles through the "Amazon
Betterizer".
Another leader in implementing self-service is
the airline industry. Delta Airlines now offers
tracking of luggage via app. KLM has a "Meet &
Seat" function, where a customer can sign-in
via their social media account and book who
they want to sit next to (based on comparable
social media profiles). Many airlines have
increased the retail look & feel of their website
by counting down the number of seats avai-
Best practice in Telecom
To evaluate best practice in telecom IBP has
carried out an in-depth study of 9 operators,
comparing both the self-service functions
offered and evaluating the most frequent Top
10 use cases. The study revealed that there is
a large difference between operators in terms
of which self-service channels they offer and
how many self-service functions are available.
T-Mobile in the USA has the strongest channels
and the most functions available, but there
remains room for improvement e.g. increased
care-to-sell opportunities or introducing chat
as a support channel.
In addition, it is important to note the limi-
tations of this two-dimensional representation.
What the grid doesn’t show are the
opportunities in terms of finer qualitative
aspects e.g. multichannel experience and
better integration of sales. We have therefore
grouped our findings into 3 key areas:
Finance Airline Retail
2010
2000
1990
1980
1970
1960
2004: Mobile
banking app
1983: Home
Online banking
solution
1967: Automatic
teller maschine
1999: Web
Check-in
2003: SMS
Check-in
1963: Catalogue
Shop
1994: Online
Banking
1999: SMS
Banking
1994: Online Shop
? Virtual assistant
1990s: Self-
service checkouts
1995: Airline Kiosk
2009: Mobile
Check-in
2013: Baggage
self check
2020
Iskander Business Partner
Industry self-service firsts

5. media presence and offer services via
interactive voice response (IVR) or SMS.
We noted differences in the extent of video
content offered and chat availability for
support questions. Virtual chat or chat is the
only real-time interactive support alternative to
voice and is generally positioned as an
escalation option.
The UK MVNO Giffgaff is a good example of an
operator modeling their self-service concept
around social media and optimizing the
architecture in a way that the customer does
not need to call the hotline. Their forum is
particularly effective and there is also a high
level of transparency (e.g. message board with
service updates). We can therefore see that
the performance of these channels is critical to
the customer.
Performance can be measured by various KPIs.
Returning traffic to a support site (are
customers returning to get more help over
time?) is an interesting indicator of how well
the knowledge base serves the customer. This
knowledge base must be both easily accessible
(predictive search functions, search results
include other channels e.g. from forum/
community) and produce relevant results.
Continuous improvement based on customer
feedback to individual FAQs, as well as apps or
forum discussions is essential. Some operators
(e.g. o2) take feedback a step further and
have set up idea portals as a source of
innovation (example suggestion: customers
would like to receive an SMS confirmation
when terminating a contract).
4
Self-service potential
Self-service channels
In order to establish self-service functions, an
operator must first have the self-service
channels in place to deliver these. Channel
performance is a key factor since the channels
should offer the same or better level of service
than what the customer could receive via the
hotline.
Compared to an industry study, telecom
operators offer significantly more self-service
functions than other firms. All the operators
included in our study have a website, a social
1. self-service channels, 2. multichannel links
and 3. functions offered.
Channelbreadth&performance
Breadth of self-service functions

6. via IVR to the online portal. It is however not
always enough to educate the customer, so the
next step is to incentivize customers to use the
channel. There are some sporadic examples of
this e.g. Telstra offers lottery for people who
use their app, Congstar offers premium points
for customers who contribute to the forum.
However, generally there is a lot of room for
improvement.
With respect to multichannel linkages, most
operators already integrate web and social
media and often offer a downloadable app on
their websites. The availability of video content
and it’s usage also varies – it can be integrated
into an FAQ, and it might also advertise other
adjacent channels such as an online portal or
app. Today, most apps do not provide a direct
link into a forum or website, and may only
have a limited FAQ section. T-Mobile USA's app
is a good example of a more advanced
offering.
The multi-channel challenge is how to set up
an architecture that can be dynamically con-
trolled in response to real-time variables. For
example, channeling the customer to different
destinations, depending on contact reason and
real-time channel utilization levels e.g. on the
Amazon FAQs the customer selects an area
from a drop-down menu, specifies contact
reason and is given a "recommended contact
option", based on both the reason and the
utilization. Offering a differentiated self-service
journey, based on customer value is another
option to consider e.g. prioritizing high value
customers in chat. Multi-channel could also be
used to further sales convergence e.g. using
5
Linking channels to each other is an essential
job that is often not well done. Linking does
not only help customers find the right support
channel, but also educates them on the
available channels elsewhere. Educating
customers on self-service functions is in
general an important requirement. For
example directing a customer from the hotline
Self-service channel availability &
performance
Multichannel Links
Web
Apps
Social
Media
SMS
Call
Back
Video
Chat
Self-service rate / returning
traffic to support sites
App rating (Apple/Android)
Facebook Likes/Customer
Base, Forum activity
Relevance of SMS/
Usefulness
Sales and/or support,
response time
Number of videos (%
service related)
Sales and/or support, %
problems resolved
Performance indicator% offering self-service channel
73,6%
18%
31,1%
27,8%
-
20,6%
-
100%
80%
100%
90%
50%
50%
60%
Industry
benchmarks*
Operators
*2012 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report by
Merchant surveying 637 respondents in 72 countries
Iskander Business Partner

7. 6
thereby increase self-service rates. There is a
large variance in the number of functions
offered by providers and this can reflect the
positioning of the operator, as well as the
complexity of their product portfolio. However
even providers with fewer functions can learn
how to manage these functions better (e.g. the
SIM exchange process via online portal) or
evaluate whether it could be offered via other
more efficient channels.
Self-service functions can be categorized as
basic, advanced and innovative. Most providers
offer basic functions, such as account
management (view and change account
details, change personal details), usage
management (view absolute usage), access to
historical invoices and detailed call profiles,
phone configuration options and basic
troubleshooting guides.
More mature providers offer an order tracking
solution (e.g. T-Mobile DE), where customers
can check status of hardware including SIM
orders. Real-time billing (e.g. Vodafone DE –
Vodafone Quick Check) via the online portal
and/or an app along with a notification of limits
being reached, is another popular solution.
More advanced usage analysis (e.g. T-Mobile
USA) allows customers to compare usage on
different accounts, to link phone numbers to
contacts, to filter results and generate
graphics. Multiple contract management both
via an app and online (e.g. o2) is a useful and
necessary feature, in order to give the
customer a full overview of all products. An
incident management system where customers
can track status of problems and solutions is
Functions
T-Mobile USA App Self-service functions
Once the self-service channels are available
and the customer knows where to turn for
each function, the more comprehensive the
offering, the better it is in enabling customers.
The art is to offer sufficient useful functions on
a self-service channel, in order to convince the
customer that using the channel is worthwhile.
Once the customer is "locked-in", operators
can continue adding functions iteratively and
the customers activity on forum/Facebook to
generate sales recommendations. Being in
control of the multi-channel architecture allows
companies to reduce costs, increase customer
satisfaction and achieve better sales conver-
sion rates.

8. an iterative improvement; developing and
introducing selected high priority measures/
functions. These functions can be broken down
into steps and best practice (also from other
industries) can be broken down into steps and
best practice (also from other industries) can
be integrated into the process.
starting to be introduced (e.g. 1&1).
Innovative functions include the presence of
care in order to sell offers – the "care to sell"
philosophy aims to convert a customer care
contact into a sales opportunity. A good
example is T-Mobile USA, offering a phone
upgrade on the phone support site or Vodafone
offering the automatic booking of a data option
when 90% of the existing data pack has been
used up. An automated process for ex-
changing hardware similar to Amazon – e.g.
printing address and packaging hardware –
would also be beneficial. Offering customers
products/services that other customers with a
similar profile have purchased could be a new
experiment in sales. A customer history/events
timeline shows the customer the major
milestones and can be used to prompt
customers to consider other offers. For
example T-Mobile DE is experimenting with a
Webcode which allows customers to access
information from their hotline/online dis-
cussions (product advice given etc.) and to
consider this again at their own leisure.
7
Self-service opportunity
The real question is how to transform best
practice into reality, how can we increase self-
service usage?
There are two approaches to deliver improve-
ments in self-service. One option is to carry
out a comprehensive review of the self-service
architecture in order to identify the key drivers
behind (low) adoption, as well as the most
important gaps. A quicker option is to aim for
Self-service performance key drivers
A 360 degree view of the self-service
architecture provides an in-depth analysis of
the drivers and barriers behind self-service
usage. For example, are the self-service rates
suboptimal, because services are not offered
via the most effective channel/are there
channels missing? Or is it rather a question of
the channel performance not living up to the
expectations (e.g. bugs in app, slow response
to chat)? Is it possible that there are well-
performing channels in place, but the
customers are not aware of these or need to
be educated in using them? Or does the
customer need to be pushed towards using the
channel e.g. notification: online is cheaper and
quicker than a call to the hotline?
It is also important to consider, whether the
multi-channel experience is consistent and
whether it is used to its full potential in terms
of customer education and incentivization.
Finally, we should review whether the self-
service functions are adequate – do we need
more (innovative) functions or do we need to
optimize existing functions e.g. offer a clearer
MNP process.
Iskander Business Partner

9. Self-service
channels
available
Channel
performance
Customer
education
Customer
incentivization
Multichannels
links
Functionalities
• How effective are the channels?
• What improvements are needed
– technical/knowledge based?
• Do customers know what self-
services exist & how to use?
• How to educate customer better?
• How do I increase adoption of
different channels/services
(carrot & stick measures)
• What linkages do I have?
• How can I optimize linkages &
exposure?
• How effective are current
functions/processes?
• What functions are missing?
8
Self-service is here to stay and investing now
in the architecture and processes is an
investment in the future.
Whether opting for the introduction of high
potential initiatives (the iterative process) or
implementing the complete portfolio of multi-
channel self-services, the potential for
companies is enormous. Through better self-
service they can improve customer
satisfaction, achieve higher sales targets and
at the same time save on costs.
Top 10 Measures ListEvaluating the self-service architecture
Iterative improvement
An alternative approach is to put together a list
of quick-win measures and implement these in
order of importance. This leads to an iterative
improvement and is an approach better suited
to operators, who already have a solid core
architecture in place - areas 1 & 2: well
performing channels (e.g. is the app good
enough to promote?). The key to success here
is to be able to identify the right time to
introduce these new self-service opportunities.
The list of measures should be assembled by a
variety of departments (CRM, Customer Care,
Sales etc.) and be prioritized according to the
estimated business value.
Conclusion
• Are channels compliments or
substitutes?
• Do I need more channels?
1
2
3
5
4
6
1. Advertise app (e.g. QR codes in invoice)
2. Check order status on app
3. Introduce customer history
4. Customer education on self-service at POS
5. Offer network status updates
6. Web code (access all offers/info from
consultation)
7. Recommendations based on what others have
bought
8. Alerts management (usage, bill, new product)
9. Customer service audit (show status of customer
complaint resolution)
10. …
Top List
ILLUSTRATIVE

10. 9
Iskander Business Partner

11. The authors
Nora Egressy
is a Consultant at Iskander Business Partner.
She has 2 years of consulting and project
management experience and has worked on a
variety of international projects. Her focus
areas include strategy development, business
case development and market analysis.
Nora has worked previously for CSMG Global in
London and has completed internships with
Deloitte LLP in the UK and Roland Berger in
Hungary.
10
Armin Iskander
Armin Iskander is founder and managing
partner of Iskander Business Partner.
Before founding Iskander Business Partner
GmbH in 2005, Armin was managing partner
for Germany with Accelate Business Launch
and Expansion GmbH. Prior, Armin was
responsible to several business units within
Webmiles AG. Before he was Project Manager
with Roland Berger & Partner Strategy Con-
sultants for four years. There he handled
projects in the UK, Germany, France, Switzer-
land and Brazil.
Armin holds an engineer's degree from the
University of Dortmund.

12. Iskander Business Partner is and international management consultancy with a strong focus on the
development and implementation of growth projects for the High-Tech industries. We pride ourselves
on being highly competent professionals who think as entrepreneurs.
www.i-b-partner.com
Company and philosophy
We develop concepts with a focus on results and implementation hand-in-hand with our customers in
a reliable, pragmatic and application-oriented way. We believe in partnership, mutual trust and goal
orientated management consulting with a focus on successful implementation – our concepts for
product-, marketing-, sales- and CRM-Strategies ensure a path of sustainable success.
Since the foundation of the company by Armin Iskander in 2005, our success has been growing on
solid foundations. Our expansion is based on attracting entrepreneurial employees who play an active
part in shaping our firm strategy and supporting our clients. Passion for our job, a readiness to
assume personal responsibility and close customer contact are the sails that carry us to success. Flat
hierarchies and a down-to-earth attitude ensure that we never lose sight of the horizon. Instead of
providing theoretical concepts, we offer the implementation of concrete solutions. We are partners of
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navigate through shallow waters and to negotiate these to the benefit of our customers. Our strong
crew is safely heading for success. In our team, every single member counts, our co-operation
ensures successful bearing towards our destination. Our result: satisfied customers and highly
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11
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