Thought Leadership

First things first -- Where to Start

We often hear the question from our clients, "Where do we start?" "Should we begin by putting in as much automation as possible so that we're saving money from day 1?" "Should we start with a live deployment and then add the automation?"

This is a very good question and one we have spent a lot of time discussing, both internally and with customers. Our view is, it's a good idea to start where you plan to end up. The ultimate decision should be made based on the customer experience that you are trying to create.

If you are planning to put in a self-service solution that will only escalate under very unusual circumstances, and will exhaust all possibilities of self-service first, you will probably need to heavily emphasize automation from the outset. This becomes unavoidable, because every question that the automation doesn't know becomes a failed customer experience. You will have to start with a "big bang" approach to the knowledge that you put into the system, and also optimize your automation very quickly once it goes live. It's the only way to avoid failures, poor customer experience and poor adoption. So, in this scenario you will need to start "big" with lots of knowledge, lots of planning and a whole bag of tricks. If you have the traffic to support this approach, and a real aversion to providing live support, it could be worth the investment in professional services to pull this off. But it's not what we usually recommend.

If your goal is to provide a level of service that is as good as or better than a stand-alone live chat solution, and you plan to commit agents to that experience, it's a no-brainer to start with a live, staffed solution. In this scenario you can start with little or even no automation, because people will be there to insure a good (albeit initially expensive) experience. Our recommendation would be to have at least the beginnings of some automation as well. By starting in this way you gain a number of very real advantages.

By watching the most common questions and best answers, the knowledge can be optimized rapidly, starting from day 1. Unlike the "automation first" model, you can see exactly how well the system is performing and make your own decisions as to whether more automation would be useful. You're seeing the actual questions that your customers are asking, so there's no mystery. No need to overbuild or attempt a "big bang."

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