Self-service software enables customers to find information and perform tasks on their own with tools like customer portals, knowledge bases, and AI agents. This software offers convenience for customers and reduces the workload for support teams.

Our research finds that 61% of customers would rather use self-service for simple issues. But they have little patience for errors: 72% of customers won’t reuse a company’s chatbot after just one negative experience. That’s why it’s important to have the right self-service software in your customer service self-service experience and AI, so your customers always get complete, efficient service on their own.

Read on to learn about the benefits of self-service software, different types, and what to look for in a solution.

Self-service software lets customers and other users access information, resolve issues, and complete tasks without needing direct support from customer service reps. It includes resources like AI agents, customer portals, and knowledge base articles that are available any time.

Our research finds that 81% of customer service pros say customers expect a personal touch more than they used to. Self-service software can deliver a personalized experience by using data and artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor interactions and solutions to individual users. This can enhance user satisfaction and engagement by delivering a more tailored experience.

Self-service software lets your customers help themselves quickly and benefits your business at the same time. Let’s look at 5 advantages of implementing self-service software:

1. 24/7 Availability: Customers can access resources and resolve issues on their own at any time — even at 3:00 a.m. on a major holiday during a blizzard. They don’t have to wait for business hours, sit on hold, or interact with a customer service rep.
2. Increased Efficiency and Productivity: Self-service software streamlines processes through automation, resulting in faster resolution times. Your agents don’t have to help with routine questions and can focus on more complex cases and tasks that require critical thinking.
3. Cost Savings: Reducing the need for direct human interaction helps your business to save on operational costs, including staffing and infrastructure.
4. Improved Customer Satisfaction: Providing quick, convenient access to solutions on customer time can lead to better overall customer experience and higher customer satisfaction levels.
5. Scalability: As your business grows, self-service software can scale without you needing to significantly expand customer support resources.

Many industries rely on self-service software to offer more convenience for their customers while freeing up their support team to focus on more critical tasks. Here are a few examples:

1. Financial Services: Customers can use self-service software on mobile apps to check account balances, transfer funds, pay bills, apply for loans, and manage investments without needing to visit a branch or speak with a customer service rep.
2. Retail: Self-service kiosks in stores and customer portals with self-service software allow shoppers to browse products, place orders, track deliveries, process returns or exchanges, and manage their accounts independently.
3. Healthcare: Patients can use self-service software in online portals to schedule appointments, view lab results, request prescription refills, and communicate with Healthcare providers.
4. Communications: Customers can view and pay bills, manage their accounts, report and track service outages, upgrade or change plans, and troubleshoot common technical issues on their own.
5. {{industry.public_sector}}: Government customers can renew licenses and permits, pay taxes and fines, apply for services, check the status of applications, schedule appointments, report issues, and access public records and information conveniently online, without needing to visit government offices in person.

Self-services tools are essentially automated customer service. Let’s look at five types of self-service software:

1. Knowledge Base: This is a searchable repository of knowledge articles, guides, and FAQs that users can consult to find answers to common questions or problems.
2. Customer Portals: These secure service portals let users manage their accounts, track orders, access personal data, or submit service requests without the need for agent interaction.
3. AI Agents: AI agents provide 24/7 customer assistance, such as answering questions using your knowledge base or sharing an order status based on a customer’s authenticated data. Agentforce uses advanced language models and the Atlas Reasoning Engine to provide accurate and understandable responses based on your CRM and external data.
4. Chatbots: AI chatbots provide automated responses to customer queries, guiding them through troubleshooting or assisting with simple tasks like order status inquiries.
5. Automated Ticketing Systems: Ticketing tools let customers create, track, and manage support tickets on their own, helping them resolve issues and communicate with support teams when necessary.
6. Interactive Voice Response (IVR): This is a phone-based system that uses voice recognition or keypad input to guide users through a series of options for self-service, such as checking bank account balances, resetting passwords, or activating credit cards.

Self-service software success depends on careful planning, thorough training, and continuous improvement. These steps help ensure that the platform meets business needs, users are comfortable and proficient with the tools, and the system can evolve to incorporate feedback and improve performance.

Let’s dig into each step:

• Assess Needs: Begin by assessing your business and customer needs and identifying the specific self-service features required.
• Choose the Right Platform: Select a customer self-service solution that aligns with your needs and budget. Consider factors like ease of use, integration capabilities, and scalability.
• Define Objectives: Clearly define your objectives and customer service metrics to measure the success of your self-service implementation.

• User Training: Provide comprehensive training for your team to ensure they are comfortable using the self-service platform themselves. Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, is a great way for your team to learn important skills related to the self-service experience.
• Customer Training: Offer knowledge base articles and guides to help customers understand how to use the self-service software tools effectively. Use generative AI to create these training resources faster — be sure to have a human review for accuracy.
• Ongoing Support: Establish a support system for ongoing assistance and troubleshooting.
• AI Grounding: Your self-service knowledge base, which can include third-party sources through Unified Knowledge, is the basis for your organization’s help content to train customer service AI, like Agentforce. Grounding AI on your knowledge base is critical for Search Answers, Salesforce Self-Service’s AI-generated search summaries, and Agentforce, which encompasses Salesforce’s autonomous AI agents for helping customers on your help center or authenticated portal.

• User Training: Provide comprehensive training for your team to ensure they are comfortable using the self-service platform themselves. Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, is a great way for your team to learn important skills related to the self-service experience.
• Customer Training: Offer knowledge base articles and guides to help customers understand how to use the self-service software tools effectively. Use generative AI to create these training resources faster — be sure to have a human review for accuracy.
• Ongoing Support: Establish a support system for ongoing assistance and troubleshooting.
• AI Grounding: Your self-service knowledge base, which can include third-party sources through Unified Knowledge, is the basis for your organization’s help content to train customer service AI, like Agentforce. Grounding AI on your knowledge base is critical for Search Answers, Salesforce Self-Service’s AI-generated search summaries, and Agentforce, which encompasses Salesforce’s autonomous AI agents for helping customers on your help center or authenticated portal.

When evaluating self-service software, here are key factors to consider:

1. Ease of Use: The software should have an intuitive, user-friendly interface that makes it easy for customers to navigate and find the information or solutions they need without requiring technical skills or formal training.
2. Omnichannel Support: Look for software that supports multiple customer service channels: voice, chat, WhatsApp, web, and more. This way, your customers can access self-service options from their preferred platforms.
3. Customization and Personalization: The ability to tailor the software to match your brand and offer personalized content or suggestions based on user behavior is important for creating a better customer service experience
4. AI and Automation Capabilities: AI agents offer intelligent, real-time assistance, provide valuable insights, and streamline processes to improve customer experience. Service Cloud’s agentic Self-Service, for example, integrates Agentforce – our autonomous AI agents – with customer portals, transforming self-service from a reactive experience into one that’s not just low-effort, but drastically increases resolution rates.
5. Integration with Existing Systems: Ensure the software can integrate seamlessly with your existing CRM, help desk, or other business systems, allowing for smooth data sharing and an efficient workflow.
6. Robust Knowledge Base: A well-structured and searchable knowledge base is critical, providing customers with relevant articles, FAQs, and tutorials for quick problem-solving.
7. Scalability: As your business grows, the software should be able to scale easily to handle more users, queries, and support needs without performance issues or additional infrastructure.
8. Analytics and Reporting: The ability to track user interactions, monitor common questions, and generate insights through reporting helps optimize the system and identify areas for improvement.
9. Security and Compliance: Data security features, such as encryption and compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR are essential to protect customer information.
10. Self-Service Adoption and Success Metrics: Look for software that offers tools to track user engagement, feedback management, and resolution rates to ensure the platform is effectively meeting customer needs.

By prioritizing these features, you can select self-service software that improves customer satisfaction, enhances operational efficiency, and grows with your business.

Service Cloud offers a fully integrated agentic self-service experience so businesses can combine the power of Agentforce, Data Cloud, and Salesforce Customer 360 applications to deliver smarter, faster, more personalized self-service at any time, on any channel.

Some benefits of agentic Self-Service include:

• Faster resolutions: Connect customers to actionable answers instantly with always-on AI agents that provide specialized assistance across diverse topics, generative AI to summarize search results, and integrated customer data to personalize self-service, reducing customer effort and improving first-touch resolution.
• Cost savings: Increase self-service resolutions by over 80% to significantly reduce support case volume and operational costs–including up to 5 times faster ROI and 20% lower total cost of ownership.
• Increased service productivity: Minimize self-service escalations with Agentforce, freeing up your service teams to focus on complex, high-impact cases that demand human empathy, strategic thinking, and relationship-building.
• Improved customer satisfaction: Deliver self-service experiences that are finely tuned to customers’ profiles thanks to real-time customer data and behavior powered by Data Cloud.

Service Cloud offers a fully integrated agentic self-service experience so businesses can combine the power of Agentforce, Data Cloud, and Salesforce Customer 360 applications to deliver smarter, faster, more personalized self-service at any time, on any channel.

Some benefits of agentic Self-Service include:

• Faster resolutions: Connect customers to actionable answers instantly with always-on AI agents that provide specialized assistance across diverse topics, generative AI to summarize search results, and integrated customer data to personalize self-service, reducing customer effort and improving first-touch resolution.
• Cost savings: Increase self-service resolutions by over 80% to significantly reduce support case volume and operational costs–including up to 5 times faster ROI and 20% lower total cost of ownership.
• Increased service productivity: Minimize self-service escalations with Agentforce, freeing up your service teams to focus on complex, high-impact cases that demand human empathy, strategic thinking, and relationship-building.
• Improved customer satisfaction: Deliver self-service experiences that are finely tuned to customers’ profiles thanks to real-time customer data and behavior powered by Data Cloud.