Correspondence: Shaun Doyle, Cognitive Box Sams Barn The Greenway West Hendred Wantage Oxon OX12 8RD, UK. Tel: +44 7831427905; e-mail: Shaun.doyle@cognitivebox.com

¹is CEO of Cognitive Box, a marketing technology solution provider. He has been involved in over 180 projects around the world which have been concerned with improving marketing performance through the use of technology. He is currently involved in three projects implementing MRM-type solutions in UK, USA and Israel. Prior to setting up Cognitive Box, he was founder and chairman of Intrinsic, a campaign management vendor acquired by SAS in March 2001. While at SAS, he was involved in the development of the SAS Marketing solutions: Marketing Automation, Marketing Optimisation and Interaction Management.

Abstract

There are few organisations that provide world-class customer service and even fewer that provide world-class self-service. There is little doubt that the future will see more organisations focusing on self-service, least of all because of the potential to slow down or stop the ever-spiralling costs of service provision. This paper explores a potential set of self-service objectives and strategies for an organisation. It then looks at some of the key components that need to be in place for effective delivery of self-service.