1. Determining Your Ideal
Tier 0 Support Investment
LYMBA T H E P O W E R T O A N S W E R
©2014. Lymba Corporation. 1901 Waterfall Way, Bldg. 5, Richardson, TX 75080
(972) 680-0800 | www.lymba.com

2. Determini
Within th
companie
clock solu
interactio
wonder if
Consultin
that fulfill
When pla
your offer
acknowle
need of so
Benefits o
ng Your Ideal
e last few yea
es looking to r
utions to basic
on with a live
f pushing con
g an FAQ pag
ls the emotio
nning your in
rings to cater
dging the Voi
olving the pro
f Implementin
Approximatel
apabilities rep
eport less em
ustomer self‐nce
[A
ca
re
cu
si
Instant gr
answer.
Problems
Some con
communi
and contr
Solutions
system th
network e
customer
solving. i
Tier 0 Suppo
ars Tier 0, aka
reduce costs
c inquiries like
agent out of
sumers to he
ge or reading
nal need of a
nvestment in
to the conve
ice of the Cus
oblem that is
ng Tier 0 Supp
y] 45 percent
port measura
ail traffic. 47
service chann
g online self‐s
UMER BENEFIT
no waiting in
d 24/7.
launchin
CONSU
ratification – n
can be solve
nsumers prefe
cations and e
rol of utilizing
er non‐voice
enjoy the perc
g the self‐serv
powered by
hat are contex
environment
support agen
a knowledge
xtual to a con
will allow end
nts to collabo
If you gi
teach a m
‐
rt Investment
a self‐service,
in the face of
e password re
the equation
lp themselve
knowledge a
customer se
multichannel
ergence betw
stomer and th
subject of th
port
t of executive
able reduction
percent have
nels, and 54 p
service on th
T
queue for an
, support has
f rising consu
esets and FAQ
, but some pr
s could be ca
rticles depriv
eeking suppor
l customer su
een fulfilling
he most cost
e inquiry.
recently bec
mer demand
Qs because T
roponents fo
ausing the per
ves the custom
rt.
upport, it is im
the emotiona
effective app
es with Web o
ns in phone in
e also seen in
percent also r
e Web or mo
ome the fina
for immedia
Tier 0 takes th
r the Voice of
rceived relati
mer of a two‐mportant
or mobile self
nquiries and 3
ncreased sales
report increas
obile.i
n Less inb
ceived privac
vice portal
managemen
nsumer’s
d users and
orate in probl
ive a man a f
man to fish, y
Chinese Prov
reducti
Staffing
be cost
at time
y
Automa
they als
of prob
achieve
and tim
t
em
Solutio
ultimat
costs an
fish, you fee
you feed him
verb from Lao
PRO
bound reques
on in cost of
g live agents f
t prohibitive,
s when live a
ated tools no
so greatly stre
blem resolutio
e first‐call res
mely manner.
ns that can sc
tely minimize
nd produce a
ed him for a d
m for a lifetim
o Tzu, founde
to fi
al needs vis a
proach to man
f‐service
39 percent
s through the
sed Web traf
OVIDER BENEF
sts to live age
overall suppo
for 24/7 supp
so Tier 0 is av
gents are not
ot only help id
eamline the p
on, allowing c
olution goals
ii
cale to addre
both capital
better servic
day. If you
e.
‐
er of Taoism
P a g
e | 2
ncial darling o
te ‘round the
he need for
f the Custom
onship to suf
‐way interact
of
e
er
ffer.
ion
ind a way to a
vis
naging the lit
eir
ffic
allow
eral
FIT
ents equals
ort
port offerings
vailable to su
t
dentify proble
process
care centers t
s in a consiste
ss new issues
and operatio
ce experience
can
pport
ems,
to
ent
s
onal
e. i

3. P a g e | 3
Common Types of Tier 0 Support
According to an HDI study conducted in 2012, FAQs, password reset tools, and incident history access
are the most commonly offered Tier 0 options for customer support, and 40% of organizations surveyed
gave consumers access to their knowledge base.iii
Password Reset Tools
Password reset requests are among the most commonly requested support items, and
companies are able to automate this out of their support ticket queue by offering a web based
challenge question reset option or an automated email verification reset.
FAQ Pages
FAQ pages offer a simple destination where users can go 24/7 to find basic answers to common
simple questions. Depending on the level of analytics built into your website, they may or may
not allow your support team to view and determine the amount of visitors that are viewing each
topic or how many customers are satisfied with the answers found versus escalating to the next
tier of support.
Knowledge Base Access
Like FAQ pages, granting customers access to part or all of your knowledge base allows a more
in depth opportunity for customers to look up answers and find their own solutions at any time,
day or night. Depending on the complexity of your product or service, and the quality of
translating knowledge articles into laymen’s terms, this option offers a certain amount of
control and instant gratification to the savvy customer, but can also be overwhelming or
confusing to the customer if the topics covered are not tailored closely enough to the issue the
customer is trying to resolve.
Companies also find that if the knowledge base made available to the customer is not the same,
or at least updated in sync with that used by live agents at your higher levels of support,
frustration can arise from inconsistency in the information.
IVR
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems can streamline the inbound handling of calls and
reduce the time spent on the phone by live agents by providing menus that enable customers to
self‐serve simple things like checking an account balance or making a payment by phone, as well
as routing calls to a specific person or department specializing in dealing with the problem the
customer is trying to resolve.

4. P a g e | 4
A study published by Vocalabs in August 2005 notes that one drawback of IVR is that many
companies that employ this message are tempted to force customers to self‐serve by over‐automating
or making it difficult for customers to figure out how to get through the system to a
live agent if their issue is not addressed by the automated menu. The study found that making it
harder to reach a live agent does bump up the rate of successful self‐service transactions, but
this bump comes at the cost of an increased customer frustration rate that directly correlates
with the decline in completion due to customers giving up, or hanging up and calling back.iv
Virtual Chat
Like IVR, virtual chat offers an interesting solution to managing simple customer transactions
with an automated system that receives data from the customer and uses it to find answers.
When successful, it can meet the consumer demand for instant gratification, but cannot replace
the feel of a live interaction.
Customers who are not forewarned that their virtual agent is not actually a live person may feel
nonplussed when they offer a pleasantry such as “How are you today,” expecting a normal
human response when they receive an answer, “Sorry, I could not find relevant information. “
However, virtual chat systems do employ machine learning to understand what chat users are
saying and can pull from customer histories, sales data and knowledge base to deliver more
tailored answers as well as offers to upsell.

5. P a g e | 5
Automated Email Response
First and foremost, automated email responses answer the question – Did my web form
submission or email inquiry get through to someone who can respond? Triggered auto‐responses
can also set customer expectations for how quickly they will receive a resolution from
a live agent who has reviewed their inquiry. This can be a positive because the customer has a
time frame and does not feel left hanging on unsupported until their query is answered, but
when the quoted response time is not fast enough to suit the customers’ needs and
expectations, this can make them feel as though your company is too busy and their problem is
not important.
The best automated responses give more than an acknowledgment of the inquiry and are
connected to a natural language processing system that can attempt to offer resolutions from
your knowledge base and make them available faster than a traditional response from a live
agent.
Potential Limitations
A Tier 0 solution is only as good as the knowledge base behind it, and the most commonly cited reasons
for self‐help failure are:
‐ I couldn’t find the answer.
‐ The answer does not exist.
‐ I found an answer but it doesn’t satisfy my question.

6. P a g e | 6
As a Best in Class email auto‐answering system, Lymba’s PowerAgent SaaS offers a robust reporting feature
that enables you to track how many inquiries receive automated responses, which questions had
suggestions in your knowledge base answered by your live agents, and which questions were unable to
be answered, enabling you to quickly identify knowledge gaps and update your knowledge base with the
information that will enable even more automation.
Even the most analytical back end of a customer facing knowledge base or FAQ page will never be able to capture
emotional data and respond in a way that makes the customer feel heard.
However, machine learning programs are advancing the technology available to address these
limitations. Through Natural Language Processing (NLP) common variants of questions can be learned
and understood well enough to retrieve the corresponding knowledge article to answer a customer
inquiry.
The same patterns identified in the machine learning process can also be generated into reports that
allow the Voice of the Customer to emerge from self‐service in the following ways:
‐ Identifying positive, negative and neutral sentiment
‐ Ptioritizing inquiries with negative sentiment for live agents to respond quickly and appropriately
‐ Determining patterns where the same issue is reported with negative sentiment repeatedly so management can identify
and take preventive measures.
The interpretation of sentiment is a key differentiator of PowerAgent’s abilities compared to most Tier 0
support mechanisms.
Because PowerAgent receives email and web form messages from customers, creating a customer
interaction more akin to a Tier 1 contact with a live agent, the software is able to learn and evaluate
sentiment, flagging negative messages for priority routing and handling by live agents when appropriate.
PowerAgent enables you to offer a more personal Tier 0 transaction by answering the consumer relationship need to ask a
question and get an answer. Through artificial intelligence, the automated answering system can understand
incoming questions and utilize your knowledge base to automate answers to your customers, enabling
an average of 30% of your incoming email and web based support tickets to be automatically opened,
answered, and closed within 30 seconds of receipt. For the remaining 70%, Power Agent learns behind the
scenes as your agents select the correct answers from its auto‐suggestions.
i DestinationCRM.com (July 8, 2013): New Survey Highlights the Growth of Web Self‐Service.
http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=90678
ii Sappington, Brett. Parks Associates. © 2013. The Future of Support: Intelligence Managing Technology.
http://www.meetsymbi.com/Solutions/~/media/5C1D3982BAE948F2BA97509CE7ED7528.ashx
iii Rains, Jenny. © 2013. UBM LLC. .A Compilation: 2012‐2013 Pearls of Wisdom. Tier 0 (Self‐Help) Support. Pages
5‐9. http://dc.ubm‐us.com/i/147242/5
iv Quality Times: The Vocalabs Newsletter. Issue 22. (August 2005). Does Forcing Callers to Use Self‐Service Work?
https://www.vocalabs.com/newsletter/does‐forcing‐callers‐use‐self‐service‐work