No self-service? Say goodbye to 1 in 3 customers.
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If your customers reach out to you for customer support or for problems to be resolved, this is must-have information. In my annual customer experience research, we asked more than 1,000 U.S. consumers if they had ever stopped doing business with a company or brand because self-service options were not provided. Thirty-four percent said yes, which means:
Not offering self-service options for customer support could cost you one-third of your customers.
Age makes a difference. When you break it down by generations, more than twice as many Gen-Z customers (43%) than Baby Boomers (20%) have stopped doing business with a company because it didn’t offer self-service options for customer support.
Traditional Customer Support
The majority of all customers (68%) prefer the phone to self-service options. While the phone may be the first choice, it does have its drawbacks. Often, customers experience wait times. While the friendly recorded message may indicate the customer’s call “is very important,” a long wait time sends a different message. Sometimes customers become frustrated with being transferred, having to repeat their story to multiple customer support agents, language barriers and more.
Self-Service Options
Self-service customer support options are available to customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They typically handle simple questions and problems, and in some cases, are interactive, allowing customers to complete simple transactions. Customers using self-service appreciate how quickly they can get answers to questions and get their problems resolved without wait times and the hassle of authentication procedures that customers view as time wasters. Some of these options include:
- Frequently Asked Questions: This is typically on a website and provides brief answers or articles related to the most common customer inquiries.
- Video Tutorials: These are often found on a website, and many companies and brands also host these videos on YouTube, which means that they are potentially searchable by using Google to ask the question.
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems: This is a phone-based automated system that allows customers to navigate menu options to find simple answers or complete easy transactions.
- AI-Fueled Chatbots: Similar to traditional IVR systems (but usually better), chatbots can message back and forth with customers. With the latest ChatGPT-type technology, it can seem as if you’re communicating with a human.
- Customer Portals: Access on a company’s website allows customers to log in and check orders, make payments, set appointments and much more.
- Mobile Apps: If a customer is willing to download the company’s app on their mobile phone/device, they may have access to an easier experience that provides many or all of the above options.
A warning: Just because some customers are demanding self-service options doesn’t mean they won’t be as frustrated (or even more) than with traditional phone support. If they don’t get their answers or you waste their time, they won’t be happy. For example, even though 39% of customers would rather clean a toilet than contact live customer support, 76% say they have been trapped in an automated menu system (IVR) and repeatedly screamed into the phone, “Agent” or “Representative,” and eventually hung up out of frustration. While these findings may seem funny, there’s a lot of truth in humor.
Demand For Self-Service Increases
In 2025, 34% of customers demand that companies provide self-service options or they will seek out a competitor, up from 26% in 2024. That’s a 30% increase. If the trend continues at that pace, we’re less than two years away from more than half of customers walking away because of the lack of self-service options.
Final Words
Self-service is about convenience, and customers love convenience. In 2025, 91% of customers said convenience is important to them, and 73% are willing to pay more if the experience is more convenient. Self-service options, when done right, deliver exactly that: convenience. They give customers control, save time and are available 24/7. Companies that provide excellent self-service can earn customer loyalty by proving they respect their customers’ time and preferences.
But, self-service options aren’t enough. Not every question or problem can be handled through self-service, which is why the best companies provide a blend. A powerful self-service option allows customers to easily and seamlessly transfer to a live agent, and rather than forcing the customer to start over, the agent can see why the customer is contacting support.
The companies that win in the future won’t be those that choose between self-service and human support. They’ll be the ones that blend both to create a customer support experience that makes customers say, “I’ll be back!”