Customer self-care is the latest in a string of developments that are redefining the way that companies interact with their customers. By allowing consumers to pay bills and manage their accounts online, self-service has the potential to entirely remove the need for costly human interaction in the form of call centres and other expensive overheads. The cost of setting up an automated back office system to deal with customer details is well within the budget of most companies if the other administrative costs―such as printing bills―are borne by the customer. As a result, more companies are looking to self-care systems to slim down their cumbersome CRM operations. However, most fans of self-care would like to believe that there is more to their pet project than raw 'cost cutting'. They suggest that self-care has the potential to entirely subvert the existing CRM equation. By putting the customer in the driving seat, self-care allows the customer to approach companies on his/her own terms and in his/her own time. This is all very well, but the reality of the situation remains that most companies remain uncomfortable back-seat drivers, unable to resist grabbing the wheel to make sure that the relationship is steered exactly where they would like it to go.
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