Top Takeaways:. -      56% of consumers go to a company's website before they call customer service. In many cases, this can be a missed opportunity to contain and resolve a customer's concern. -      Almost half of the consumers believe that self-service is more convenient. 82% say that they are willing to use self-service but 46% don't expect it to work. -      Right now, most self-service channels are focused on information about the company and its products instead of the customer journey. -      Of the customers who tried self-service, 50% still end up with the live agent. Only 33% are satisfied with self-service. -      Autonomous customer service allows the complete ability to focus on the customer journey regardless of the channel. -      Autonomous customer service can be simple to implement. There are more sophisticated setups, but it can be as simple as setting business rules to monitor data, initiate outreaches based on changes in the data, and track performance. -      Autonomous customer service gives companies the opportunity to avert and resolve most customer inquiries without agent interaction. This gives companies a high cost-benefit while increasing the level of customer service. -      In 5 years, there will still be a need for human customer service agents, but the nature of their work would be more meaningful as mundane inquiries will be handled through autonomous capabilities. -      Organize around the customer journey and activate that across all channels. Quote: "It shouldn't matter how or where the customer seeks their service resolution. You should be able to rise to the challenge and meet them anywhere they want."  About: Jeff Nicholson is the Global Head of CRM Product Marketing for Pegasystems, where he leads the company’s CRM market vision and strategy. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices