Today’s customer is in the driver’s seat interacting with companies on their own terms. While in the past, customers called in and waited on hold for a customer service representative, today they are taking the reins, searching for answers and resolving issues on their own. Because of this, companies are witnessing a rise in do-it-yourself customer service, also known as customer self-care. Customer service channel preferences have drastically changed over the past three years. In fact, the Web self-service space has grown from $600 million in 2011 to $1 billion in 2012 and research firm Forrester chose self-service channels as the number one trend for customer service in 2013.Customers today expect their service provider to be there 24/7. They want to check their account, pay bills, purchase products and report issues at their own convenience. In fact, 72 percent of customers are going online to serve themselves, according to a recent Zendesk infographic, titled “Better Service through Self-Service.”

At GLDS, we offer Internet-based self-care through our CableAnytime solution. CableAnytime is tightly integrated with customers’ existing WinCable billing and SuperController provisioning software. Subscribers can instantaneously add new premium services, order Pay-Per-View, views bills, call detail records, payment history, sign up for recurring billing and report problems. Additionally, there’s no need for providers to worry about securing payments because GLDS hosts the platform, maintains security certificates and PCI compliance requirements.

For many operators, the holy grail of self-care lies in customer self-provisioning, a project GLDS began earlier this year.  We are incorporating this functionality into our 1.107.x release due out later in 2014.  Want to see what we’ve been working on?  Sign up for the 2014 GLDS Users’ Conference, held in May, 2014.  The customer-only event will bring you up to speed on everything we’ve been working on, and give you a chance to provide your input into the future direction of the project.

To learn more about CableAnytime and receive a live demo, contact us here. While registration isn’t yet open, you can find out details about the 2014 Users’ Group Conference here.