Rotten Data: The impact of outdated content and screenshots on your Support Metrics

The importance of keeping your help documentation accurate and up-to-date cannot be overstated. Providing customers with accurate and timely information that addresses their queries and concerns is a cornerstone of effective customer support, regardless of the channel or method of communication used. When support articles become outdated or screenshots fail to reflect the latest features or updates of your product, customers are left grappling with obsolete information that no longer meets their expectations. This disconnect goes beyond mere inconvenience; it often leads to frustration and dissatisfaction as customers struggle to find relevant solutions to their problems. And this frustration, more often than not, leads to a decline in many of your most important support metrics.

Below are just some of the key support metrics that can be negatively impacted by outdated content and product screenshots in your support articles.

Increased support volume

One of the most immediate consequences of outdated support articles is an increase in customer support tickets. When your customers encounter inaccurate or obsolete information in your help documentation, whether it be the text itself or the product screenshots, the likelihood of them needing to reach out to your support team for clarification or assistance increases significantly. And this spike in support ticket volume can place an undue burden on your support infrastructure in a number of ways.

Increased workloads and longer response times

The increase in ticket volume stemming from your customers’ inability to find accurate information in your help center leads to an increased workload for your support agents and, crucially, also leads to longer response times for your customers, compounding their frustration and dissatisfaction.

Decrease in agent morale

Additionally, as your support agents are forced to spend more time addressing repetitive or avoidable queries, their productivity and efficiency may suffer, exacerbating the overall strain on your support infrastructure. The increased workload means your customer support agents have less free time to devote to tasks that often feel more meaningful and more challenging issues, which can negatively impact the morale of your agents and decrease job satisfaction.

Reduced customer satisfaction

Customers visit your help center with the expectation of finding solutions to their issues independently, without the need to contact your support team. Consequently, if customers are compelled to reach out to support due to inaccurate information in your articles, it diminishes their experience with your product and leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. This decline in satisfaction is not only evident in the frustration expressed by customers but is also reflected in quantitative metrics such as Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings. These metrics serve as vital indicators of customer loyalty and brand advocacy, making it essential to address any discrepancies in support content and product screenshots to ensure you provide your customers with the best possible experience.

Higher escalation rates

Outdated support articles can also contribute to higher escalation rates within the support organization. As customers struggle to find solutions to their issues, they may escalate their inquiries to senior support personnel or technical experts for resolution. This not only prolongs the resolution process but also diverts valuable resources away from addressing other customer inquiries, ultimately impacting overall resolution times and customer satisfaction levels.

Damage to brand trust

Perhaps the most significant consequence of outdated content is the erosion of brand trust. Brands invest significant time, energy and capital into building trust with their customers. However, when customers repeatedly encounter inaccurate or obsolete information in support articles, it undermines their confidence in the brand's reliability and competence. Discrepancies between the information provided in support articles, particularly the product screenshots, and the actual functionality of a product can sow seeds of doubt in the minds of customers and undermine efforts to build trust and foster long-term relationships with customers. Customers who lose trust in a brand are less likely to remain loyal customers and may even seek alternatives elsewhere.

Rotten data can negatively impact more than just support metrics

Out-of-date and inaccurate information doesn't just impact customer support metrics, it also undermines the performance of the proprietary AI systems utilized in CX operations. Much of the proprietary AI used in CX is built around your support articles and heavily relies on the quality and accuracy of the content in those support articles. When support articles contain inaccurate or outdated information, it adversely affects the functionality of AI algorithms, introducing difficult-to-identify errors and hallucinations † into machine learning models. Or in other words: Garbage in, garbage out! This can compromise the effectiveness of your AI-powered processes, such as chatbots that automate customer service inquiries, AI-driven search algorithms that leverage support articles to provide relevant results and AI systems that analyze product events to suggest relevant support articles based on user behavior.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the impact of outdated content on customer support metrics cannot be overstated. From diminished customer satisfaction and increased support workload to a loss of brand trust and credibility, the repercussions of outdated content can reverberate across your entire customer experience organization. To mitigate these risks, it is important to prioritize regular review and updating of support articles and product documentation to ensure that customers have access to accurate and relevant information at all times. By investing in the maintenance of up-to-date content, businesses can enhance the overall customer experience, build trust, and drive long-term success.

A great way to ensure the product screenshots in your support articles are always up-to-date, and to receive automatic alerts whenever product changes are detected, is with LaunchBrightly’s screenshot automation.

If you’d like to chat more about screenshot automation and how you can have always up-to-date screenshots in your help center click below to grab some time on our calendar :-)