They also bring lousy headlines. Hey, they can’t all be hits.

As consumers’ preferred channel for solving simple queries, self-service can play a huge role in helping businesses scale in a customer-centric way. Take it from Freshly. Founded in 2015, the meal delivery subscription service brings nutrient-rich, chef-cooked meals right to customers’ doors, eliminating the confusion around (or lack of interest in) recipes or evening grocery store runs.

Sometimes even the most experienced agents will face a customer service issue so complex that it leaves them stumped. That’s understandable—after all, as the technology driving many products and services becomes increasingly complicated, the need for guidance from experts on other teams has become commonplace.

Defining good customer service can seem to be a bit of a moving target, especially in this era of ever-increasing customer expectations. But the forward-thinking companies leading the charge in this new reality—such as Zendesk strategic partners Guru, Lessonly, and Stella Connect—are keenly aware that it’s their customers who get to make that determination, not them.

As bonafide subject matter experts collaborating cross-functionally across the company, agents play an important part in knowledge management. Self-service content is increasingly being used beyond the help center, such as in 1:1 channels, as served up by AI, or for cross-functional collaboration between teams. As your content changes, the processes your team takes to maintain it need to change, too.