Here’s the Path Forward
Self-service was meant to save time. It was supposed to make everyday transactions faster and simpler for customers while easing the load on organizations. Somewhere along the way, that promise broke down. Our new research, the Liferay 2025 Digital Self-Service Report, shows that many digital journeys have become so cumbersome that they drive people away instead of drawing them in.
The problem is widespread. A large-scale usability study by the Baymard Institute found that the average e-commerce site has more than 30 potential usability improvements within its checkout flow alone. The pattern extends beyond retail. According to recent customer experience research, only 14 percent of consumers say their customer service or support issues were fully resolved through self-service channels.
When digital journeys lack clarity and cohesion, convenience turns into frustration.
That experience gap is now costing businesses revenue and trust.
When Convenience Turns into Work
Digital self-service should reduce effort. Too often, it increases it. According to the report, 68% of consumers have abandoned a digital task and 73% have skipped a purchase because the process was too annoying.
What begins as a shortcut can quickly become unpaid labor. Eighty-two percent of respondents said they feel they are doing work that once belonged to company staff.
The frustration peaks in industries where accuracy and verification matter most. Healthcare, government, and financial services lead the list of sectors that require customers to do the most work. In healthcare insurance, consumers say their biggest challenge is finding the information they need, yet the digital service tools they are offered satisfy that need only 39% of the time. Government services face similar challenges.
A recent analysis found that 73% of state portals organize services by the agency providing them, while only 27% organize them by service type, which is generally a more intuitive way for people to locate what they need.
These are the environments where even small usability issues have big consequences. A session that expires, an address rejected by an automated system, or an unclear instruction can turn confidence into irritation within minutes.
When Friction Replaces Confidence
Consumers increasingly view self-service as a cost-cutting measure rather than a customer experience improvement, and that perception shapes every interaction. When people feel they are being asked to do more work, patience erodes quickly.
The emotional strain is clear. Sixty-four percent of survey respondents said they feel frustrated during digital self-service tasks, and 39% feel exhausted. Only 12% said they feel empowered. Even among self-described tech-savvy users, two-thirds reported feeling overwhelmed.
The consequences ripple outward. Customers who struggle often switch channels, call support, or abandon tasks altogether, raising costs and damaging goodwill. Only a third of users said instructions are usually clear, 84% have had to re-enter information companies already held, and 91% have restarted a process after an error.
Confusion does not remove work. It simply redistributes it. Seventy-eight percent of people said they have helped someone else complete an online process because the steps were too difficult to follow. The result is a shared frustration that extends beyond individual users to households, teams, and communities.
What People Actually Want
The feedback from customers is consistent and pragmatic. They are not asking for innovation for its own sake. They want digital services that simply work. When asked what matters most, they prioritized:
- Clear instructions (57%)
- Simplicity (54%)
- Support when needed (42%)
- Reliability (34%)
Features that make self-service feel humane also ranked high. People value the ability to save progress and return later (31%), see step-by-step feedback (26%), and access live chat inside the process flow (24%). These expectations do not require new technology so much as thoughtful design.
Designing for Confidence
The path to improvement begins with respecting the user’s time. When people start a digital task, they want to know how long it will take and what information they need. They want to move at their own pace without losing progress if they switch devices.
Organizations that take this seriously build systems that guide rather than test. They prefill known data, validate inputs as users type, and make help accessible without a restart. They also pay attention to what happens when things go wrong. If an error forces a user to contact support, the system should pass context, uploaded files, and recent actions to the agent. Repetition is the enemy of trust.
In many ways, the best self-service experiences are invisible. They feel seamless because the technology understands context, remembers preferences, and adapts to real-world behavior.
Measuring the Right Signals
Improvement starts with measurement. Too many teams focus only on completion rates. The Liferay 2025 Digital Self-Service Report suggests tracking a wider range of signals, such as the number of re-entries, restarts, retries, and total time spent on blocking steps.
Each is an indicator of friction. Over time, those metrics tell a clearer story about where effort can be reduced and confidence restored.
The Human Element in Digital Design
Even the best automation cannot replace the reassurance of human support. The survey found that 36% of respondents prefer to work with a person when self-service fails, 19% want human help for sensitive or high-stakes tasks, and 16% seek help when the path forward is unclear.
These are predictable moments. Building hybrid models that integrate live assistance directly into digital journeys prevents users from feeling stranded. A callback option, secure chat, or co-browsing tool can turn frustration into resolution without breaking continuity.
A Roadmap for Renewal
Differentiating self-service comes down to how the process feels. The organizations that will lead in customer experience over the next decade are those that design for clarity, respect, and trust.
Companies must unify identity and profile data, auto-save progress, guide the path with transparent feedback, and provide human help without forcing a reset. Track effort as carefully as outcomes. Over time, reducing effort becomes a direct path to stronger loyalty and retention.
As I often remind our teams at Liferay, people remember how a journey ends. When customers finish a task easily and receive clear confirmation, they leave with confidence instead of doubt. Each smooth ending compounds into long-term trust.
Digital self-service was designed to give people control. Delivering on that promise again will define the next era of customer loyalty.