What is Self-Help Assistance?

Self-Help Assistance is a new support experience that introduces a case assistance function into the customer support journey when submitting a case in the Support Center. It is designed to help enrolled customers receive immediate guidance for suitable support questions while keeping a clear path to Customer Care-assisted support when human help is needed.

Why is Clarivate introducing Self-Help Assistance?

We are introducing Self-Help Assistance to make support faster, clearer, and easier to use. Many support questions can benefit from immediate guidance based on approved knowledge sources. Self-Help Assistance enables customers to resolve suitable issues more quickly while also helping Customer Care gain better context when a case requires human follow-up.

Self-Help Assistance is designed to become an integral part of the Customer Care experience, combining immediate guidance through the case assistance function with seamless access to human support when needed.

How does Self-Help Assistance fit with existing support options?

Self-Help Assistance is designed to be an integral part of the Customer Care experience, providing customers with immediate AI-assisted guidance while preserving access to human support when needed.

If Self-Help Assistance does not resolve your issue, or if you prefer assistance from a Customer Care representative, you can use the Continue with Case Submission option at any time during the Self-Help Assistance interaction.

If you continue with a case submission to Customer Care, relevant information from your Self-Help Assistance interaction will be available in the support case, providing the Customer Care analyst with additional context and reducing the need to repeat information you have already provided.

The aim is to create a more seamless and efficient support experience that combines the benefits of AI-assisted guidance with human expertise.

Which products are included?

At this time, Self-Help Assistance is starting with Alma. Clarivate expects to continue expanding the experience to additional products over time.

Who can use Self-Help Assistance?

Self-Help Assistance is available to customers whose account has been enabled for the experience. If an account is enabled, Self-Help Assistant is available for all users associated with that account.

Enablement requires submitting an enrollment request.At this stage, we are rolling out in a controlled manner.

This is the link to register. Clarivate AI Tool Enrollment Registration – Fill out form

When will Self-Help Assistance be available for additional products?

Expansion into additional products will occur over time and depend on customer feedback, operational readiness, knowledge coverage, and product-specific support needs.

What happens when I open an Alma support request?

For enrolled Alma customers, the support journey will include a Self-Help Assistance step. The customer provides the essential information needed to describe the issue, and Self-Help Assistance uses that context to provide guidance, troubleshooting steps, or a potential resolution.

If the response provided through Self-Help Assistance resolves the issue, the customer can indicate that the response was helpful. If the customer prefers support from a Customer Care analyst, or if the issue is unresolved, they can continue with the case submission to Customer Care at any time during the Self-Help Assistance interaction.

What information does Self-Help Assistance use to answer my question?

Self-Help Assistance uses approved customer-facing knowledge sources and the information provided by the customer in the support flow. Its purpose is to provide relevant guidance based on available, approved content.

If the available information is insufficient to provide useful guidance, Self-Help Assistance may recommend continuing with Customer Care.
You can also do this at any time using the “Continue with case submission” option.

Can I ask follow-up questions?

Yes. Customers may interact naturally with Self-Help Assistance and ask follow-up questions. If the issue remains unresolved, the customer can continue to submit the case.

Can I still open a support case?

Yes. Customers can continue to submit cases at any time by choosing the “Continue with case submission” option in the Self-Help Assistance window.

What happens if Self-Help Assistance resolves my issue?

If the Self-Help response provided through Self-Help Assistance resolves the issue, the customer can indicate that the issue was resolved. This feedback helps Clarivate understand which questions are being handled successfully and where the experience is working well.

What happens if Self-Help Assistance does not resolve my issue?

If Self-Help Assistance does not resolve the issue, the customer can continue to case submission for Customer Care-assisted support. The case will include relevant information from the Self-Help Assistance interaction to help Customer Care understand the issue.

Will a case be created when I use Self-Help Assistance?

Yes. A case is created in the background when customers use Self-Help Assistance, even if the issue is resolved through the Self-Help Assistance interaction. This ensures the interaction is tracked and available for reporting, follow-up, and support context if needed.

Will I need to repeat information that I already provided through Self-Help Assistance?

The intent is that customers should not need to repeat information already provided during the Self-Help Assistance interaction. Customer Care should have access to the relevant Self-Help Assistance interaction context when reviewing the submitted case.

Customer Care may still ask follow-up questions if additional details are needed to investigate, validate, or resolve the issue.

Will Self-Help Assistance change case routing?

Cases that continue to Customer Care are expected to follow the normal case routing process. The Self-Help Assistance interaction provides additional context, but the support handling path remains part of the standard Customer Care process.

Will a human still review my case?

Yes. If the issue is not resolved through Self-Help Assistance, it will be handled through the normal support process. Customer Care analysts may use the Self-Help Assistance interaction details as context, but human support remains available when needed.

How should I provide feedback?

Customers are encouraged to provide feedback on individual Self-Help Assistance responses using the feedback options available in the Self-Help Assistance experience, such as thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Each Self-Help Assistance response in the interaction can be rated separately, so a single session may include several opportunities to indicate whether a specific response was helpful or not helpful. This feedback helps Clarivate understand what is working well, identify gaps or unclear guidance, and improve the Self-Help Assistance experience over time.

What kind of feedback is most useful?

·         Whether the Self-Help Assistance response was correct.

·         Whether the answer was clear and easy to follow.

·         Whether Self-Help Assistance understood the question.

·         Whether the guidance helped resolve the issue.

·         Whether the transition to case submission worked smoothly.

·         Any knowledge gaps, confusing wording, or missing information.

·         Any technical issues with the flow.

How is my information used during the Self-Help Assistance interaction?

When you use Self-Help Assistance, the information provided in the support flow is used to understand your question and provide AI-assisted guidance. This includes the support priority, subject, description, and the relevant product.

A case is created in the background for tracking, and the Self-Help Assistance interaction transcript is saved as part of the support record. The transcript is available for you to review in the Support Center and may also be available to authorized Customer Care staff if the request transitions to case submission. This helps avoid asking you to repeat information you already provided and gives Customer Care additional context if follow-up is needed.

Is my information used to train AI models?

Customer data is never used to train AI models, including third-party models, and it is not shared between customer instances.

What information should I include when using Self-Help Assistance?

Please provide only the information needed to describe the support issue, such as what you were trying to do, what happened, relevant error messages, and steps you have already taken.

Who can access the Self-Help Assistance interaction details saved in the support case?

A case is created in the background when you use Self-Help Assistance, whether the issue is resolved through the Self-Help Assistance interaction or continues to case submission. Relevant Self-Help Assistance interaction details, including the transcript, are saved as part of the support case.

The transcript is available for your review in the Support Center and may also be available to authorized Customer Care staff for support context, reporting, follow-up, and quality review where appropriate.

What sources does Self-Help Assistance use?

The Self-Help Assistance experience uses a certified, up-to-date knowledge base and information from the known issues platform.

What happens if the Self-Help Assistant gives an incorrect or incomplete answer?

If the AI response is incorrect, incomplete, unclear, or not useful, customers should provide feedback where possible. If the issue remains unresolved, customers should continue to case submission for Customer Care-assisted support.

Feedback is used to improve the experience, identify knowledge gaps, and refine the support process.

Can Self-Help Assistance handle every support issue?

Self-Help Assistance is best suited for informational and troubleshooting questions where knowledge and guidance are available. Some issues require customer-specific analysis, technical investigation, access to account-specific data, or expert judgment. Those issues should continue to case submission.

What should I do if I need to report a business-critical system down?

Customers should complete the support request form as usual and mark the priority as System Down. When this priority is selected, the system automatically skips the Self-Help Assistance step and routes the request through the standard high-criticality System Down support flow.

• Article last edited: DD-Mmm-YYYY