{"id":1767,"slug":"gartner-43-percent-findability-failure-2024","title":"Gartner / Eric Keller — single most common self-service failure mode is inability to find relevant content; appears in >43% of cases","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["information-architecture","self-service-findability-failure"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** The single most common failure mode in self-service is the inability to find relevant content — appearing in **more than 43%** of self-service cases (Gartner, attributed to senior director Eric Keller).\n\n**Source:** Gartner press release, August 19, 2024 (Dec 2023 survey of 5,728 customers).\n\n**Confidence:** Verified — independent, primary press release.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** This is the **strongest indirect argument** in the brief that a queryable, structured catalogue beats an un-queryable document. None of the independent research isolates \"searchable catalogue\" as a variable — but the >43% findability-failure finding nominates findability as the dominant lever. Anchors [[rule-self-service-fails-on-findability-deliver-via-structured-records]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-searchable-structured-catalogue-working-tool-june-2026","title":"Research brief: the searchable, structured catalogue as a working tool — when records-not-prose pays off (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"gartner-14-percent-self-service-resolution-2024","title":"Gartner (Aug 2024) — only 14% of customer service and support issues are fully resolved in self-service; only 36% for \"very simple\" issues","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-self-service-fails-on-findability-deliver-via-structured-records","title":"R5 — Self-service most often fails on findability; deliver self-service via structured, queryable records, not un-queryable documents","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-searchable-structured-catalogue-working-tool-june-2026","title":"Research brief: the searchable, structured catalogue as a working tool — when records-not-prose pays off (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"gartner-14-percent-self-service-resolution-2024","title":"Gartner (Aug 2024) — only 14% of customer service and support issues are fully resolved in self-service; only 36% for \"very simple\" issues","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"forrester-53-percent-abandon-73-percent-value-time-2015","title":"Forrester 2015 Customer Lifecycle Survey — 53% of customers likely to abandon online purchases if they can't find quick answers; 73% say valuing their time is most important","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"baymard-list-usability-67-90-vs-17-33-abandonment-2015","title":"Baymard Institute (2015) — sites with mediocre product list usability saw 67-90% abandonment vs 17-33% for sites with even a slightly optimised toolset","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-self-service-fails-on-findability-deliver-via-structured-records","title":"R5 — Self-service most often fails on findability; deliver self-service via structured, queryable records, not un-queryable documents","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:12.632Z","updated_at":"2026-06-21T13:17:12.632Z"}