Knowledge Management in customer service

What is Knowledge Management?

Like many emerging business processes rooted in technology, knowledge management is defined somewhat differently by different organizations, and by different individuals within those organizations. Some organizations see knowledge management as a form of document management-a system that lets engineers share design data, consultants share best practices, and so on.

To customer service and call center managers, it may mean a simple, searchable database or a sophisticated, guided problem-resolution tool. We take a broader view of knowledge management and define it as a set of practices that maximizes the business value of knowledge by gathering, structuring, and delivering it at critical points of customer interaction.

Knowledge management systems are not by nature “married” to any particular channel of communication. In fact, to be fully effective over the long term, they should offer the possibility of access by call center agents, web agents, customers and partners (via web self-service), or by any combination of the above. In other words, knowledge should be a multi-channel resource.

Knowledge management systems are typically deployed to achieve specific, measurable goals in one or more of the following areas:

Lower service cost: Knowledge management helps companies lower the cost of customer service by reducing repeat calls, call handling and wrap-up times, and agent training, and by maximizing the ability of Level 1 (L1) agents to solve problems. Improving the performance of L1 agents not only enhances the net efficiency of call center staffs, but also gives companies access to a bigger labor pool, because there is a reduced need to find individuals who have both interpersonal skills and domain knowledge. Finally, knowledge management can enable companies to divert a significant amount of traffic to web self-service.

Improved service: Knowledge management also leads to better quality of service. Customers are more likely to receive the right answers faster, with no need to be put on hold or transferred to another agent. And, the value of superior customer service, of course, is enormous. A survey conducted by call center expert Dr Jon Anton for his most recent book, eBusiness Customer Service revealed that customers who buy a product with problems but receive “world-class” customer service while resolving the problem are more than twice as likely to repurchase from the company than customers who buy a perfect product with no problems at all.

Consistency in service: Without a knowledge management system, it is very difficult for an enterprise to know the responses customers receive, much less control them. Knowledge management ensures that customers with the same question receive the same response, regardless of agent, interaction channel (phone, web, email), or interaction mode (self, assisted, or proactive service). Once consistency has been achieved, it is then possible to fine-tune responses and thereby boost efficiency and quality even further.

Other results: Improved customer service often produces results in other operational areas. For example, a prominent British telecommunications company is now saving over one million pounds per year in reduced handset returns by doing a better job of identifying customers who mistakenly think their phone is broken, when in fact they don't know how to use it properly.

The continuation of this white paper will be carried in our next issue.