KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT PART 3 - KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 2.0 WHAT YOU LL LEARN Knowledge management is a powerful concept that encompasses many areas. We take a deep dive into the principles of knowledge management and how to share knowledge to enhance customer service and improve the bottom line. In Part 3 we take it to the next level in knowledge management 2.0. INTRODUCTION In Parts 1 and 2 we examined knowledge management and discussed the benefits of an external KM strategy, also known as knowledge sharing. So you have a great knowledge base, and you re sharing that knowledge with your customers to promote self-service and improve customer satisfaction. The next step in effective knowledge management for customer support is to use it to help you better understand your customers. In knowledge management 2.0 we look at differentiating to improve the customer experience by turning reactive customer service into proactive customer service. This requires two things: 1. Expand your definition of knowledge resources 2. Proactively push information to your customers INCORPORATE CUSTOMER DATA FROM ALL SOURCES As discussed in Part 2, customer expectations of fast, multi-channel customer service have prompted new opportunities not only for companies to meet their customers needs by providing information when and how they want it, but also for companies to truly understand their customers in powerful and meaningful new ways. 1
Knowledge management in a customer support environment is much more than just a knowledge base full of information. It means managing all the knowledge you have, from any source, and using it to its fullest potential to help improve the customer experience. Incorporating additional information about your customers can help improve their experience. Broaden your definition of knowledge resources to include your customers they re the best resource you have! Information regarding usage history, tickets submitted, products they use, etc. should all be incorporated into the knowledge reservoir. This may be information you already have, but likely in a separate system or database. Pulling it into the knowledge base makes it available to your agents and also to your customers for example in your external knowledge base when a customer searches for information they should only see results that pertain to the specific products they use. This is one way to use your knowledge management system to improve the customer experience. INTEGRATE YOUR HELP DESK AND CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH KM Both of these service areas see and hear customer concerns. They can identify the most common issues raised and provide feedback to address these head on. Also, an overview of calls by a particular customer may point to an underlying issue which can be resolved by your Design, Marketing, or Training group. Your support team has the most regular contact with your customers they are very likely to hear complaints/questions/suggestions about other areas of your company, including marketing programs, product specifications, etc. This may be received via phone or email, but the information is valuable and you want to include it in your knowledge reservoir. Keep track of ALL communications with customers to add to the knowledge reservoir whether from apps, online portals, chat, or other channels. Linking your customer service and support with KM can also help guide product & service decisions and catch help desk overloads before they begin. Omni-channel technology offers the chance to not only reach your customers in multiple ways, but to understand your customers better by collecting and integrating information about their needs and issues into the knowledge reservoir, using both query information and data analytics. Use social media comments from apps such as Facebook, Yelp and others to identify indirect customer feedback. Pay attention to online communities where customers may have open discussions about questions, issues with the product, or even product suggestions. Comments made on social media, comments on your blog posts, questions received by phone, email, and live chat are all pieces of knowledge that should add to your customer knowledge and 2
help you better understand their needs. Once you assimilate all of the information from various channels, you can use this to anticipate customer issues and be proactive. You can use it to identify potential at-risk or distressed customers, for example those who have had a significant increase in tickets submitted, or low scores on agent ratings. Broadening your definition of knowledge resources helps bring visibility into understanding the whole customer, not just understanding tickets but understanding customer behavior. This in turn helps you build deeper relationships as you start having true two-way interactions with your customers instead of just problem-solving. Remember: ANY communication you have with a customer should be adding to your knowledge of that customer BE PROACTIVE, NOT REACTIVE Now that you have an impressive reservoir of customer knowledge, you can start using that knowledge to improve your customer service offering even more. You re collecting lots of information from many sources, you re sharing it with your customers through an external knowledge base, and you re tracking metrics to help with continuous improvement. Now it s time to really rise above the crowd. Customer support personnel gain insights from a shared Knowledge Base that allow them to monitor trends facing customers and then proactively address solutions for each customer. So instead of waiting for a customer to have an issue and look for the resolution, knowledge management 2.0 says that you should feed that information to them BEFORE they have an issue. Push out notices or alerts relating to urgent communications, emergencies, significant changes, training, and other critical items to users. This approach allows your customers to get ahead of issues which may arise, and see you as a true partner in their success. This is also great information for social media blasts, which provide a significant impact with low cost and effort. Commonly requested content should also be pushed out to users, proactively addressing questions they may have. Analysis of metrics such as queries, search results, satisfaction with answers, etc. can help identify targets for information distribution. Identify proactive ways to use the information about FAQs and the customer. Consider newsletters, websites, and portals to communicate answers to common problems. The best way to speed call resolution, reduce help desk costs, and increase customer loyalty is to eliminate the call by proactively answering questions before they come up. By increasing your outreach to clients, you can preempt calls to the service center before they are made and reduce the amount of time to resolve issues. 3
USE THE CHANNELS In Part 2 you identified the best channels for customers to access your information, now consider how best to push that information to your customers. In today s multi-channel world, it is important to diversify the best channels to access and push the information to your customers, including self-service portals, in-app notices, online chats, mobile apps, and social media. These various channels offer many ways to communicate with your customers and address issues before they arise, but you should be careful not to overdo it and scare users away. Categorize issues/alerts in terms of importance, and analyze them to determine the best channel/method of distribution to your customers. For example, a simple product update may be best communicated via your website or social media, whereas a system bug is more urgent and should be shared directly with users via email and/or an in-app alert notification. INTEGRATE It is important to integrate knowledge management tools into key applications where possible, such as web (both intranet and extranet), marketing, design, production, and CRM. This also helps integrate the activities involved in information capture and reuse into company-wide workflows. This includes conversations between colleagues, customer notes, etc. With integrated KM, you ensure that capturing knowledge is easy and therefore more likely to become a part of the company culture. The ideal situation is to have all of these systems integrated and communicating with each other within one application so that you can collect, view, and run reports on all data in one place. AUTOMATE After the critical planning has been done, automate your operation as much as possible. A tool which integrates the customer contact, works through all communication channels, manages the Knowledge Base, and supports collaboration will move your company to a knowledge-based operation faster, at less cost. There are integrated tools which support the multiple processes needed to support a knowledge-based, customer-centric company in improving its maturity and effectiveness year after year. These platforms incorporate and integrate the Knowledge Base, various ticket channels, wikis, internal collaboration, and customer portals to provide a full 360 degree input and output of valuable information. 4
Sharing information at this level of collaboration between customer and help desk provides an unparalleled customer experience and positively impacts the bottom line. After all, customers who feel cared for and supported - and who are able to resolve their problems as quickly as possible - are far more likely to become your most loyal and long-term customers. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER In summary, Knowledge Management is more than just an internal knowledge base storing multiple documents. To truly manage your organizational knowledge you must not only maintain a robust, dynamic knowledge base both internally and externally, but also share your knowledge with your customers to improve ticket resolution times and customer satisfaction, and proactively push information to your customers to elevate the customer experience. TeamSupport offers a great collaborative, customer-centric support software that incorporates all of these features and also integrates with other business applications for total customer understanding. Our integrated knowledge base helps support ticket deflection and is a collaborative tool for your internal support reps as well. Contact us today to learn more or schedule a demo of our award-winning software. 5
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