Knowledge Management in Support & Service: The Customer’s View
Services organizations employing strong knowledge management programs aspire to empower, delight and enhance their customers’ experience through better knowledge. But what does the customer think? Does it matter to a customer if an organization is pursuing good KM practices? And how would they define success? 
Managed Knowledge Drives Support Success
We’ve all experienced the frustration that comes from a poor support experience. And we’ve all experienced the delight and magic that comes from support knowledge flowing to us quickly, accurately and effortlessly. The development and delivery of support knowledge is fundamental to delivering great customer interactions.
It drives key capabilities such as:
- Faster, higher-quality and more focused answers
- Consistent answers across support channels
- Ability to do a wider range of self-help tasks with high-quality knowledge
- Ability to influence the quality of information through knowledge ratings and feedback
- Seamless support: dynamically driving the ‘next best option’—chat, email or other service interaction—based on the question/issue
- Personalized support experience when knowledge results can incorporate and infuse an individual’s personal data to give highly focused results
Great KM Is Expected and Valued
Knowledge has become an expected and valued component of any service experience. At the end of the day, customers look for their solutions and services to empower them. They expect:
- Productivity: High-quality knowledge means customers spend less time looking for information or dealing with support, giving them more time in their day.
- Confidence: Right answers the first time give confidence that support can help, instead of customers playing “agent roulette” to get the best information.
- Flexibility: Managed knowledge provides customers with options to choose which channel they want and help ensure that the information and experience are consistent.
Customers Measure Success the Same Ways You Do
Customers have exactly the same goals as support organizations when it comes to how knowledge impacts their experience! They want fast, relevant, high-quality answers—that’s what support is all about.
- First-Contact Resolution: Customers want the right answer, the first time. Callbacks occur when customers receive incomplete, unclear, or inaccurate answers—all issues that good KM addresses directly. Fit to task is key: The scope of the answer should reflect the question and give the necessary background and steps required to achieve the desired result.
- Lower handle time: The faster the best information can be found and presented, in a customer-consumable way, the shorter the interaction needs to be. Speed of answer is a key measure of responsiveness and value between a customer and an organization.
- Quality of Answer: KM best practices focus on tailoring knowledge for the specific context of its use, which means that customers get answers that directly match the questions they’re asking. Providing answers in the exact context of a customer’s need contributes directly to delivering the best information, quickly and accurately.
- Driving to Self-Help: Ability to execute self-help is a major goal in many service scenarios. Just think about the number of self-help sites you use today. Would you still patronize these companies if self-help suddenly went away and you were forced to call for everything?
Knowledge Management: The Enabler of Great Customer Interactions!
The post Knowledge Management in Support & Service: The Customer’s View appeared first on Customer Experience Management Blog.
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