2 | Moving the Needle on Knowledge Management
Moving the Needle
on Knowledge
Management
3 | Moving the Needle on Knowledge Management
Table of Contents
Introduction: Key Steps to
Successful Knowledge Management…………….………3
Step 1: Know What
Knowledge Management Is………………………….……..4
Step 2: Hire a Dedicated
Knowledge Administrator…………………………….………7
Step 3: Make Knowledge a Key Part
of Your Customer Care Strategy……….…………………12
Step 4: Consider Multiple
Ways to Use Knowledge…………………………………….15
The Knowledge Management Payoff……………………17
4 | Moving the Needle on Knowledge Management
Lots of companies have attempted to leverage knowledge
management both internally and externally, but maximizing
its use and value has not always proven easy. For many
companies, it’s been a frustrating journey of implementing
a knowledge solution only to find few people use it.
So how do you get from a largely ignored implementation
to one that is in heavy demand and usage? In this e-book,
we’ll explore four key steps that can lead to a highly
successful knowledge management implementation.
Introduction
Key Steps to Successful
Knowledge Management
5 | Moving the Needle on Knowledge Management
What is knowledge management?
Perhaps surprisingly, it’s not just a technology or a product
you buy. Granted, you buy a software solution for
managing your knowledge, but real knowledge
management is a collection of best practices and
processes for leveraging the know-how that exists in your
organization. It requires a well thought-out strategy for
creating and maintaining the knowledgebase in order to
continuously improve its performance and promote its use.
Step 1
Know What Knowledge
Management Is
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Where technology comes into play is in the ability to use
the most sophisticated forms of searching. What you don’t
want is knowledge management that relies on simple
keyword searches a la Google which yields hundreds and
even thousands of potential “answers”.
A good knowledge solution leverages multiple ways of
searching including natural language search, semantic
search, intent-based search and decision trees that ask
questions to clarify intent.
Search techniques
like decision trees
help users pinpoint
the right answer
by guiding them
through the
process of defining
their questions.
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Knowledge management uses all these search techniques
to deliver the “single right answer”. This relevancy of
response (RoR) is the equivalent of first call resolution
(FCR) in your contact center.
In fact, just as you have benchmarks for FCR, you will
need a service level agreement for the RoR your
knowledge solution delivers. Ideally, every answer should
have no less than 85% relevancy to the question, and
there should be no more than 3 answers per inquiry.
RoR Measurement
Techniques
Knowledge vendor’s
RoR algorithm
Frequency of same
response
Customer and agent
rating of accuracy and
usefulness
Subject matter expert
sign off
Did this answer
your question?
8 | Moving the Needle on Knowledge Management
A successful knowledge management implementation
incorporates all of the knowledge that gets used in your
organization and operations. This includes knowledge
about corporate policies and procedures, the information
agents, customers and partners need to resolve issues,
and knowledge that is generated through social channels.
Step 2
Hire a Dedicated
Knowledge Administrator
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The trick is to get this knowledge into your knowledge
repository and keep it current and accurate. Unfortunately,
this is the step that can spell death for your knowledge
implementation if it isn’t done right.
Too often, the approach to populating the knowledge
repository is to rely on contact center agents and subject
matter experts for voluntary contributions. The reality is
they rarely contribute. They are too busy and often do not
possess the writing or typing skills needed to quickly craft
quality content.
90%
of call center
agents type with
two fingers
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Knowledge management is not a part-time job. The
success of your implementation depends on designating a
knowledge worker whose sole function is to populate and
administer the knowledgebase content.
Look for individuals who have taken classes in business
writing. They should also demonstrate good research and
communication skills as your knowledge administrator will
work closely with contact center agents and subject matter
experts to create, review and revise content.
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It’s important that your administrator monitors how well the
content is meeting the SLA for relevancy of response.
When responses are not meeting targets, an “unresolved
process” is needed to improve performance.
Using an automated workflow, the questions and answers
can be sent to the administrator with a time limit set for
creating and publishing more accurate and relevant
content. This process continually increases the value of the
knowledge by focusing on those areas most in need of
improvement.
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Consider how the knowledge administrator fits into your
organization in order to facilitate success. A good place to
start is within the IT organization where the administrator
works with IT staff to get the knowledgebase implemented
and populated with existing content.
Then the administrator can move to a permanent
residence in the contact center—the ground zero for
consuming knowledge. When your administrator lives
where knowledge use is crucial, he or she can most easily
capture and revise content that reflects real-world
knowledge needs.
13 | Moving the Needle on Knowledge Management
Knowledge cannot live on its own. The key to adoption is
to make sure knowledge is integrated everywhere.
Knowledge needs to be behind every channel you support,
from the contact center and IVR to email, online search,
SMS, Web chat, virtual assistants and social channels.
Step 3
Make Knowledge a Key Part of
Your Customer Care Strategy
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It is particularly important that knowledge is fully integrated
with every transaction through the Web care model of your
customer care strategy.
Think about what typically happens when a customer who
is about to check out has a question. Email is far too slow,
requiring the customer to wait hours—if not days—for an
answer. By the time it arrives, the customer has long ago
abandoned the cart.
The usual alternative is a web chat with a live agent or a
phone call, both of which are costly models for answering
what may be a very simple question.
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A far better solution is to fully integrate knowledge with
your transaction systems so that answers can be instantly
supplied using lower cost online channels.
Imagine that every single transaction screen has the
knowledgebase behind it, ready to provide immediate
assistance in the most contextually relevant way possible,
whether that is a simple auto-generated text answer, a
how-to video, a chat with a virtual assistant or a link to a
social forum, for example.
With knowledge
embedded in
every transaction,
relevant answers
can be immediate,
enabling the sale
to move forward.
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Typically, knowledge management is considered as a
primary tool for customer service or support organizations.
It’s a great place to start your knowledge implementation.
Step 4
Consider Multiple Ways to
Use Knowledge
But this doesn’t mean knowledge management is useful
only in this setting. A comprehensive strategy for
knowledge management considers how it can become
integral to the functioning of multiple groups within the
organization.
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Marketing and sales departments offer an excellent
opportunity for expanding knowledge use, helping these
organizations better target campaigns and increase sales.
For example:
• Embed Search or Web chat at the
checkout screen to answer last
minute questions.
• Analyze search, chat and virtual
assistant interactions to
understand your customers’
experiences and respond
appropriately, such as proactively
inviting them to chat at moments
where they get “stuck”.
• Provide knowledge access to
telesales agents to shorten
training cycles and rapidly ramp
productivity.
• Provide feedback to product
development to create more
customer-focused goods and
services.
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The Knowledge
Management Payoff
With knowledge management, you can more easily and
rapidly resolve issues so that you can:
• Use less expensive self-service channels for customer
care
• Significantly reduce phone call and Web chat volumes
• Defer agent hiring and even reduce headcount
• Reduce time-to-resolution when agent interactions are
needed
• Increase productivity by increasing the number of
simultaneous Web chat sessions per agent
$35
average cost
per call
$12
average cost
per web chat
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Here’s how knowledge management has delivered
measurable ROI to two companies:
Fortune 500 Technology Company
• 62% reduction in average call handle time
• 30% increase in agent adoption in first 6 months
• 2,300% increase in article contribution
Fortune 100 Company
• $2.4 million savings per year by shaving 3 seconds off
each complex call
• 1 million complex calls per month handled through
knowledgebase
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Thoughtfully implemented knowledge management can
deliver real value to your organization, enabling you to
offer outstanding customer care at far lower cost.
Using the techniques outlined in this e-book, you can
achieve high rates of adoption and cost-effective issue
resolution. It’s a win-win for everybody—your customers,
your staff and your business.
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Meet the author
Johan Jacobs
Johan Jacobs is a former research director with Gartner,
Inc. Based on his 13 years of experience, Johan has
developed a depth of insight and expertise on
knowledge management, including best practices,
implementation techniques and ROI.
22 | Moving the Needle on Knowledge Management
Learn More
If you’re interested in learning more about Moxie
Software’s solutions for knowledge management,
please contact:
Moxie Software
NA: +1-800-474-1149
Int’l: +44-870-904-1122
www.moxiesoft.com