In praise of knowledge management
*
To manage all the information agents need, contact centres often turn to
knowledge management software.
*
Knowledge management systems are becoming robust, user-friendly tools for
handling and disseminating diverse types of knowledge.
Early
in May online publisher TechTarget posted a
whitepaper titled Top
Ten Call Center Technology Must-Haves, authored by consultant Donna
Fluss, described as a former VP/research director with Gartner’s CRM practice.
The
whitepaper claimed to offer “10 call centre technology options no centre should
be without.” Conspicuous by its absence from the list was a knowledge
management system. Yet a blog from January 2016 entitled www.kovacorp.com/7-trends-in-contact-center-knowledge-management-for-2016 Trends in Contact Center Knowledge Management for 2016
said: “As any great contact center leader knows, knowledge management is a
vital—and potentially overwhelming—part of working in a large organisation.”
It
went on to say “[Knowledge management is] vital because it helps your agents
stay on track and address issues correctly, which in turn makes your business
more successful.
This
perhaps explains the omission of knowledge management systems from TechTarget’s
Top Ten. They are an emerging tool and TechTarget’s Top Ten dates not from
November 2015, as claimed, but from February 2008: its content is identical to a
blog post bearing that date and the same title from author Donna Fluss,
then with DMG Consulting.
Rather
more contemporary information on the role of knowledge management in the
contact centre can be found in a February 2017 whitepaper from Frost &
Sullivan (F&S): Enterprise Knowledge Management: Helping to Deliver
Consistent Omnichannel Customer Experience.
Enterprise
knowledge management systems, it says, “provide organisations with a solution
to create, organise, maintain, and access knowledge throughout the business.”
A
well-designed knowledge management system, F&S says, “plays a crucial role
in bridging the gap between customer expectations and an organisation’s ability
to deliver on these expectations.”
It
“significantly enhances customer engagement, not just at the pre-purchase
discovery stage, but also at the post-purchase stage of support and services.”
F&S
continues, “Agents now have the tools they need to deliver the expected level
of customer experience. Likewise, customers stand to benefit from interactions
with support staff who are equipped with the right level of knowledge to
resolve even the most complex issues with greater speed, accuracy, and
consistency. This, in turn, enables organisations to strengthen customer
loyalty, retention, and lifetime value.”
“A
leading European mobile phone retailer saw a stark increase in contact
deflection of 27.3 percent while markedly improving NPS by 12 base points after
implementing a knowledge management system.”
These
are impressive claims, and the whitepaper backs them up with some impressive
statistics. By deploying knowledge management systems:
- “One of the largest global insurance providers realised a massive decrease in agent training costs by 50 percent, and a sharp drop of 30 percent in complaints.”
- “An Australian Government agency saw its customer satisfaction levels surge to 93 percent as well as raise agent satisfaction and reduce handling time by 53 percent.”
- “A leading European mobile phone retailer saw a stark increase in contact deflection of 27.3 percent while markedly improving NPS by 12 base points after implementing a knowledge management system.”
It’s
these kinds of success rates and improvement which make knowledge management a
serious contender for inclusion in any list of top ten contact centre
technologies.
Source | https://www.whatech.com/hosted-contact-centre/news/318043-pre722-in-praise-of-knowledge-management
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan
& Co
Upcoming
Event | MANLIBNET 17th
Annual International Conference on 15-16 September 2017 at Jaipuria, Noida,
India
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