Author: Harriet Norman

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Knowledge Management Best Practices

Posted on | by Harriet Norman | Leave a Comment on Knowledge Management Best Practices
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It has become particularly useful since 2020 as 49% of employed adults in the UK now work from home due to the COVID-19 crisis – a measure that is expected to remain for most employees post-pandemic. There has never been a greater requirement for remote access to knowledge, both for employees who need to fulfil their roles remotely and for customers who prefer to use online channels when it comes to getting the support they need.

Knowledge management is a sophisticated discipline that should be central to a company, interconnecting its departments and technologies. To some, knowledge management might be perceived as complex, but it doesn’t need to be daunting. These 12 Knowledge management best practices aim to simplify and help you get the most out of knowledge management:

  1. Identify Knowledge Management Goals
  2. Choose Knowledge Management Software That Is Easy to Adopt
  3. Don’t Stray from The Knowledge Management Process
  4. Look at Knowledge as an Asset
  5. Consider Employee Needs
  6. Don’t Forget the Ultimate End-User: Your Customer
  7. Don’t Neglect Regular Knowledge Acquisition Exercises
  8. Motivate Employees
  9. Don’t Forget: UFFA
  10. Remember: Leadership Should Advocate Knowledge Management
  11. Select Knowledge Management Software That Can Be Seamlessly Implemented
  12. Monitor Knowledge Management Success with Metrics

Before we jump into each of these, let’s briefly discuss the importance of knowledge management for organisations.

Why Is Knowledge Management So Important?

Knowledge Management is adopted by organisations to utilise knowledge across departments. The discipline is crucial to many companies and involves the identification, extraction, contextualisation, organisation, storage and of course, the management of company knowledge.

When implemented correctly, knowledge management gives you:

  • Faster, more efficient decision making
  • Access to accurate and consistent information
  • Reduced Average Handling Times (AHT)
  • Improved First Contact Resolution (FCR)
  • Reduced training and onboarding times
  • Increased staff morale
  • Greater CSAT and NPS scores
  • Reduced routine enquiries

Knowledge Management as a function deals with both explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is easy to capture and communicate, often involving data, documents and manuals. Whilst tacit knowledge is complex and therefore difficult to interpret and extract, it is often accumulated through experience and requires specialised methods to obtain, including interviews and knowledge harvesting.

Harnessed through specific tools and software, knowledge management allows employees access to a centralised repository of knowledge, otherwise known as a knowledge base . Depending on their position, they can access vital information quickly and in a user-friendly way.

Check out the knowledge management software buyer’s guide, here.

Knowledge management is important to businesses as it gives them control over a major asset, knowledge. It aims to prevent years of tacit knowledge from being lost or forgotten and focuses on embedding knowledge into the company culture to encourage transparency and collaboration. But perhaps most important, is the role it plays in significantlypromoting customer service and operational efficiency.

1. Identify Knowledge Management Goals

What are the drivers behind implementing knowledge management into your company?

Whether it surrounds operational efficiency, organisational collaboration and learning or customer satisfaction, it’s vital that knowledge management objectives are identified, constructed and then broken down into goals.

Knowledge management goals might involve the reduction of support costs, the increase in NPS scores, the deflection of contact for contact centres or improvement of internal communication. Whatever the goals are, it is important to set them with the appropriate people who are involved in monitoring them, make them SMART and adjust through time if necessary.

Knowledge management is considered a valuable investment, so its important goals are set initially and you have the tools in place to measure the results frequently throughout the knowledge management process. This prevents lack of control over the discipline and therefore helps you get the most out of it and quicker.

2. Choose Knowledge Management Software That Is Easy to Adopt

It’s important to note that knowledge management software is an essential element of knowledge management opposed to a best practice. Without knowledge management software the discipline could not function.

We know that knowledge management is key for businesses who wish to improve control, efficiency and customer satisfaction and that this is achieved by utilising knowledge management software.

But, what is the best way to get employees to embrace knowledge management software? Choose a tool that is easy to use. This is reinforced by Gartner who suggest you can “empower employees by providing easy-to-use powerful technologies” that positively impact employee engagement and subsequently, customer experience.

So, consider software like a Knowledge Base that centralises all company knowledge into one user-friendly library.

Good knowledge management software will:

  • Be built upon AI and algorithms to generate relevant answers
  • Utilise Natural Learning Processing (NLP) to understand naturally phrased queries
  • Allow for multiple editors
  • Gamify the editing process
  • Organise knowledge using filters, categories and views
  • Learn from user behaviour to identify errors and most popular queries

3. Don’t Stray from The Knowledge Management Process

One of the most important knowledge management best practices involves process. The process in which you use to execute knowledge management will differ from what other businesses follow. There are endless variations and steps, but in its simplest form, the knowledge management process can be categorised into 4 stages: discovery, capture, organise and share.

Discover

The first step of the knowledge management process concerns identifying what explicit knowledge already exists within the company and documenting it. This could include gathering documents from company intranets or data mining shared company resources.

Capture

This involves the skilled extraction of tacit knowledge from employees’ brains. This stage can prove complex and time-consuming as the majority of knowledge is difficult to articulate, is not documented and requires specific exercises to capture.

Organise

Once company knowledge has been captured, it can be pruned and organised so that it is suitable for consumption. Knowledge management software is used to organise, categorise and filter knowledge, allowing employees to access the right knowledge at the right time.

Share

Finally, this step includes the sharing, developing and management of vital company knowledge. Knowledge management software such as a knowledge base is used to facilitate knowledge sharing across multiple teams and locations and can even integrate with customer service tools to enhance the customer journey.

Knowledge Management Process Diagram

Not only is it vital to follow a process that integrates well with existing workflows and company culture, but it is equally important that your knowledge management process is closely monitored and carried out correctly.

Missing out, skipping or spending too much time on one area of the knowledge management process could prove detrimental to its successful execution, instead use comprehensive project management and don’t stray from the process.

You can learn more about the knowledge management process here.

4. Look at Knowledge as an Asset

Knowledge has a measurable monetary value. In companies where knowledge accumulates only in employees’ heads and across disconnected systems, they face increased operational and opportunity costs by not leveraging the value of shared knowledge.

Therefore, it’s important to communicate the idea that knowledge is more than an entity in one’s head, but to a business in particular, a valuable asset.

Once employees associate knowledge with other assets, like people, cash, brand and customers, they begin to understand its importance. Similar to how these assets have their own processes, teams and specialist software, so does knowledge.

This shift in attitude towards knowledge encourages employees to appreciate, protect and invest in the asset.

5. Consider Employee Needs

As mentioned, one of the many goals surrounding knowledge management is to better serve employees. When executed well, it is considered a valuable tool that makes employee’s jobs easier, getting more done with fewer obstacles in the way – it can even help them reach targets more efficiently.

Find out what you’re struggling with. If siloed knowledge or information hubs are becoming a problem for them? Are mundane routine questions preventing them from resolving complex queries? Or are customer satisfaction scores below target?

Your employees are one of your main users when it comes to knowledge management, so consider their needs and make decisions based on this. For example, if siloed knowledge or information ‘hubs’ are a pain point, assign an executive who knows how to tackle such a problem. If the sheer volume of routine questions is becoming a burden to contact centre employees, choose knowledge management software that can automate FAQs by using web self-service.

6. Don’t Forget the Ultimate End-User: Your Customer

From an external viewpoint, your end-users are your customers who play a crucial role within your business. Whether they require access to knowledge for customer support or sales purposes, it’s important to provide them with a tool that can produce relevant answers and resolutions efficiently. 

Web self-service software seamlessly connects to a particular view of your knowledge base – one that is built for your customers’ needs. The utilisation of Natural Language Processing (NLP) helps unravel customer queries, identifying search intent and subsequently offering your customers the information they require. 

Today, more and more customers want to serve themselves online, therefore it is vital for CX that user-friendly, AI-powered self-service tools are provided for a smooth and successful customer journey. 

7. Don’t Neglect Regular Knowledge Acquisition Exercises

Knowledge is always being accumulated. To prevent it from being siloed within teams, forgotten, or lost when employees leave, ensure regular knowledge acquisition exercises are carried out. This is the ultimate knowledge management best practice.

Knowledge acquisition exercises are designed to capture any new knowledge that is not yet stored in a company knowledge base and include:

  • Retrospect (reflection meetings that take place after the completion of a project)
  • Knowledge harvesting (scheduled meetings with senior employees intended to capture knowledge)
  • Interviews and surveys

To ensure your company doesn’t miss out on valuable shared knowledge, schedule in these knowledge acquisition exercises, this will not only capture the all-important knowledge but also encourage employees to actively document knowledge moving forward.

8. Motivate Employees

Any major organisational change can create friction and resistance amongst employees and there is no exception when it comes to implementing knowledge management. So how do you get employees to embrace the practice?

Involve employees as much as you can at as many levels as you can to create passion around knowledge management – it is something that will make everyone’s job much easier after all. Have employees contribute to the creation of knowledge articles or edit themselves to give them a sense of ownership and motivation.

Some knowledge management tools even ‘gamify’ certain elements of knowledge creation; employees can suggest articles to be included in the knowledge base, if approved the article is posted for others to interact with.

9. Don’t Forget: UFFA

The ‘use it, flag it, fix it, add it’ framework is used within knowledge management and can help with adoption and efficiency.

The UFFA model helps employees navigate knowledge management tools such as a knowledge base. It encourages them to search for the query at hand, suggesting 4 actions based on the outcomes:

  • Use it if the answer to an agent’s question is found, is relevant and complete
  • Flag it if the answer to an agent’s question is found, but is incomplete and the agent doesn’t have editing rights
  • Fix it if the answer to an agent’s question is found, but is incomplete and the agent has editing rights
  • Add it if the answer to the question is not found, this is something your assigned Editor can oversee

It is not only useful to teach employees UFFA when knowledge management is first introduced into the company, but it is something that should be practised indefinitely, becoming an everyday workflow.

A key knowledge management best practice includes embedding UFFA early on to boost efficiency as agents waste less time waiting for permissions and answers to encourage collaboration companywide.

10. Remember: Leadership Should Advocate Knowledge Management

To ensure that knowledge management is fully utilised across teams, the discipline should be advocated by key people of influence in the company. Whether it’s your directors or senior leadership team it is important to communicate the importance and benefits of knowledge management and generate excitement.

Leaders should lead by example; they should involve employees as much as possible when it comes to advocating knowledge management. Some effective methods include coaching employees, organising hands-on workshops and keeping the company up to date via regular newsletters.

If the key people of influence within your company are not passionate about knowledge management, then how can you expect the wider workforce to be?

11. Select Knowledge Management Software That Can Be Seamlessly Implemented

Having knowledge management software that seamlessly integrates with other internal and customer-facing tools is vital if knowledge management is to succeed.

You can avoid this by selecting knowledge management software that is built on open RESTful APIs. This way you can connect to:

  • Most 3rd party systems including email management tools and CRMs
  • Internal software that allows your team access to company knowledge when assisting customers. This helps agents quickly resolve customer queries by producing answers pulled from centralised knowledge
  • Customer-facing tools such as web self-service that customers use to answer their own questions. This software is integrated with a segment of the wider company knowledge, displaying relevant answers based on the customer’s question to reducing overall contact
An image showing how Self-Service, 3rd Party Tools and Contact Centres all integrate with Knowledge

12. Monitor Knowledge Management Success with Metrics

You can’t manage what you can’t measure.

Just like any new initiative or campaign that is introduced into a company, it’s vital that knowledge management is measured to ensure you are moving in the right direction and not wasting time, money or other resources.

How? Well, this will depend on your initial knowledge management goals and the core purpose for implementing the discipline.

Key metrics that can measure the success of knowledge management include:

  • Outcome analysis – knowledge feedback is measured to give companies an indication of how effective a tool is in providing a successful customer journey
  • CSAT scores – this is important for companies whose knowledge management goals surround customer satisfaction. If CSAT scores have increased, then it is likely that knowledge management is having a positive effect on customers.
  • Agent efficiency – metrics such as Average Handling Times (AHT)
  • First Contact Resolutions (FCR) can be measured to identify whether knowledge management has helped improve agent efficiency.
  • Employee engagement – if lack of collaboration and knowledge silos were challenges for your company, then this metric can help determine if you are on track. If employee engagement has increased, you can assume knowledge management is working.
  • Employee satisfaction – anonymous surveys can be distributed before and after the deployment of knowledge management, this will help you understand whether it has been accepted and successful.

There is a multitude of factors that can affect knowledge management and how it operates in your company. The knowledge management best practices that have been discussed in this article can be referred to time and time again, regardless of the stage you are at within implementation.

If you would like any advice or help implementing knowledge management into your company, you can read more here or

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Enhancing CX With Multilingual Chatbots

Posted on | by Harriet Norman

Much of the buyer process involves research and problem-solving prior to purchase; finding out product specifications, warranties and shipping information. In this article, we explore the impact that deploying a multilingual chatbot can have on CX and your business as a whole.

What Is A Multilingual Chatbot?

In customer service, a chatbot serves as a form of self-service, allowing your customers to get answers to their questions online, without having to involve an agent.  

Customer service chatbots utilise AI to automate routine queries that would otherwise reach contact centres where agents deal with them. This is hugely beneficial to businesses that experience significant reductions in support and handling costs. Routine query automation also gives agents the bandwidth required to deal with customers who have complex issues. 

For customers, a chatbot offers proactive help, answering questions and often guiding them through their online journey – a digital concierge. AI facilitates not only the automation of routine questions but the automation of tasks and processes such as payments or bookings. By satisfying customer requirements solely online, CX is enhanced and this reflects positively in CSAT ratings.  

But what happens when a business wants to cater to the needs of customers who do not speak their chatbot’s default language?  

Implementing a customer service chatbot that has multilingual capabilities into your CX mix can be the difference between revenue and abandonment. But how does it work?  

How Do Multilingual Chatbots Work?

Any self-service channel, whether that is a customer service chatbot or FAQ widget is connected to a single source of knowledge: a knowledge base. 

A knowledge base is essentially an organised library of knowledge: information, resolutions, tutorials, instructions etc. Within this library, there are individual views. These views contain specific sets of knowledge that are targeted at a certain audience.  

In this case, each view would serve an individual language. Your knowledge base would have a standard public view (in English for instance), then a French public view, a Spanish public view, a German public view and so on. 

When engaging with the multilingual chatbot, the website visitor would simply select their chosen language from languages options which would make that particular knowledge base view available to access knowledge from. 

Non-Multilingual Chatbot
Multilingual Synthetix Chatbot

Multilingual Chatbots: The Benefits To CX 

There are a number of ways in which having a multilingual chatbot can help businesses not just operationally and commercially, but ethically also by: 

  • Increasing geographical reach 
  • Providing enhanced CX and boost CSAT 
  • Generating more leads 
  • Fulfilling language requirements 
  • Assisting vulnerable populations  

Increasing Geographical Reach 

By offering multilingual capabilities via your self-service channels you can essentially cast a wider net – reaching a larger number of audiences and building a greater customer base. 

This is an opportunity to target those who are interested in your product/service but might have considered your company before deploying self-service channels that speak their language.   

Providing Enhanced CX And Boost CSAT

When a visitor is unable to achieve what they wanted on your site, this is disruptive to their overall experience, which in turn can form poor brand associations. 

However, when all it takes is a click of a button to change a chatbot’s language to a visitor’s preference, they can successfully carry out what they intended, improving CX and affecting CSAT ratings in a positive light. 

An image demonstrating CSAT

Generating More Leads 

Often prospects will require information regarding the product/service, shipping, warranty and so on before committing to a purchase. 

However, when a company’s FAQs are written in a language they do not understand, it can isolate and discourage them from buying. Whereas, if the answers to the prospects’ questions are readily available in their preferred language, conversions are significantly more likely to take place. 

Fulfilling Language Requirements 

Some companies reside in geographical areas that do not have a dominant language, instead perhaps two or three. For such businesses, it is important to offer inclusivity to those that might be interested in using their products/services.  

Assisting Vulnerable Populations  

If your company involves giving vulnerable or under-privileged populations access to services, for instance, immigrants or refugees, it is paramount that you can offer help in a variety of languages. 

As long as your knowledge base is loaded with a view written in a language they can understand, all the website visitors have to do is select that language and instantly they have access to advice, documentation and information that can help. 

Considerations For Choosing A Multilingual Chatbot 

When it comes to choosing a multilingual chatbot vendor, it is important to consider the following to ensure that you receive a product that is suited to your business needs: 

  1. Is it fuelled by an AI-powered knowledge base? 
  • Considering a vendor that includes a knowledge base that is powered by AI and harnessed Natural Language Processing (NLP). Regardless of the language, NLP helps identify the most relevant resolution regardless of how the query is typed. 
  1. Does the knowledge base offer multiple views? 
  • Without multiple knowledge base views, your customer service chatbot will not be able to offer visitors the option to switch languages, resulting in poor CX and potential abandonment. 
  1. Is it easy to integrate with other apps? 
  • Consider a vendor that offers open RESTful APIs, that allows the seamless integration between your multilingual chatbot and other key business tools such as your CRM or ID&V software. 
  1. Does it escalate to agent-assisted channels? 
  • There will always be instances when a customer has a query that is too complex for AI to handle alone and will therefore require some human intervention. This is where smooth escalation between your self-service channels and agent-assisted channels such as live chat is paramount to CX. 

If you enjoyed this article and would like to find out more about multilingual chatbots, you can read our Chatbot Guide, or if you’d any help selecting a chatbot, please

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Choosing A Knowledge Base For The Multi-Tenant Contact Centre

Posted on | by Harriet Norman

A knowledge base can prove particularly effective for contact centres that serve more than one client. Multi-tenant contact centres benefit from intelligent knowledge bases by equipping agents with multiple knowledge libraries full of content that is simple to access and navigate. 

With 93% of customer service teams believing that customer expectations are higher than before, it has never been more important to deploy a knowledge base at the centre of your contact centre. 

Serving Multi-Tenant Contact Centres Using A Knowledge Base 

Muti-tenant contact centres that serve multiple companies’ customers simultaneously need quick and convenient access to specific information. It is likely that once an agent has resolved one customer’s issue, the next customer that they deal with will be from a different company. It is therefore important that access to multiple companies’ information is seamless to keep handling times low and prevent mistakes.  

This is where a knowledge base that includes multiple views transforms contact centre efficiency.  

Each view contains a set of knowledge articles that are written for a particular audience. For instance, if your contact centre handles customer service for five different companies, then you will have five separate views within your knowledge base. 

Agents simply filter by view inside the internal knowledge which is as easy as ticking a box. From here they have quick access to knowledge articles depending on the customer that contacts them.  

How To Choose A Knowledge Base For The Contact Centre 

If you are considering a knowledge base for the contact centre but are not sure which is right for you, we have got you covered. We have compiled some key considerations for you during the vendor selection process which will help you find the best software for you: 

  1. Does the knowledge base utilise NLP? 
  1. Does the knowledge base allow multiple views? 
  1. Are AI-predictive suggestions included? 
  1. Does the knowledge base encourage collaboration? 
  1. Are analytics included for knowledge optimisation? 
  1. Is a customer feedback loop included? 
  1. Can the knowledge base integrate with 3rd party apps? 
  1. Does the vendor offer flexible pricing models? 

1. Does The Knowledge Base Utilise NLP? 

A knowledge base that is built on AI and harnesses powerful Natural Language Processing (NLP) can significantly contribute to efficiency in the contact centre. 

When an agent is helping a customer, they type the query into the knowledge base. NLP unravels the query, analysing components such as keywords, grammar, intent and popularity and comparing with the knowledge base to return the best, most relevant results. 

This reduces Average Handling Times (AHT) impacting on customer satisfaction and contact centre efficiency. 

2. Does The Knowledge Base Allow Multiple Views? 

An essential consideration for multi-tenant contact centres, selecting a knowledge base that utilises multiple views helps you frictionlessly handles customer service for multiple companies at once. 

3. Are AI-Predictive Suggestions Included?

A key consideration during the knowledge base selection process is if the software includes AI-predictive suggestions. 

This feature helps agents produce relevant answers for customers quickly and relies on powerful Natural Language Processing. When an agent begins to type the customer query into the knowledge base, NLP gets to work and on each key-press recommends a relevant article based on what is being entered. 

Implementing a knowledge base that includes such features can reduce Average Handling Times (AHT) by 25%, which in turn has a hugely positive impact on CSAT. Instead of agent rummaging through resources to find the correct resolution, AI-predictive suggestions does that for you. 

 4. Does The Knowledge Base Encourage Collaboration? 

Within the multi-tenant contact centre, transparency and collaboration are key. It’s important that agents can voice their opinions and comments regarding articles when necessary. Perhaps an agent notices that the information in an article is misleading that a link does not load properly. 

This is when collaboration is fundamental. Giving agents the power to flag an article when there is an issue and leave a comment explaining why with suggestions promotes proactive optimisation and is key to efficiency. 

5. Are Analytics Included For Knowledge Optimisation? 

Not only can knowledge base analytics help to monitor the performance and productivity of agents but they can offer insights into how to improve the content that resides inside your knowledge base. 

Some metrics tell us your top-performing articles and categories which can tell us: 

  • When customer behaviour changes or perhaps when trends are occurring. 
  • If an issue is impacting the company; you notice a spike in the category “Faults” and investigate further to find that articles regarding product faults and refunds have also fluctuated. 

Other metrics give us insight into what agents are typing into the knowledge base. There is value in analysing this data as often you might find that topics that have been searched for do not yet exist as articles. This is where it is crucial to CX that articles are created. 

6. Is A Customer Feedback Loop Included? 

It’s important to know that your knowledge base and contact centre is always serving customers effectively. But without continual evaluation, there is no way of knowing that customers are receiving an excellent service every time. 

Customer feedback loops are vital for knowledge optimisation. You can configure the questions yourself to determine what will be asked and the results are compiled together in a graph. 


For instance, if find a spike in the data where people answered “No” to “Did we answer your questions?”, you can investigate whether the contents of the article that agents were referring to have an issue or whether it is something else. 

7. Can The Knowledge Base Integrate With 3rd Party Apps?

For multi-tenant contact centres, having a knowledge base that seamlessly integrates with other 3rd party apps is crucial. Your clients will each rely on their own business tools, just like you do as a company. It is therefore vital that a knowledge base has the capability to integrate with other software where necessary. 

Choose knowledge base software that is built with open RESTful APIs for the frictionless, 2-way sharing or data with other key business tools. 

8. Does The Vendor Offer Flexible Pricing Models?

Before choosing a knowledge base vendor it is important to consider: 

  • Are your levels of customer contact consistent or is there a significant seasonal variance? 
  • Are you planning on scaling operations? Or do you wish to optimise your operations with a set team size? 

The answers to these questions will inform the kind of pricing model you require. Discuss these needs with the vendor before committing and ensure they offer flexible and session-based models. 

If you enjoyed this article and would like to find out more about knowledge management, visit our guide here or for help selecting a knowledge base vendor, please

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Knowledge Management Systems: The 2022 Buyer’s Guide

Posted on | by Harriet Norman | Leave a Comment on Knowledge Management Systems: The 2022 Buyer’s Guide
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A knowledge management systems buyers guide

Commercial Considerations

Has the Vendor Presented A Business Case?

Before any commitments are made, you and your colleagues must be confident in the knowledge management system you select. Does the ROI presented in the vendor’s forecast align with your business’ expectation of payback and long term financial uplift?

You need to know the answers to such questions pre-purchase, so ensure your vendor provides a business plan outlining the cost/benefit of deployment. This should include a projected ROI that is mapped to an implementation and post-launch timeline, used as a framework to understand your payback period. Ask vendors in your selection process to provide this framework from their previous deployments.

Does the Vendor Meet Your Customer Support Requirements?

Firstly, discuss what level of customer support you require as a company, taking into consideration that your CX delivery works at the speed of your slowest channel. If your knowledge management system support is only active at certain times of the week or day, you can only truly guarantee service during these times.

Vendors offer multiple levels of customer support from critical only, to standard office hours to weekend and evening cover. Discuss your support needs with your prospective vendor, ensuring that the terms of support, including hours, are covered contractually in the SRS.

Has the Vendor Offered Flexible A Commercial Model That Aligns with Your Needs?

Each company will have a preferred way of purchasing its knowledge management system.

The first step in understanding your own commercial needs concerning CX is considering these questions:

  • Are your levels of customer contact consistent or is there a significant seasonal variance?
  • Are you planning on scaling operations? Or do you wish to optimise your operations with a set team size?
  • Do you have existing contractual relationships that you wish to align your CX expenses with?

These considerations play a key role in determining your commercial needs, once you have the answers to these questions you can source a vendor that will match your requirements. If you are unsure about the answers to these questions, please get in touch ; we’re happy to walk you through them.

For more on Knowledge Management 101, check out the Essential Guide here.

Technical Considerations

Does the System Utilise AI And NLP?

Choosing knowledge management systems that harness AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) is inherent to your CX and CSAT scores. AI is responsible for matching customer queries with relevant results, eliminating any roadblocks that could lead to frustration and poor CX, so you need to ensure your knowledge management system uses modern machine learning principles, not an outdated keyword matching model.

NLP helps to ensure the precision and efficiency of results delivered. It understands human utterance by breaking down the query into:

  • Keywords
  • Intent
  • Grammar
  • Popularity

Each component is then analysed to determine the most suitable result. Due to its intricacy, NLP understands not only naturally phrased questions, but multiple variations of the same query without producing “I’m sorry, I don’t understand that question. Please try again” – which customers experience too often when using systems that are not built on AI.

An images to represent the 4 layers of Natural Language Processing: search keywords, intent, grammar and popularity.

Does the System Have Low-Code Integration Capabilities?

There is no reason why the deployment of your knowledge management system should be complicated. Having your system up and running across your site shouldn’t require hours of developer work or toolkit configuration, by selecting systems that provide low-code implementation, setup is simple.

With low-code vendors, integrating the knowledge management system requires only one line of code to be installed. The main benefit here includes efficiency; low-code deployment allows customer-facing tools that rely on your knowledge management system, such as self-service and chatbots to be functional as soon as possible, allowing more customers to be served online.

Can the System Easily Integrate With 3rd Party Applications?

Your knowledge management system should fit in with any existing processes, workflows and 3rd party applications that you and other departments use. Choose a system that offers open RESTful APIs for seamless integration with other apps.

Operational efficiency skyrockets when integrations are facilitated between knowledge management systems and apps that are heavily relied on by teams, such as:

  • CRM Systems
  • Email Systems
  • In-Store Systems

These integrations encourage knowledge sharing across the company, contributing to critical operational and strategic decision making whilst boosting your competitive advantage.

Learn how to optimise knowledge management with these 12 best practices.

Usability Considerations

Is the System’s UI Easy to Use?

The importance of UI cannot be understated. It is something your agents will interface with all day, every day. As a result, subtle design plays a huge role in agent efficiency. GUIs designed with quality of life and ease of use as a central principle, then refined through iterative testing, pull vastly ahead of systems build by engineers. When UI are cumbersome or over-complicated, editor and agent time is unnecessarily spent trying to navigate the functions.

Keeping it simple is key.

An image showing the knowledge interface
  • Does the agent interface offer a simple search function for finding all knowledge articles your company requires?
  • Does the editor interface enable the simple adding and editing of articles through step-by-step navigation?
  • Can key functionalities be accessed through the UI, for example, integrated chat console, knowledge analytics and user stats?
  • Remember who the users are and consider these points when choosing a knowledge management system.

Does the System Include Features That Encourage Collaboration?

Equipping agents with collaborative capabilities can only improve the efficiency and depth of knowledge. Choose a knowledge management system that includes internal messaging; allowing agents to share useful articles with one another.

Further, select a system that enables agents to suggest edits or highlight gaps within knowledge articles. These users spend the most time talking to customers and therefore should be given the tools to share their insights.

Is the System Centralised for All Teams to Use?

Having one centralised knowledge management system that stores all company knowledge in one place is vital. It enables the consistent and accurate sharing of information to customers and across departments – without one centralised source, you risk distributing inaccurate information internally and externally.

Companies face issues when their knowledge is fragmented; each team has its own knowledge management system and each customer service tool relies on its own system too. The subsequent inconsistencies and inaccuracies of information shared is problematic.

For reliability and consistency, choose a system that acts as your company’s centralised source of knowledge – one that includes all teams and integrates with all tools, including live chat , self-service, chatbots and agent knowledge interfaces.

Is the System’s Hosting GDPR Compliant?

Ensure the vendor you choose to work with is GDPR compliant, particularly if they are collecting and storing customer data.

Does the System Offer Detailed Knowledge Analytics?

You can’t manage what you can’t measure.

Ensure your knowledge management system offers comprehensive analytics. Working with the metrics in mind contributes to the constant improvement of knowledge management within your company and ultimately deliver customers better results over time.

Systems that allow you to toggle between views and tools, that offer you metrics on top-performing articles and categories plus user analytics can assist in improving operational efficiency.

Does the System Include A Customer Feedback Loop?

Do you know that your knowledge system is working as intended and that the content it is distributing is proving effective? Receiving customer feedback regarding the information that is accessed by customers and user is vital in understanding this. It can bring to light any issues or gaps with the information served, equally, it can validate if results were adequate. Work scientifically, falsify ideas and work with knowledge management vendors who appreciates this principle.

Ensure the knowledge management system you choose has customer feedback capabilities built-in. By asking customers “Did this answer your question?” and linking the responses to the system’s centralised analytics section, Knowledge Managers can evaluate article effectiveness, making decisions based on the user-generated data for optimal results.

 If you enjoyed this knowledge management system buyer’s guide and would like to work with a vendor who understands your commercial, technical and usability requirement, please get in touch with Synthetix today.

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The Current State Of The Contact Centre

Posted on | by Harriet Norman

 
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Infographic about The Current State Of The Contact Centre

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Do Live Chat Apps Work For Lead Generation?

Posted on | by Harriet Norman

Live Chat Apps Of Today 

With what started in the 1970s as a means for university students to internally communicate on campus, the very first live chat tool, known as PLATO, has evolved significantly into what we know as today’s live chat apps. 

An image that shows a student using PLATO, a first-generation live chat software in 1973.

Customers can expect any reputable brand to include a live chat service online when agent-assisted support is required. And these expectations have only increased since the pandemic began. Without face-to-face customer service, digital customer service tools such as live chat were relied upon and quickly became customers’ preference over speaking to operatives over the phone. 

Did you know, 79% of customers said their preferred contact channel was live chat? 

With demand for the quick and convenient contact channel skyrocketing,  the global live chat software market is projected to reach $997 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2017 to 2023.

 A Must-Have For Customer Service 

Live chat can be considered as a must-have when it comes to customer service, not only does it help to provide a smooth customer journey, impacting on CX and CSAT ratings but it promotes efficiency within the contact centre. 

Some live chat app providers include features within the agent interface that contribute significantly to the reduction of average handling times (AHT) and overall efficiency, therefore bringing support costs down. 

For instance, AI-predictive suggestions is a feature that recommends relevant articles to the agent as they begin to enter a query. This takes place in real-time and updates on each key-press, revealing relevant knowledge articles with optimal efficiency. 

Similarly, vendors that include a live key-press feed function within the agent interface produce huge reductions in Average Handling Times (AHT). As the user types their query in the live chat app, the agent sees a preview on each key-press. This often results in the agent finding a resolution to the issue before the user has hit “send”.  

Further, live chat works seamlessly with other customer service tools such as a chatbot. A chatbot can automatically escalate to live chat when necessary, taking place inside the same window for great CX.  

For instance, a chatbot detects that the query in question is too complex by nature for AI to handle or sentiment analysis identifies a certain word that indicates urgency. Through automation, the chatbot escalates the user to live chat eliminating the need for query repetition or sourcing a support telephone number. This significantly improves CX and streamlines the user journey 

More recently live chat apps are being utilised as lead generation tools, converting visitors into leads alongside their traditional customer service function. 

It means that now, live chat apps help with the entire user journey rather than solely after-sale should a query arise to do with the product or service they have purchased.

So, How Do Live Chat Apps Work For Lead Generation?  

Live chat apps of today include sophisticated, AI-powered features that facilitate not only excellent customer service but even lead and revenue generation. Here’s how. 

Real-Time Help Boosts Lead Capture 

Live chat can increase leads by 40%+ 

Live chat is far more accessible than other agent-assisted contact channels such as telephony or email. The time in which it takes to connect a user to an agent via live chat is considerably shorter than telephone or email which can take up to days – which by when the user might have chosen an alternative company or even changed their mind. 

But, by providing real-time help and advice to leads whilst they’re hot, the chances of conversion increases. 

Trigger Management Intercepts Critical Touchpoints 

Custom triggers can be configured that force your live chat app to launch when certain conditions are met. For instance when a certain amount of time is spent on one page or when a user lands on a specific page. By configuring such triggers and intercepting site visitors at critical touchpoints within the user journey, companies increase the chances of capturing leads that would otherwise be anonymous and lost. 

Similarly, companies can set up intelligent escalations from self-service to live chat based on the keywords that are entered. For instance keywords such as “subscribe”, “buy” or “new account” indicates a lead and potential new business. By forcing live chat at these moments, companies increase the likeliness of lead generation. 

Seamless Integrations Fasttrack Lead Nurturing 

Effective live chat apps include open RESTful APIs that enable the two-way sharing of data amongst 3rd party apps such as CRMs. Such integrations automatically send lead data to your CRM, populating the system ready for salespeople to begin the nurturing process. 

Other popular 3rd party business tools that live chat integrates with to help convert leads into customers are: 

  • Email marketing systems
  • Ecommerce software 
  • Analytics platforms 

Intelligent Forms Automatically Capture Lead Data 

In digital CX, when it comes to lead generation it is good practice to capture personal information at the earliest possible opportunity. This prevents valuable lead data from being lost if, for example, the connection is lost. 

By including a mandatory form when a live chat conversation is first initiated, companies not only capture lead data, but if something goes wrong, with information such as email address acquired, companies have a secondary method of contact whereby user queries can still be answered, contributing to good CX. 

Asynchronous Messaging Allows For 24/7 Support 

Some live chat apps offer asynchronous messaging. This gives the user control over when they message the agent, initiating and continuing the conversation without it timing out. It maintains the chat history for the user to look back over and ultimately means that they can ask a query 24/7, rather than having to wait a certain time to do so. 

This provides convenience and flexibility to the user, who is in control of when they submit a question or reply to an answer – particularly useful for those with busy lifestyles.

Live Chat Apps: Beyond Customer Service And Lead Gen 

What is next for live chat apps?

From customer service to lead generation and revenue generation, here are just some of the processes we can expect to see live chat handle today and in the future: 

  • Identification & Verification (ID&V) 
  • Quotations and purchases 
  • Augmented reality for fixing physical issues in real-time 

If you enjoyed this article and would like to learn more about live chat, you can read our guide here or for advice on which live chat app is right for your business, please get in touch. 

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The Top 5 Benefits Of A Self-Service Contact Centre

Posted on | by Harriet Norman

The requirement for self-service contact centres has only increased since the pandemic. Periods of non-contact and lockdowns meant that consumers had to learn the self-serve – so much so, that for many who are now tech-savvy, it is their preference. 

Contact centres understand not only the benefits in which self-service has on their customers but also the benefits it has to overall business efficiency.  

This article explores the top 5 benefits of a self-service contact centre: 

  1. Contact centre costs are considerably reduced 
  1. Resolution times shrink for better cx 
  1. Improved ESAT positively influences CSAT 
  1. Overall agent efficiency skyrockets 
  1. Continual optimisation of knowledge through feedback 

1. Contact Centre Costs Are Considerably Reduced

Before self-service contact centres, getting a resolution to a customer query went something like this: 

  1. Customer visits website
  2. Customer navigates to the Support page
  3. Customer rings the support number provided 
  4. Customer waits on hold for 20 minutes   
  5. Customer explains their query to an operative, before being transferred to the correct department
  6. Customer explains their query once again to the specialist operative 

Not only are there multiple steps to this process, making the overall experience cumbersome for the customer, but each step that involves handling the query itself has overheads attached to it.  

When we consider just how many queries a company receives each day, these support costs accumulate and can prove particularly costly over time. 

However, with the introduction of AI-powered self-service tools, getting a resolution to a customer query looks like this: 

  1. Customer visits website
  2. A chatbot asks if they require help with anything, to which the customer enters their query
  3. Using sophisticated Natural Language Processing (NLP), the chatbot produces an article that is relevant to the customer’s query   

70% Experience A Reduction In Call Volumes When Chatbots Are Deployed. 

Not only is this a shorter and smoother journey for the customer but it involves zero agent involvement, removing those costs associated with handling the query. 

Through the automation of routine queries and even tasks such as quotes, payments and ID&V, support costs are significantly reduced for the contact centre. 

2. Resolution Times Shrink For Better CX

A critical factor affecting good customer service is resolution time, the total time in which it takes for a customer’s query to be resolved – from start to finish. 

As demonstrated above, there are far fewer steps in the customer journey that utilises self-service in comparison to the one that does not utilise self-service. This is because the latter relies on agent availability and depth of specialist knowledge – which can be limited.  

AI, on the other hand, is available 24/7, produces automatic responses and therefore will never need to put a customer on hold to find the correct article or to consult a manager. 

This slashes resolution times and is made possible through an AI derivative known as Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP receives the customer query on behalf of the chatbot or self-service tool and by unpacking each of its components and analysing them, can understand intent. This allows the very best and relevant results to be produced quickly. 

67% of customers prefer to solve issues themselves 

Self-service is quick, convenient and has quickly become the now tech-savvy consumer’s preference. 

3. Improved ESAT Positively Influences CSAT 

In a recent survey, contact centre executives were asked about their experiences. It was revealed that 74% of those asked felt that agent experience had a significant impact on customer experience.  

This suggests that there is a correlation between empowered employees and satisfied customers; when agents have job satisfaction, customer service is better. 

But what does this have to do with the self-service contact centre? 

Through powerful AI and by harnessing NLP, self-service software independently handles 20% of all routine queries online. This means that significantly fewer routine queries and tasks end up reaching contact centre agents. 

Instead, with routine queries partially filtered out, the agent gets to interact and help customers with complex and serious issues. By reducing the mundane from their job roles, agents feel empowered – particularly by finding resolutions to complicated questions. It gives them job enrichment and purpose. 

In short, self-service enhances employee satisfaction, which in turn can improve CSAT.

4.  Overall Agent Efficiency Skyrockets 

Self-service tools such as chatbots or FAQ widgets are powered by one centralised, intelligent knowledge base. This is central to the company and not only utilises AI to fuel customer service tools but also powers the interface in which agents use to resolve customer queries in the contact centre. 

 

An image to show how Synthetix products connect

When a company adopts a self-service contact centre, they begin to reap the benefits of the agent-facing console, with productivity and efficiency skyrocketing. 

The agent interface includes an integrated mini knowledge base so that hundreds, maybe thousands of articles of knowledge are available at agents’ fingertips.  

For optimal efficiency, AI-predictive suggestions recommend relevant articles on every key-press which significantly reduces the time in which it takes to handle a query, minimising Average Handling Time (AHT) and promoting CX.

 

 

Further, for self-service contact centres that include live chat as a contact channel, the live key-press feed feature allows agents to preview what users are typing in real-time before they hit “send”. This allows agents to sometimes craft a response before the query has even been sent, reducing wait time considerably. 

 Read: Choosing A Knowledge Base For The Multi-Tenant Contact Centre.

5. Continual Optimisation of Knowledge Through Feedback

Self-service software not only reduces routine contact levels but also helps companies with optimising the knowledge that resides within their centralised knowledge base.  

By including customer feedback prompts within each knowledge article, companies can grasp an idea of whether the content is serving its intended purpose – that is, resolving customer queries or not.  

 

an image that shows how user feedback is left on self-service software.

The wider knowledge base analytics centre can tell companies which articles were effective or optimisable over time, making it transparent and easy to identify which require improving and which are working. 

Similarly, data will show if an article is optimisable by comparing the query with the position of the article. If the article did not show as a first-page result then its keyword matching and intent will need looking into. 

Here’s How Synthetix Self-Service Solves Contact Centre Problems 

Over 80% consider bots and AI robotic automation to be an important function of the contact centre, yet only 48% have deployed such technology into the contact centre. 

With a fast-changing, customer-centric landscape it is vital to the success of CX and general business that self-service is incorporated into the contact centre.

For expert advice as to how the self-service tools mentioned in this article can help your contact centre, 

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The Best Self-Service Software For Customers

Posted on | by Harriet Norman

Self-Service Software for Customers: The Considerations 

Rather than recommending something that should be subjective to each company’s needs, we have put together some considerations that will lead you to the best self-service software for your customers: 

  • Does the self-service software utilise Natural Language Processing? 
  • Is the self-service software fuelled by one centralised knowledge base? 
  • Can the FAQ articles be found organically using search engines? 
  • Can the self-service software be optimised for different customer journeys? 
  • How easy is escalation between self-service and agent-assisted channels? 
  • Can the self-service software’s content be improved over time? 

Does The Self-Service Software Utilise Natural Language Processing?

Natural Language Processing (NLP), a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI), is used to help analyse linguistics and by doing so, understand intent. 

For customer service and particularly in self-service software, this means unpicking customers’ queries, analysing components such as grammar, keywords, intent and popularity to identify user intent. From here intent keywords are matched with knowledge articles, serving users the most relevant results. 

Many companies consider NLP-powered self-service as essential. Not only does it provide customers with accurate resolutions 24/7/365, but it also helps to significantly reduce contact centre costs. 

Because AI is capable of handling large volumes of routine queries – queries that would otherwise reach contact centre agents – the overheads associated with query handling are significantly reduced, bringing down support costs. 

It can also remove the repetitive and mundane from agents’ day-to-day tasks. As AI is capable of dealing with routine queries and tasks, operators can help with more complex and ‘worthwhile’ issues, adding to job satisfaction, or ESAT (Employee Satisfaction). 

Is The Self-Service Software Fuelled By One Centralised Knowledge Base? 

A centralised knowledge base acts as your main source of information, powering all customer service channels including self-service software for your customers to use.  

The benefit of utilising a knowledge base here – and particularly an intelligent, AI-powered knowledge base – is that it ensures consistency of information, encouraging CSAT but also helping to prevent any problematic situations that could occur as a result of inaccurate information. 

The issue with having multiple channels and sources of information is that they have to be updated separately, increasing the risk of them displaying contradictory, inaccurate or misleading information on behalf of your company. 

Not only may your brand’s reputation come under fire, but customer loyalty may also be affected or in some cases, the consequences of showing incorrect information could lead to legal action or worse. 

Having self-service software that is powered by a knowledge base also saves significant time as knowledge articles only need updating once and changes are reflected wherever you have opted for a particular article to show. 

Can The FAQ Articles Be Found Organically Using Search Engines? 

There are a number of different ways in which a user might begin their journey. Whether it’s directly through your site or via a social media channel, it’s important to accommodate every user and their preference – including organic search engine results. 

Having self-service FAQ results findable via search engine results not online streamlines the customer journey significantly, trimming time off their session and improving CX but can also help to enhance brand visibility. 

So, how is this achieved? 

For your FAQ result to be visible in search engine results, your self-service software provider translates each knowledge article into its own crawlable, searchable URL

Can The Self-Service Software Be Optimised For Different Customer Journeys? 

Not every routine query or task has a cookie-cutter resolution or process, often there are variables and conditions that will affect the result.  

Just as agents carry out the troubleshooting process by asking follow-up questions to a user’s initial query, the best self-service software does this too. Fuelled by AI and by harnessing intelligent decision tree technology, multifaceted routine queries can be automated.  

By mapping out your users’ most common journeys, popular FAQs and additional questioning requirements, you can create smooth and effective routes to resolution – without having to involve human interception. All of which is achieved through an easy-to-use decision tree creation tool, knowledge articles can be dragged and dropped to fit common journeys. 

Anticipating and catering to popular user journeys not only enhances CX significantly but it improves CSAT scores as users are served resolutions without having to wait on hold or repeat themselves.  

How Easy Is Escalation Between Self-Service And Agent-Assisted Channels? 

There will always be occasions where queries are too complex by nature to be handled using AI alone. This is where seamless escalation between self-service software and agent-assisted channels such as live chat is critical to CX.  

Your users don’t want to be told: “Sorry no results found. Please contact support”, to then have to find a contact number,  wait on hold and then repeat themselves. For your customers, it’s a huge waste of time. 

Instead, Ensure your customer service tools are integrated, working together frictionlessly. When your self-service tools suspect that human intelligence is required, automatic escalation to live chat takes place, all within the same window to prevent repetition, improving CX. 

Can The Self-Service Software’s Content Be Improved Over Time? 

When it comes to self-service software for your customers, it’s important that knowledge article content is helpful and being optimised regularly. 

One of the most effective ways to ensure your FAQ content is serving its audience effectively is by encouraging interactive customer feedback options. Asking users if a knowledge article helped resolve their issue can help uncover areas for improvement and ultimately other users’ journeys. 

Self-service software that includes a prompt for query feedback is particularly effective when it comes to optimisation, by getting users’ take on why an FAQ did not help contributes to constant optimisation. 

If you enjoyed this article and would like to find out more about self-service software for your customers, check out our guide here or for help selecting software

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