Category: Knowledge-Management

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

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

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.

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? 

2. Does the knowledge base allow multiple views? 

3. Are AI-predictive suggestions included? 

4. Does the knowledge base encourage collaboration? 

5. Are analytics included for knowledge optimisation? 

6. Is a customer feedback loop included? 

7. Can the knowledge base integrate with 3rd party apps? 

8. Does the vendor offer flexible pricing models? 
   

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:

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.

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.

• 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.

Why Is an Internal Knowledge Base Fundamental for Business?

An internal knowledge base is essentially a company’s central library of knowledge, packaged in an agent-friendly interface. It contains all the fundamental information that employees and other stakeholders require to work effectively. This includes anything from returns policies to product specifications and troubleshooting videos to decision trees.

Access to this sort of information is vital for agents whose roles are to facilitate customer support. With customers expecting fast answers to questions and quick fixes to their issues it is important that agents can find the correct knowledge articles efficiently in order to satisfy customers.

The internal knowledge base interface that agents utilise everyday works by with your company’s wider knowledge base to retrieve relevant and accurate knowledge articles that help to solve customer issues. Powered by AI and by harnessing Natural Language Processing (NLP), agents benefit from quick access to results regardless of how a query may have been phrased.

Once an agent types the customer query into the system, NLP unpicks the sentence using sophisticated algorithms, analysing components such as keywords, grammar, intent and popularity to understand context and produce relevant results.

Because this is handled using AI, the problem-solving process takes place automatically and within the same window. The results of which is a large accumulation of time saved that would otherwise be spent searching for answers or transferring customers to supervisors. By reducing Average Handling Times (AHT), contact centre costs are significantly reduced and agents can deal with more queries, impacting positively on CSAT.

According to a report by Gartner, support costs can be reduced by 25% when a knowledge management discipline is in place.

When an internal knowledge base is effectively deployed companies benefit from:

• Significantly reduced contact centre costs
• Greater agent productivity
• Improved CSAT and NPS ratings
• Enhanced CX
• Empowered agents

Choosing Effective Internal Knowledge Base Software

The success of the roll-out, including user adoption and buy-in, will be heavily determined by the software that is selected. The software selection process for your internal knowledge base is crucial and requires time and careful consideration.

To ensure a smooth and successful roll-out of your internal knowledge base, start with the software, ensuring it includes:

• Ease of access through AI
• Real-time article updates
• Integrations that help serve customers
• Features that promote productivity

Ensuring Successful User Adoption

Once knowledge has been harvested from sources such as employee insights and reports, it can be contextualised and transformed into bitesize knowledge articles that make up the knowledge base’s content.

For more detail on knowledge contextualisation and the knowledge management process, read this.

The next step of the roll-out includes user adoption. Ensuring that the internal knowledge base is well received and accepted by its users and stakeholder that are involved is critical to the roll-out’s success. The aim is having employees fully on board with an understanding as to how the initiative will benefit them and the overall business. This can be achieved through a number of methods.

Rolling Out and Maintaining Your Internal Knowledge Base

Once the content is finalised and your employees are prepared, the roll-out itself shouldn’t be a complicated or long process. Once contracts are agreed, the deployment of your internal knowledge base, depending on your requirements is completed in days or weeks, providing your software vendor uses low-code deployment methods.

When it comes to maintaining your internal knowledge base, how can you ensure that it continues to be utilised, optimised and proves effective?

What Is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management is a key business discipline that is utilised by a multitude of businesses to optimise knowledge, transforming the way it is perceived and dealt with. When executed effectively, knowledge management alters company culture so that it is centred around knowledge. Businesses that achieve this share the understanding that knowledge is a powerful asset which is everywhere and should be harnessed should they wish for growth, efficiency and improvement.

Operationally, knowledge management involves the harvesting, analysis, conversion, organisation and sharing of knowledge with the relevant audiences. This could be:

• Internally for employees to use as a central library of information
• Externally for customers to access knowledge through self-service tools
• In contact centres for agents to use when helping customers

By embedding knowledge sharing into the company culture, the capture and collection of knowledge becomes an everyday practice for employees. This helps to remove knowledge silos within your business, promoting transparency and collaboration.

Companies that execute a successful knowledge management strategy also benefit from:

• Operational efficiency
• Agent productivity
• Reduced support costs
• Empowered employees
• Better decision making
• Improved CSAT / NPS ratings
• Growth and innovation

Knowledge Management Objectives

Like with any new initiative, your knowledge management goals and objectives must be carefully considered and finalised before anything else.

Without knowing why you are implementing knowledge management or what you aim to achieve through its impact and having everyone on the same page, the execution is likely to fail. With a clear view of the purpose and desired outcome, you ensure that everyone has the same vision and is working towards a common result. It also helps everyone involved measure their progress and question if they are on track as expected, if not, then appropriate changes can be made – but at least there will be transparency.

Ensure all the key people involved in the knowledge management strategy are present to discuss goals and objectives, they will have valid views – all of which must be considered.

Common knowledge management objectives involve:

• Reducing operational overheads and support costs
• Promoting contact centre efficiency
• Improving CSAT and NPS scores
• Optimising the customer journey online
• Supporting business growth
• Supporting new product/service innovation

Once overall goals have been agreed, bitesize objectives can be decided alongside a timeline.

Knowledge Management Auditing

Once your team has a shared understanding of the purpose and outcomes regarding the knowledge management strategy, it is good practice to conduct a knowledge audit. This involves the evaluation of the current knowledge within your company to highlight any strengths, gaps, existing attitudes, opportunities and roadblocks.

Conduct the audit by considering the following:

• What are your company’s requirements surrounding knowledge?
• What current knowledge assets or resources exist within your company?
  • What format do they exist in?
  • Are they mainly explicit or tacit types of knowledge?
• What gaps exist within your current knowledge offering?
• How is knowledge currently shared around your company?
• What are the roadblocks that are preventing knowledge sharing?
  • Do you have a dedicated and accountable knowledge executive?
  • Are there any processes already in place?
  • Do you utilise any software that enables sharing?

Once the knowledge audit has been carried out, you will have a clear understanding of where your strengths and areas for improvement are. This helps to influence the way in which you execute knowledge management.

People and Processes

Knowledge Management Software

At the heart of your knowledge management strategy is knowledge management software. It is what essentially facilitates the discipline – which would fail without such systems in place.

Most commonly businesses utilise knowledge bases that are powered by AI to act as their centralised repository of companywide knowledge. It stores all knowledge articles surrounding your company, products and services and allows knowledge executives to add, edit and update in real-time to avoid any information inconsistencies.

With a knowledge base, knowledge sharing is simplified. Whether it’s your employees, agents or customers accessing knowledge, the utilisation Natural Language Processing (NLP) ensures that the right information is always delivered.

For instance, agents who are accessing the internal-facing knowledge base begin by typing a customer query into the search bar. NLP gets to work unpicking the query, analysing the keywords, intent, grammar used and popularity, so that no matter how a query is phrased, the best results are produced.

From a customer’s perspective, a filtered version of your knowledge base can be accessed via a number of online self-service tools. When a customer requires support or needs to solve an issue, they can either navigate to a knowledge article by choosing a category or NLP will produce relevant answers based on what is entered.

For effective knowledge management software, consider:

• Is it powered by AI and does it harness NLP?
• Is it built with both contact centres and customers in mind?
• Does it enable seamless integrations with other key systems?
• Is it implemented using low-code?
• Does it use open RESTful open APIs?

Check out the Knowledge Management Software Buyer’s Guide

Measurement and Maintenance

Your knowledge base’s analytical suite is how you will determine how effective your knowledge management strategy has proved in terms of achieving your overall objectives. Whether your objectives surrounded CSAT or agent efficiency, it is critical to the success of knowledge management that metrics are constantly analysed and reviewed.

Investing significant time and capital into the execution of your knowledge management strategy, only to fail at the final hurdle would be detrimental – and is why measurement is so important.

Just some knowledge analytics that are available to companies for analysis include:

• Search results: helping you to determine the effectiveness of knowledge, revealing how many articles resolved queries and how many required further optimisation.
• Top queries: providing an insight into customer behaviour, revealing what is being searched and whether knowledge articles were available to fulfil their requirements.
• Triggers: demonstrating which tools have been triggered on your website and which have proved the most optimal at resolving issues.

What Is the Knowledge Management Process?

People, process and technology each play integral roles when it comes to implementing knowledge management. It’s crucial that your company not only has a dedicated knowledge executive, someone who manages knowledge as an asset and knowledge management as a working machine, but what is fundamental in executing the discipline is the process you follow.

Whilst every business is different and there is no cookie-cutter approach to the knowledge management process, most commonly the following structure is utilised:

• Discovery: What existing knowledge can be collected?
• Capture: What undocumented knowledge can be extracted
• Organise: Is the knowledge consumable?
• Share: Is the knowledge accessible?
• Evaluate: How can the knowledge be optimised further?

It’s important that this process, or a variation of this process is followed for the successful deployment of knowledge management. Skipping or neglecting a step could prove detrimental to the final result.

Facilitating Knowledge Management Through Software

Whilst people and process are fundamental to the implementation of knowledge management, without effective software in place the facilitation of the discipline would not be possible.

Most commonly a knowledge base is utilised to store, share and measure the effectiveness of your companywide knowledge, from HR policies to product troubleshooting videos. It acts as the nucleus of knowledge management and feeds all key business and customer service tools. This means that the internal knowledge base your agents use will produce the same articles as the self-service tools that your customers use, regardless of the way a query is phrased. It ensures consistency.

For smooth implementation and reliable maintenance of knowledge, look for software that:

• Is powered using AI: This ensures your knowledge base is intuitive, delivering the fastest, most relevant results possible.
• Harnesses powerful Natural Language Processing: Critical to CSAT and agent efficiency, NLP understands what is being asks and can therefore deliver the best answers.
• Is built with the contact centre in mind: The knowledge base’s agent interface includes features such as AI-predictive suggestions and integrated knowledge to save operational costs.
• Is built with customer experience in mind: Customer facing tools such as self-service offer intelligent search and categories, as well as escalation to agent-assisted channels if necessary.
• Includes seamless integrations: Connect with self-service tools, chatbots and live chat channels for consistent knowledge sharing.
• Is implemented through low-code: With low-code implementation, knowledge management as a functional discipline can be up and running quickly.
• Uses open RESTful APIs: In order to connect to your key 3rd party applications such as CRMs or email management tools.

What Is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management is a discipline utilised by businesses to optimise knowledge and the way in which it is treated. It concerns the extraction, collection, analysis, sharing and development of companywide data to promote operational efficiency and enrich both customer and employee experience.

The global knowledge management market is estimated to reach a size of $1.1 Trillion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 16.8% over the analysis period 2020-2027, as companies continue to recognise the value of the practice.

By embedding knowledge management into a company, a knowledge sharing culture is created whereby knowledge is perceived as an asset that has a monetary value attached. Companies who effectively implement knowledge management experience:

• A significant reduction to customer service support costs
• Higher CSAT ratings
• Improved operational efficiency
• Greater accuracy and consistency of information
• Faster, more informed decision making
• Enhanced CX
• Empowered employees

It’s important for businesses to stay on top of knowledge management if they want to remain competitive, satisfy their stakeholders and avoid stagnancy.

For successful implementation, companies must utilise a variety of intelligent knowledge management tools, with the more important being a knowledge base.

The Importance of a Knowledge Base

A knowledge base is ultimately what facilities knowledge management within any organisation. Without this essential knowledge management tool, knowledge sharing both internally and externally would prove ineffective, inaccurate, and cumbersome.

A knowledge base works as your company’s centralised repository of knowledge, containing everything from product specifications to brand guidelines and support tutorials to returns policies. Its purpose is to make the right information accessible to the right people at the right time, this could be employees, agents or customers.

As your sole source of knowledge, the risk of inconsistent or inaccurate information being distributed is significantly reduced. Your knowledge base powers all your key customer service and knowledge management tools, feeding them with accurate and up-to-date information. This contributes positively to CSAT and mitigates the chances of brand reputation being damaged.

A knowledge base helps to improve efficiency companywide. Not only does it integrate seamlessly with all your key business and customer service tools enabling smooth, 2-way knowledge sharing, but it tears down knowledge silos. Knowledge otherwise kept within teams or locations is stored in one place for all to benefit from. Now equipped with more, richer knowledge, decision making at both an operational and strategic level is optimal.

Further, as Sir Francis Bacon said, “knowledge is power” – it is an asset and the more you harness it the more competitive you become.

At the core of any effective knowledge management strategy is a knowledge base, the function cannot be successfully implemented without this powerful tool.

What Are Knowledge Management Tools?

In addition to your knowledge base, other knowledge management tools that involve customer relationships and analytics can help to improve operational efficiency. With the knowledge base at the centre of knowledge management, other 3rd party applications such as CRMs and analytical tools increase cohesion across your entire technology stack.

Customer Relationship Management

Your CRM plays an important role in knowledge management, in particular complementing your knowledge base. Whilst a CRM’s purpose surrounds maintaining customer relationships, it acts as a repository of customer information which is valuable in informing knowledge creation.

The vast data that is captured inside you CRM – everything from demographics to buying patterns, pain points and objections – is highly valuable for decision making but would not be stored in your knowledge base, similar to how articles would not be stored in your CRM.

Analytical Tools

Analytical tools, those that capture, collect and present metrics surrounding knowledge management are imperative to continual operational improvement and knowledge optimisation.

Not only can these metrics tell you how effective knowledge management is proving in relation to serving customers, but it also reveals any content gaps or roadblocks in existing knowledge articles. Specially curated graphs and charts provide insight into how many queries were successfully answered and how many were not, revealing areas for improvement.

Top search query analytics help not only give provide insight into customers’ search behaviour but also help to influence decision making in other areas of business such as product development. If there are patterns in what customers are asking for, this may reveal their current motivations and requirements, ultimately giving you a competitive advantage.

Effective knowledge base software will have a comprehensive analytics suite integrated into the product itself, working seamlessly to provide insights.

Integrating Your Knowledge Management Tools

To further optimise the power of your intelligent knowledge base, integrate it with key business and customer service tools. Effective knowledge bases ensure the seamless integration between other customer service tools such as self-service, chatbots and live chat to facilitate 2-way knowledge sharing. They also utilise open RESTful APIs to connect with key 3rd party applications such as your CRM and email management software.

Such knowledge management integrations allow:

• Customers access to relevant knowledge through self-service tools
• Agents to efficiently answer customer queries with knowledge at their fingertips
• Chatbots to guide customers through their journey whilst answering their routine questions
• Agents to see what a customer is typing via live chat, recommending articles on each keypress
• Customer information to be added and updated automatically in your CRM
• Email and automation to be triggered based on customer interactions

Synthetix have the complete platform of customer service tools.
Book a demo of any of our products below

An Introduction to FAQ Software

FAQs, frequently asked questions are simply that – the routine queries that are asked multiple times a day, every day by your customers. They involve your company, products and services and include queries such as:

Having access to FAQs is vital to CX, today 67% of customers want to resolve their own queries through the power of self-service. This is why including a form of FAQ tool on your website is paramount. It enhances the customer journey by providing quick, convenient, 24/7 access to answers – which reflects positively in CSAT.

FAQ software facilitates this self-service. It lets your customers help themselves by providing a library of answers and search function that when engaged with, delivers the most relevant results.

Depending on your business size and requirements, a simple FAQ page might suffice for the most basic of self-service needs. However, for most companies, an excellent level of customer service and CX is essential and therefore such a solution would not be adequate. Instead, they opt for a more sophisticated AI-powered FAQ tool that can effectively provide customers with the answers they require through Natural Language Processing (NLP).

In addition to serving customers, FAQ software proves particularly advantageous to customer service contact centre teams. FAQ tools that utilise NLP enable the mass automation of routine queries and tasks that would otherwise be handled by agents. Not only does redirecting this type of query to an FAQ tool prove effective in reducing operational costs and staffing overheads, but it allows agents to dedicate more time to queries that are complex by nature. This contributes positively to CSAT.

FAQ software can do far more than simply answering a question, it helps customers get to where they need to be through escalation and from an internal perspective, acting as one centralised source of knowledge, empowers entire companies with the data it produces.

To learn more about how self-service software works, click here.

Types of FAQ Software