Effectiveness of Knowledgebase

Answers

• Wendy Fowler Posted at 3:32PM on Jul 15, 2010

  Great question and I am glad to hear that future plans will include being able to track voice of the customer data relative to self service effectiveness. According to studies done by the Consortium for Service Innovation, launching an effective knowledge management self-service option can reduce calls/cases (deflection) by as much as 50%. The following are all three examples of ways to consider calculating case deflection: 1. Capture the total # of page views. (In an ideal world, the solution page will have an option that asks the customer if the information provided solved their problem.) This along with customer interviews will help determine a subjective rate of success. 2. Analytics can identify what percent of customers move on to another page, implying that the first page viewed did not solve the problem. 3. Implementing self-service results in the ticket submission process provides accurate counts of de-escalations. When a customer submits a web-based trouble ticket the description is placed into a search engine and the results are returned to the customer. If the results contain a solution. The customer closes the ticket. Otherwise, the ticket continues in the workflow to launch for research/resolution. Companies who have implemented the right knowledge management practices also see accuracy rates of 90% or higher compared to 50 - 60% for those companies that operate using keyword search, FAQ, IVR only self-service options. Companies that choose to use this methodology as a means for servicing their customers are often times causing more harm than good. These companies can find themselves damaging customer relationships and their brand; increasing costs per contact instead of decreasing them and losing sales. Here is typical scenario to help you see how not having the right knowledge management processes and technology can be damaging: You just got a new digital camera for Christmas. You are so excited to use it for the first time and take tons of pictures over the holiday. You load the batteries that were included and it doesn't power on. You try everything and nothing works. You try everything and eventually end up on the company's website in Support section. You type in what you question/problem is and a list of more than 100 FAQ's and articles comes up. After what seems like forever reading through trying different solutions you give up because nothing works and the customer service department is closed for the holiday. Meanwhile, this company has no clue that you had this experience and are probably left thinking you found what you were looking for and are completely happy! Sound familiar? Your self-service solution should allow customers to express themselves in a “natural” language, make continuous improvements based on information gleaned from interactions and deliver value to the customers and your organization. I hope you found this information helpful. For more on Knowledge Management, check out our webinar: http://www.icmi.com/Resources/Webinars/2010/Qtr2/Supporting-a-Multi-Channel-Contact-Center-with-Knowledge-Management.aspx Thank you, Wendy Fowler, Senior Consultant ICMI