A Positive Experience at Every Touch Point

While we may still be waiting for flying cars and calorie-free ice cream, the future may be closer than you think when it comes to knowledge management. Here are five progressive ideas you can implement now to start building the knowledgebase of the future:

1. A search engine that knows what you are thinking.
One of the most frustrating aspects of using a knowledge management tool is finding the answer you're looking for. Precious seconds are wasted trying different search queries and navigating complex hierarchies. But what if you didn't have to search at all?

One of the most important advances in customer service knowledge management is the incorporation of customer context. Context is any piece of information known about the end user—location, customer type, products owned, open cases, etc. As companies collect more data points about each customer, the amount of context available grows and the relevance of search results increases.

By matching this context with associated knowledge articles, the knowledgebase can often predetermine the likely articles that will be helpful to a user—without having to search at all. For example, if we know that a customer lives in New York City and owns a Samsung Galaxy, a new article about expanded 4G coverage in the New York City area for Android users is likely to be very relevant to that customer. Even if the customer does need to search, the contextual information is paired with the search query terms to hone in on exactly the right article with minimal effort.

2. Content that writes itself.
|Large organizations spend countless hours authoring content for their knowledgebases. Not only is this process time- consuming and expensive, but how can you even be sure you're writing the content that is needed? What if the knowledgebase could automatically write all the content its users were looking for?

This notion is not too far-fetched, thanks to social media. Thousands of users go online every day to help one another in online forums and communities. By intelligently listening to these data sources, knowledge administrators can mine the community for the top questions and answers needed by their customers. Routing these article drafts through a workflow ensures the answers are correct and vetted by the appropriate experts.

3. Problems that fix themselves.
Maybe we can't actually create self-healing televisions and copy machines, but what if these devices could at least tell you what's wrong and how to fix it? I already described the importance of customer context and how it can help you find answers without searching. Devices can provide the knowledge base with contextual information, too. When a device breaks, the model number and error code are often enough context to determine the knowledge article needed to resolve the issue. By installing a knowledgebase directly on the device or connecting wirelessly to a central server, this context can be passed from the device to the knowledgebase automatically. As soon as you notice the failure, you are already able to see a knowledgebase article describing how to resolve the issue. This tactic can be used on televisions, copiers, machinery, mobile devices or any other number of consumer products in use today.

4. The universe in your pocket.
A few years ago, Web self-service revolutionized customer service. Instead of calling the contact center and sitting on hold, you could log onto your computer and find help on your own. While Web self-service is still a critical element of providing excellent service, customers no longer want to be tied to their computers. Mobile service on a variety of devices gives your customers the freedom to get help when and where they need it.

True mobile service is much more than formatting some FAQs to fit on a phone screen. Standard search and browse usability on a mobile device can be quite complex—and reading page-long articles on a four-inch screen is a far cry from a great user experience. To create a positive customer experience on a mobile device, the knowledge management system must:

• Be formatted to display on a variety of devices;
• Offer guided resolution trees with questions and answers, rather than forcing the user to read lengthy articles;
• Use context, including the device's GPS, to present personalized results specific to the user's need; and
• Provide escalation options, such as mobile chat and case submission options, if the user is unable to find their answer through self-service.

5. One version of the truth.
I guess this idea isn't so futuristic, but it's a statement that has been much easier said than done for years. As users look for help on the Web, phone, online chat, email and now social media, large organizations often stockpile multiple silos of information scattered throughout the organization. Different departments manage different aspects of the customer journey. Mergers and acquisitions bring overlapping technologies into the IT landscape.

So how do you really offer your customers one version of the truth? You need a single solution that presents knowledge to users across all channels, while providing the flexibility to display content that is formatted and permissioned for each user scenario.

As customer expectations increase rapidly, it's important that organizations keep up. These revolutionary capabilities will allow companies to use knowledge management to provide faster, more accurate service across all channels of communication. By leveraging an omnichannel customer service platform (such as KANA Enterprise), you can truly differentiate from your competition by offering your customers a positive experience at every touch point.

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KANA Enterprise is the first omnichannel, end-to-end customer service solution. As such, it is built to respond to customer inquiries across all channels. A single knowledgebase serves content in the right format for each channel, ensuring that customers receive the same answer on the phone, Web, chat or any other channel. Customers can transition from one channel to another over the course of their journey and not miss a beat. One version of the truth is finally a reality.

Dig in to KANA Enterprise Knowledge Management by reading the data sheet that's accessible from www.kana.com on http://www.kana.com/kana-enterprise-latest-product-news. See the new KANA Enterprise in action by contacting us at info@kana.com or visiting us online at www.kana.com.

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