KM in the Expanding World of Multi-Channel Customer Service
There are several best practices that are being adopted in order to increase the relevancy of solutions and to promote a sense of community between customers, agents and knowledge authors.
1. Feedback forms: Feedback forms can be appended to all solutions. Using information from these forms, knowledge solutions can be reworked to make them more in line with user response and needs.
2. Just-in-time authoring: A know- ledgebase can be opened up so that "power authors" can publish to it directly. This makes information instantly available, which is especially useful when, for example, new high-tech products are released, requiring agents to field repetitive questions for which scripted answers do not yet exist.
If an agent is unable to find the right solution to a customer's question within a knowledgebase, the agent can author a new solution on-the-fly, creating "just-in-time" knowledge. This allows the solution to be captured with the customer's exact vernacular. Agents are also able to modify existing solutions to make them more pertinent. In this case, solutions are not subjected to an arduous review process, but are reviewed as they are reused by other agents. Agents take collective responsibility for the quality of solutions so that if an error is found, it is instantly corrected. Appending the name of the agent who last modified a solution helps recognize agents who contribute to the knowledgebase.
3. Expert users: Expert users—who know a product as well as their customer service agents do—can post content directly to the knowledgebase, in effect, turning each knowledge solution into a wiki. Expert-user contributions are identified and can be rated so that poor contributors can be restricted from adding content while star contributors can be recognized.
Knowledge management techniques like these are not suitable for all industries, but in verticals where this model makes sense, including high-technology and retail, collaboration between users and agents help evolve knowledge content in parallel with customers' changing needs. It also helps build a sense of community around your brand and keeps customers loyal by providing accurate and on-topic answers to their questions.
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