Myth Vs. Reality
Enterprise Search is Not Knowledge
Nor does enterprise search or content management address the quality of the search experience. Simply put, they don’t “care” if the results match the customer’s intent or provide the answer. These systems do not offer tools or analytics that can detect whether or not the user feels the question has been answered, or allow users to rate the value of content or suggest improvements.
KM, on the other hand, closely links questions to content. KM sees information and searching as interdependent and tightly integrates technologies to create, find, understand and measure the accuracy and relevancy of the search results. KM can also leverage social media with the goal of optimizing the value, completeness and accuracy of information. For example, InQuira solutions can trigger online surveys to capture content feedback from customers, provide discussion forums for peer-to-peer support and workflow social conversations into company-approved answers, all while rating the quality and reliability of contributors. This encourages contribution by those who best understand the knowledge needs—agents and customers. In other words, KM really cares about the relevancy and accuracy of the answer, and works to continuously enhance the experience.
Analytics help you further improve content and the search experience by identifying where answers are incorrect, incomplete, out-of-date or where there is no answer at all; when the search engine did not understand the intent of an inquiry; who are the top contributors; what customers will ask next; and what trends are emerging.
Myth #3: It’s cheaper to build.
Shrinking budgets make it tempting to cobble together enterprise search, content management and in-house technologies rather than buy additional software. However, when the technologies are a poor fit for the job, you may end up wasting both time and money trying to force-fit them to your needs with little to show for it.
Building a solution requires significant development effort on the part of IT with demands for user requirements gathering, custom development, testing and ongoing maintenance. You must also budget resources for enhancements to incorporate evolving user requirements and accommodate major technology upgrades.
The cost of delay must be factored in as well. In-house projects inevitably take longer than planned, delaying the benefits to be achieved from faster agent resolution and superior online experience. Excessive delays can also lead to a loss in interest from business stakeholders and a waning of management sponsorship, both of which are critical to implement the organizational and cultural changes required to make a knowledge management program successful.
The reality. Buying—or using on-demand—is a better deal. The biggest drawback of in-house developed KM systems is that they end up being difficult and costly to enhance, while user needs quickly outstrip the capabilities.
The good news here is that you do not have to choose between build or buy. A software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution provides enterprise-grade scalability, security, reliability and flexibility at a predictable cost. Application administration, hosting, monitoring and software updates are taken care of for you so that you can focus on your business—not your technical operations.
When it comes to helping customers, the reality is that KM offers distinct advantages over enterprise search or content management. Understanding intent, pinpointing the most relevant answer, capturing knowledge as part of day-to-day activities, providing guidance and related advice, and using integrated analytics to continuously tune the experience—all of this adds up to a rich, satisfying experience that can help you build stronger customer relationships while streamlining your contact center operations.
Advent—A Case Study
Advent Software, Inc. is a provider of financial services software. Advent used an in-house KM system that enabled employees and clients to create and locate information. Unfortunately, call times were rising, call volume was dropping and resolution rates weren’t great. The company realized that knowledge management vendors were providing capabilities they could not mimic. “We wanted better search—the ‘rank by relevance’ function returned too many results to be useful, for example—and a streamlined authoring system to make it easier for content authors to create and update the knowledge base,” said Collin Martin, the company’s quality and service resolution manager.
Advent turned to InQuira to gain these capabilities. Advent has taken advantage of InQuira’s ability to provide knowledgebase access in a timely and contextual manner with access fully integrated throughout its website and into daily activities. The company uses InQuira analytics to fine-tune its processes and content, and content output has increased by 20%. Once implemented, Advent experienced a jump in first-call and same-day resolution as well as agent ready time and Web usage. Talk time and total calls have decreased, while client feedback has become very positive.
InQuira is a leading provider of intelligent knowledge solutions that connect people to the answers they need. InQuira provides enterprise knowledge solutions for Web self-service, contact center support and knowledge intranets, built from a single technology platform that makes it possible for companies to provide a consistent customer service experience across Web, phone and community channels.
For additional information, visit http://www.inquira.com/.