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The desire to off-load customer service requests to
online self-service knowledge bases and the databases
of technical information, problem solutions and
frequently asked questions (FAQs) is understandable
and obvious. An online knowledge base can lower call
volumes, reduce staffing demands, shorten training
cycles and reduce contact center operating costs.
These benefits all flow to the provider of the
knowledge base. What is less obvious is the extent to
which customers will opt for online self-service.
Many firms have already instituted Web-based
self-service applications with online knowledge bases.
But a significant proportion of these services have
failed to achieve their goals. Many are simply
technical manuals or standardized FAQs keyed into a
database, offering little more value than the help
button on a PC. Customers become bored or frustrated
long before they find the answers they need. Most then
log off and call the toll-free customer service line.
The result is a process that irritates customers while
producing longer calls. Contact center agents must
first listen to customers venting their frustrations
as they repeat the stories of their search efforts.
Only then can the agent learn the nature of the
original problem and respond with a solution. Customer
satisfaction goes down almost as fast as call
durations and operating costs go up.
Industry observers have identified poor customer care
as one of the major impediments to the growth of
e-commerce. If firms want to experience all of the
efficiencies e-business processes can produce, they
must find ways to provide more satisfactory customer
care. They must give customers a much stronger set of
incentives to use self-service knowledge bases and a
much more satisfactory experience when they do choose
to contact the interaction center.
The only way businesses can persuade customers to rely
on automated, self-service facilities is to build more
customer value into their knowledge bases and customer
interaction centers. The strategies outlined below can
help businesses leverage their online knowledge bases
to provide this value, thereby improving the customer
experience while simultaneously reducing the total
cost of customer care.
Introduce more added value. As a first and essential
step, make sure your knowledge databases are capable
of storing large amounts of both structured and
unstructured information. Media may include videos,
interactive demos, animated graphics or detailed
schematics as well as typical text and drawings. Of
course, the quality of information presented is even
more important than the range of media offered. Make
sure all knowledge base files are complete, accurate
and up-to-date. Demos, video clips and graphics should
be of professional quality and appearance. Review your
knowledge base content regularly to ensure that your
customers are getting the best and latest information
available.
Develop processes for gathering continuing feedback
from customers and service agents. Building these
kinds of processes is even more important than
building the customer service infrastructure or the
knowledge base itself. Your customers will tell you
the most important problems and most successful
solutions if you let them.
Provide interactive capabilities like customer
bulletin boards and chat rooms. Give customers ways to
interact online with you and with each other. Host
regular online sessions with your top troubleshooting
technicians and service engineers. Record these
sessions and add them to the knowledge base.
Evaluate online service requests against the knowledge
base to offer immediate responses. Contemporary
technology enables your online customer care system to
check an online service request against the knowledge
base as the customer composes it. The customer then
has the option of notifying you that the knowledge
base has resolved the problem or proceeding with the
request. Such a system allows you to track the success
of the online knowledge base in satisfying various
service issues. It also ensures that customers do not
log service requests until an online search has failed
to yield a solution, obviating the all-too-human
tendency to initiate requests before checking the
knowledge base.
Track knowledge base activity by customer and tie
activity records to CRM files and service histories.
Service agents should be able to immediately identify
who the customer is and what he or she has already
seen in the knowledge base. Access to this knowledge
will shorten calls as well as improve customer
satisfaction.
Use common standards and a common data model
throughout customer service, knowledge base and CRM
systems. A common data model, common standards and a
single robust database will make the task of
integrating CRM and customer care information pathways
easier, faster and less costly.
Tie all interaction channels together so service
agents can see the customer’s knowledge base track
and contact history. A service agent should be able to
act as the single point of contact through any contact
channel a customer chooses, whether telephone, e-mail,
online and even "snail mail." The knowledge base
and interaction center systems should support this
capability.
Leverage knowledge base to train/upgrade agents and
retain best/most knowledgeable. Remember that use of
the knowledge base should not be restricted to the
customer. You should make it available to your own
personnel. It can be used to train new service agents
and certify existing agents for higher skill and pay
levels.
The knowledge base can provide the instrument through
which service agents feed what they learn from
customers back into the firm, particularly if the firm
offers them incentives to do so. This ability to
contribute feedback and earn extra benefits and
recognition can increase job satisfaction and employee
retention rates -- an important consideration in
tight labor markets.
Develop incentives for customers to try self-service
facilities. If you can figure out ways to sell a
customer a multimillion-dollar server or a jetliner,
surely you can figure out some interesting ways to get
them to try your online knowledge base.
Monitor knowledge base activity to anticipate
interaction center demand. Prolonged search activity
on the knowledge base may indicate some sections are
not readily providing the answers customers need and
may telegraph demand for person-to-person responses.
Monitoring search activity levels may provide early
warning of demand surges to call management systems
and supervisory personnel. Tracking the knowledge base
search activity may thereby help companies manage
interaction center operations in real-time.
As these examples suggest, leveraging the knowledge
base system can provide added value in a variety of
innovative ways. By enhancing the customer experience,
a properly implemented knowledge base can improve
customer retention rates, generate more repeat
business, lower returns and disputed items and produce
higher overall customer satisfaction. In the process,
it can also generate significant improvements to both
current and future profits.
Ramesh Jayaraman is senior director of
development and Rohit Kumar is senior director of
marketing for Oracle
Corp.
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