Call Center Metrics

Knowledge management and customer support efficiency are relatively new fields that represent a movement towards systematic and sophisticated treatment of information or so called knowledge assets.

The use of knowledge management and customer support efficiency may seem like two disparate concepts. But in fact, proper and efficient knowledge management can improve customer support efficiency drastically.

The term “knowledge management” does not have a unanimous definition as of the present, and may refer to the technologies that have arisen to facilitate and enhance the growth and sharing of knowledge. But it could also refer to organizational design, with respect to maximizing the efficiency of knowledge processes. These senses of the term are, of course, not exclusive, and do have some overlap or relationship with one another. An operational definition of the term might be laid out as follows: knowledge management is the identification, documentation, processing, and utilization of information or knowledge assets.

“Knowledge assets” is another rather broad term that includes not only intra-organizational data, but also emerging research from other sources, common knowledge from the past, and so on. In a sense, then, knowledge management has been around for as long as human beings have been trying to use the information that they have to further their organization’s objectives. What the emergence of the “knowledge management” field in recent times actually represents is the development of increasingly complex and effective models and approaches towards this end.

The basic goals of knowledge management are as follows. First is to be able to catalog or identify the knowledge assets that the organization currently possesses. This usually takes the form of databases or libraries, in which are encoded the information found within the company itself, such as programs, research results, data archives, and so on. Next is to be able to create efficient systems for accessing and editing these knowledge assets. The aforementioned databases are not designed to be static and unchanging, but are usually designed to be interactive.

For instance, technical support agents require access to a large amount of technical information in order to be able to provide adequate support. To facilitate this, knowledge managers would aim to be able to create a searchable, expandable database of relevant information. This database could be thought of as an expanded FAQ (frequently asked questions) unit, to become something closer to a Wiki or collaborative encyclopedia. If the agents are able to use this database tool well, then clearly, they will be able to increase their efficiency significantly.

But knowledge management is not limited to just technical information. Another example of knowledge management in action could be in the documentation systems for a contact center. Fast and efficient customer service owes a lot to being able to access customer history and other information quickly and easily. And here, we can make the connection between knowledge management and customer support efficiency. In the case of information calls, then obviously a better-managed knowledge base would prove to be more useful and efficient. For inquiries about business processes, a database containing process information within the company would be very helpful. And even for complaints, an efficient system of logging and documenting complaints could help customer support respond to future, similar complaints.

By improving knowledge management and customer support efficiency, companies or business organizations will be equipped with a competitive advantage that will be instrumental in the achievement of their goals.

Several companies have acknowledged the fact that knowledge management and customer support efficiency will give them the needed competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced business environment.

The concept of knowledge management is a concept that is not familiar to many. It is commonly defined as the identification of available and required knowledge assets and the control of actions to use and develop these assets to achieve organizational objectives. This includes not only the intellectual assets inherent to an organization but also corporate information of other companies, as well as knowledge-based technologies and best practices. Knowledge assets refer to the knowledge or information about markets, technologies, organizations, and products that companies own to enable them to profit from their business process. This knowledge or information can be obtained from different sources, like databases or data warehouses, folders kept in filing cabinets, and may sometimes be stored only in the minds of people. With knowledge management as an emerging business trend, many enterprises now see the need to “know” and determine their knowledge assets and to make maximum use of them. This trend further stresses the need for companies to focus not only on their tangible assets but on the intangible ones as well

Various knowledge engineering methods have been developed recently in response to increasing popularity of knowledge management. With these methods came the development of tools that are especially designed to build and support knowledge-based applications. Regarding strategic planning, business organizations need to be able to plan future business processes by carefully analyzing the information or market intelligence that they currently have. When it comes to tactical planning, business organizations also need to identify and organize existing knowledge as well as acquire new knowledge that can be used in the future. Generally, programs on knowledge management are tailor-made to the organizational objectives that need to be achieved. These objectives can be the attainment of a competitive advantage, improvement of performance, development of collaborative projects, or the launch of developmental processes.

In line with knowledge management, knowledge mapping may have to be done from time to time as a form of auditing procedure. This may include mapping or establishing the relationship between business processes and certain knowledge assets and the relationships between communities that create and share knowledge or information. The advent of the Internet has made it increasingly more convenient for companies to manage their knowledge assets through enabling technologies like web conferencing, content management systems, e-learning, and even blogs.

With a highly-efficient knowledge database, it would be easier for key personnel to make informed decisions that would largely benefit the entire business organization. Staff efficiency could also be significantly improved, as pertinent information is readily accessible to them. Many firms and business organizations believe that with proper knowledge management, customer support could be tremendously improved. This is a pivotal development, as customer satisfaction is found to be strongly related to the quality of customer service support provided to end-customers. Customer support and publishing costs can also be reduced with the ready availability of needed information. Thus, the need to be on the lookout for knowledge management and customer support efficiency.