The Benefits of Knowledge Management

You’ve probably heard the term knowledge management. But do you really know what it is? More importantly, do you really know the benefits of knowledge management?

What Is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge management is a solution which can help you understand, share, and effectively connect people with information they seek. Enterprise organizations often seek out knowledge management solutions to empower their workforce and create more positive experiences for customers.

What is the main goal of knowledge management?

At its core, knowledge management’s primary goal is to make organizations more efficient by championing access to existing documentation, experience, and ideas. How it does this by creating systems or processes that allow a workforce to share this information across a single source of truth and so that it’s available at the right time and place. So, what are the advantages of knowledge management?

Benefits of knowledge management include:

1. Lower average handle time Increased consistency        2. Lower contact volume                               3. Reduced escalations
4. Increased first contact resolution                                       5. Increased customer satisfaction            6. Reduced training times
7. Increased employee engagement                                       8. Multi-skilled agents                                   9. Up to date information

 

Woman talking on phone outside
knowledge management bmw screenshot

3. Lower Contact Volume

The majority of customers prefer to find answers to questions on their own. Since there is no employee involved in these transactions to provide answers, an easy to navigate knowledge base is essential to give customers a place to search for answers on their computer or mobile device. According to a study by the Harvard Business Review, 81% of all customers will try to resolve an issue on their own before contacting customer support. In the age of the internet where information is readily available in the blink of an eye, some customers have similar expectations if they’re more likely to self-serve. 

One of the benefits of knowledge management is it connects customers with the answers they need. With an easy to use self-service website, more customers will help themselves and not require an agent assisted interaction.

IAG implemented knowledge management and other tools to enable customers to access information and transact business online. As a result, IAG has seen a dramatic impact to its annual phone and in-branch transaction volumes. The company has achieved an 18 percent call volume reduction and the growth in online self-service has resulted in fewer customer visits to its branches.

Man sitting at his desk with headset on
Two business men sitting at table looking at iPad

6. Increased Customer Satisfaction

Employees need to be equipped to deliver the fast and accurate service which customers expect.

A comprehensive knowledge base is a very useful tool so that employees feel empowered to answer a broad range of customer questions, even on topics that they may not have encountered before.

Creating the world’s best customer experience has a lot of factors to consider. Here’s a recap of previously mentioned benefits of knowledge management specifically for the customer that make a winning combination to improving overall satisfaction:

          – Less time spent on the phone
          – More consistency across interactions
          – Embracing self-service
          – Fewer instances of escalation
          – More likely to resolve the first time

When a knowledge management system empowers employees to answer customer questions efficiently and thoroughly, a huge benefit is an increase in customer satisfaction. SNS bank found a significant increase to customer satisfaction after only three weeks of implementing Verint Knowledge Management.

By giving employees greater insight into clients’ products and previous inquiries, customer satisfaction went “through the roof” – which is a significant benefit from having a knowledge management system.

“We did not need conversations to speed up, but we did need them to improve in quality. With the combination of our client management system and Verint Knowledge Management, this goal was achieved—and we saw customer satisfaction go through the roof after only three weeks.” – Ben Roosenthaler, Product Owner of the CRM system, SNS Bank

Man and woman sitting at table working together
Woman working talking on the phone
Man and woman working in office at computers
Woman smiling while looking at her iPad

Knowledge Management can help you adapt and respond to COVID-19

The global pandemic has created upheaval for your customers and your employees. Sudden surges in remote employees and increased customer inquiry volume and types can result in your agents feeling overwhelmed and customers feeling frustrated.

Your employees are struggling to answer new customer questions about COVID-19 without the resources they would normally access. Knowledge management can help your agents find and share the information needed to answer both customer inquiries and questions they may have themselves. Knowledge management can also help ensure the answers agents access are consistent, up to date, and easily accessible.

Your customers also benefit from knowledge management which allows them to find answers themselves. By leveraging knowledge management in self-service websites, customers won’t need to reach out to your agents if they can easily find the information they need about COVID-19.

Knowledge management uses AI and natural language understanding to make it easy for customers or agents to find the answer they need. Customers or agents can search using whatever terms make sense to them and even if those aren’t the exact terms in the knowledge article, the system will still know it is the right response to return.

Featured Knowledge Management Resources