Guest post by Sowmya Juttukonda.
According to Gartner, 89% of businesses will compete with each other primarily on customer experience (CX) in the coming year. This means offering a great customer experience can give you a competitive edge in a crowded market.
It may also make you think about processes and tools which can improve your customer success ROI. Using technology like a well-designed knowledge base platform can significantly improve your customer support system, helping you deliver a great CX.
The importance of knowledge management for customer experience
How does a knowledge management (KM) system improve the customer experience?
Many businesses operate their customer support reactively. When a company has an overwhelming number of support tickets to manage, it’s hard to proactively put strategic methods in place to help keep customers happy with the service. It’s easy to overlook the fact that similar questions keep coming up repeatedly.
Implementing a solid knowledge management system for customer service can be a game-changer for your business. It can enhance your customer experience as well as improve customer success ROI. With capable knowledge base software, you can decrease your support expenditures and increase customer satisfaction.
How does a knowledge management system work?
It creates a central knowledge base to give your customer support representatives the right information at their fingertips to solve customer queries.
An efficient knowledge base can also be used for customer self-service and provide answers to their questions in real-time with tools like articles, FAQs, and chatbots. This offers DIY customer support and deflects tickets before reaching an actual support employee.
Implementation of artificial intelligence (AI)-embedded KM tools contributes to customer service employee satisfaction which ultimately translates into customer satisfaction.
Five Top Knowledge Management Tools to Improve CX
Knowledge management tools are systems employed to transfer information/ data internally and externally. CRMs, learning management systems, and knowledge centers are all examples of KM tools.
For instance, if you’ve ever used tutorials or AI-powered chatbots, you’ve made use of their knowledge base tools. Here’s a list of the top KM tools for customer service improvement.
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A Unified Knowledge Base
A unified AI knowledge base is a single platform where all the data are collected, analyzed, and restructured for use. Through its intuitive search feature, the findability and searchability of content improve and it can be used internally and externally by your customers, support team, agents, and experts. In the form of articles, FAQs, and how-to guides, customers and agents can both benefit from a unified knowledge base.
It allows editing, keeping track of changes, and giving users access the different versions of the content. It enables collaboration and development of content while integrating other tools like CRM, telephony, and chat. There are also other add-ons and extensions available for improved operations. It’s an effective KM tool that provides for easy knowledge sharing.
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Decision Trees
Decision tree software is a tool that enables agents to create custom workflows to help a customer move through stages to resolve an issue. Using long articles as a knowledge base for customers and agents is not always practical; using decision trees enables quick responses.
It simplifies the knowledge distribution process with the use of easy-to-follow guided workflows and flowcharts that traverse information via multiple open APIs. Decision tree software helps create reliable, interactive call center scripts for agents which improve customer service through faster and more accurate resolution.
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Visual How-to Guides
Visual guides are one of the most effective KM tools for customer service. Being easier to retain, these guides enhance support staff productivity and improve resolution through visual support, to create a better customer experience.
Visual how-to guides use images and graphics in place of text. They make understanding the entire query resolution process easier for customers by guiding them through pictures. Customers are able to easily navigate and follow the step-by-step solution.
Combined with AI, this component of knowledge management organizes information and represents it visually. These easy-to-follow picture guides help reduce the number of queries that reach the support staff.
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Bot Knowledge
AI-powered chatbots are becoming increasingly popular for providing customer support. Chatbots can use natural language processes to effectively deflect support tickets before they reach the customer support staff. They help to both reduce support costs and enhance the customer experience.
Using knowledge management for chatbots can accelerate resolution of support tickets and customer queries. Chatbots can intuitively provide valuable, personalized information to users.
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Actionable Analytical Insights
Analyzing data is crucial to measuring the success or failure of your customer service. With AI-based analytics, various metrics like top call drivers, resolution time, top-performing content, common customer queries, and pain points can be tracked similarly to the way employee monitoring software for the remote team works. The raw data can be studied and analyzed by data analytics teams to provide meaningful and actionable insights which can be leveraged to shape a company’s CX strategy.
These KM tools for customer service can help you elevate your customer experience. And effective knowledge management can have a far more significant effect on a company’s success in the long run. Using the right internal knowledge base software for customer service can increase CX and brand reputation while reducing customer service costs.
Conclusion
You can significantly improve your customer experience by creating a robust and comprehensive knowledge base for customer service. With the right kind of knowledge management software, you can increase customer satisfaction and empower your customer support teams. It also streamlines your support processes, reduces your support costs, and lets you focus efforts on more strategic, higher-value activities.
Sowmya Juttukonda is a content developer and digital media strategist. She currently works at Knowmax, which is a knowledge management system developer. Her hobbies include reading graphic novels and playing guitar.
Lisa Sicard says
Hi Tom and Sowmya,
I like that – thinking about making things better for our customers with a service like that. I’ve been thinking of developing a tool as well for my website. Trying to get creative with something they need. Thanks for the tips here.