The Rise of the Fractional Knowledge Manager
By Marty Hobratschk, CKM
Strategic Consultant
In today's world, knowledge is like gold. Companies need to be on top of their game when it comes to collecting, organizing, and sharing info. That's where fractional knowledge managers come in - they're the new rockstars of the business world!
What is a Fractional Knowledge Manager?
The concept of a fractional employee arose in the academic world, where professors often divided their time between teaching, research, consulting, and other activities. This model then spread to other sectors like finance, marketing, and service industries. These days, it’s becoming more and more common to see fractional executives and managers, as companies look for cost-effective and flexible ways to access specialized skills and knowledge.
A fractional knowledge manager is a part-time or project-based expert in knowledge management. They team up with organizations to give them a helping hand in capturing, organizing, sharing, and making good use of knowledge. Fractional knowledge managers perform a variety of tasks, including:
Analyzing knowledge ecosystems to identify gaps and opportunities
Developing and implementing knowledge management strategies
Identifying and capturing key knowledge assets
Creating and maintaining knowledge repositories
Facilitating knowledge sharing and collaboration
Providing training and support to knowledge workers
Measuring and evaluating the effectiveness of knowledge management initiatives
The Value of Fractional Knowledge Managers
Fractional knowledge managers can provide a number of benefits to companies that have a customer service contact center, including:
Improved customer service: Fractional knowledge managers can help contact center agents quickly and easily access the information they need to resolve customer issues. This can lead to improved customer satisfaction and reduced call handling times.
Increased efficiency: Fractional knowledge managers can help contact centers to streamline their knowledge management processes. This can free up agents' time so that they can focus on providing excellent customer service. It can also speed up the time it takes to onboard a new agent so that they reach peak productivity faster.
Reduced costs: Fractional knowledge managers can be a cost-effective way to improve knowledge management in a contact center. Since they are hired on a part-time or project-based basis, companies only pay for the services they need. And don’t forget about the cost savings that come with increased efficiency and improved customer service.
Conclusion
Fractional knowledge managers can be a real game-changer for companies with a customer service contact center. They're like a secret weapon that can help you boost customer service, work smarter, and save money. If you’d like to learn more about ways to level up your contact center's knowledge management, get in touch with us at www.cognita-km.com.
Knowledge Capture: Making Sense of Customer Interactions through KCS
Businesses that take the time to listen to their customers and learn from them have a serious edge. Things like feedback, how customers use their products, and when they need a helping hand are all important. By gathering this info, companies can get a better handle on what their customers are looking for. This knowledge can then be used to make even better products, make customers happier, and maybe even sell more products and services.
One of the best ways companies can up their knowledge game is through Knowledge-Centered Service© (KCS), a methodology designed and championed by the Consortium for Service Innovation. KCS is methodology for service delivery that focuses on knowledge as a key asset of an organization. It's a structured approach to capturing, structuring, reusing, and improving knowledge to enhance service delivery and support.
Why is Knowledge Capture Important?
Using KCS for knowledge capture makes the whole process easier and more efficient. It's like having a secret weapon for capturing, storing, and using customer knowledge. And guess what?
One of the most significant reasons for having a good knowledge capture process is improved customer service.
When you capture and share a solution to a problem, your employees can quickly solve the same issue if it comes up again for another customer in the future. KCS helps with this by letting agents create and maintain a knowledge base that they can use to resolve customer issues fast and efficiently. And the same solutions your agents use can be served up to customers, allowing them to solve their issues without having to talk to an agent.
But the benefits of using KCS to capture knowledge don't stop there. KCS can also help companies understand their customers' needs, wants, and struggles. This knowledge can then be used to create products and services that better meet the target market's needs. You can even use the data gathered from a KCS process to develop more effective sales and marketing strategies.
How KCS Works
KCS starts with the following principles:
Collective Knowledge: Everyone in the organization contributes to the creation and maintenance of the knowledge base.
Demand-Driven: Knowledge creation is driven by customer inquiries and issues.
Continuous Improvement: Knowledge is constantly updated and refined based on feedback and usage.
Self-Service: KCS encourages customers and employees to find answers to their questions through a readily accessible knowledge base.
In a contact center, KCS operates as a never-ending loop that makes solving problems a breeze and builds a dynamic knowledge base that's always getting better. Here's a simplified version of how KCS works:
Capture: When a customer contacts your customer support team, the first thing the agent should do is search the existing knowledge base to identify a potential solution. In the absence of a relevant article, the agent documents the issue, its resolution, and any pertinent details. This process ensures that valuable knowledge is captured and preserved for future reference.
Structure: Agents act as knowledge contributors, and structure the knowledge into articles, typically adhering to a standardized format. This standardized approach enhances the searchability and comprehension of the articles for both agents and customers. Articles are reviewed by KCS coaches, who review the articles for adherence to the content standard and provide feedback to the agents and ensure approved articles are published.
Reuse: The knowledge base serves as a powerful resource for agents, enabling them to swiftly resolve similar customer inquiries. By leveraging previously documented solutions, agents can improve their efficiency and deliver a consistent and effective customer experience. The reuse of knowledge significantly reduces the time and effort required to address customer issues, contributing to increased productivity and enhanced customer satisfaction.
Improve: The KCS process recognizes that knowledge is not static. To maintain accuracy, relevance, and effectiveness, articles are regularly reviewed by agents and knowledge managers. Feedback from agents, such as ratings or comments, is actively sought to identify areas for improvement. Based on usage data and feedback, articles are updated, enhanced, or retired to ensure that the knowledge base remains current and valuable.
In addition to these core steps, several key elements contribute to the successful implementation of KCS in a contact center environment:
Integrated Knowledge Base: The knowledge base is seamlessly integrated into the agent's workflow, enabling them to access information without leaving their primary interface. This integration ensures that agents can quickly and effortlessly find the resources they need to resolve customer inquiries, minimizing distractions and enhancing productivity.
Search Functionality: Robust search capabilities are essential for agents to promptly locate relevant articles within the knowledge base. The search functionality should be intuitive and efficient, allowing agents to input keywords or phrases and receive accurate and comprehensive results.
Feedback Loop: A feedback mechanism is crucial for ensuring that the knowledge base remains accurate and useful. Agents are encouraged to provide feedback on articles, such as ratings or comments, which are then used to identify areas for improvement. This feedback loop promotes continuous refinement and optimization of the knowledge base, ensuring that it remains a valuable resource for agents and customers alike.
Knowledge Management Team: A dedicated team or individual is responsible for maintaining the knowledge base, curating content, and analyzing usage data. This team works closely with KCS-empowered agents to ensure the knowledge base is well-organized, up-to-date, and aligned with the evolving needs of the organization.
Finally, to foster a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous improvement, agents are trained on KCS principles and encouraged to actively contribute to the knowledge base as part of their daily work. This training empowers agents with the skills and understanding necessary to effectively capture, structure, and improve knowledge, ultimately enhancing the overall quality and effectiveness of customer service.
The Bottom Line
Knowledge capture is essential for businesses to understand customer needs, improve service, and drive sales. KCS offers a streamlined approach to capturing and utilizing this knowledge effectively. By creating a culture of collective knowledge and continuous improvement, KCS empowers agents to deliver efficient and consistent customer experiences. This not only benefits the customers but also contributes to the overall growth and success of the company. To learn more about how KCS can help your organization, reach out through LinkedIn or visit my website at www.cognita-km.com.
The Business Value of Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management (KM) is often described as a strategic asset, but its true value can be elusive without concrete metrics. In this article, I’ll discuss how KM drives tangible business value, from boosting efficiency to sharpening decision-making, and provide some real-world examples to illustrate its impact.
Quantifying the Benefits of Knowledge Management
A strong KM program can yield benefits like increased efficiency, improved decision making, enhanced innovation and reduced costs. A well-structured knowledge base minimizes the time spent searching for information. This results in quicker access to solutions and best practices, which leads to accelerated problem solving and the elimination of redundant work.
By centralizing knowledge and insights, employees can make better decisions faster. And by leveraging past experiences that are captured in the KM system, employees can mitigate risks. Knowledge sharing and collaboration fosters a culture of innovation by helping workers to identify new opportunities. KM can also help accelerate product development by streamlining product development cycles.
Cost reduction is a key benefit of knowledge management, and it can happen in a number of ways. With a strong KM system in place, companies can significantly reduce the time it takes to onboard new employees, which leads to quicker problem resolution. Similarly, when workers are able to find the knowledge they need, they are less prone to errors and rework, which reduces costs. And finally, a good KM system allows employees to share information not just with each other, but with customers as well, which provides self-service options and reduces customer contacts.
Measuring the Impact
To demonstrate the value of KM, we have to measure its impact. Key metrics include knowledge base utilization rates, time saved on searching for information, increases in first-call resolution rates, reducing employee turnover, improving customer satisfaction and the return on investment (ROI) of KM initiatives.
Let’s take a deeper look at measuring ROI of KM initiatives. For this example, we’ll look at how we can measure KM ROI in a contact center. Consider the following metrics:
Average handle time (AHT) reduction
First call resolution (FCR) improvement
Customer satisfaction scores
Agent turnover rate
Knowledge base search volume and accuracy
Cost savings from reduced training and agent errors
By tracking these metrics, contact centers can quantify the benefits of KM and make a compelling case for continued investment.
Real-World Examples
OK, so this all sounds good in theory. But what does it look like in the real world? Here are a few examples where KM has lead to measurable operational improvements for companies:
Call Center: A telecommunications company implemented a knowledge base, leading to a 20% faster resolution time for customer issues.
IT Department: A tech firm reduced IT issue resolution time by 30% through a centralized knowledge repository.
Financial Services: A bank increased revenue by 15% through data-driven insights from a knowledge platform.
Healthcare: A hospital system reduced medical errors by 25% through knowledge sharing among doctors.
Product Development: A consumer electronics company fostered innovation and developed groundbreaking products through a knowledge-sharing platform.
Marketing: An advertising agency increased client retention by 20% through a knowledge base of successful campaigns.
Training and Development: A retail company reduced training costs by 30% and improved employee performance through an online training platform.
Procurement: A manufacturing company reduced purchasing costs by 10% through a supplier knowledge base.
The KM Imperative
Knowledge Management is a strategic imperative that can deliver significant business value. By focusing on efficiency, decision-making, innovation, and cost reduction, and by measuring its impact, organizations can unlock the full potential of their knowledge assets.