When it comes to service and support, customers don’t long for conversation. They want answers, fast.
According to Parature’s 2014 State of Multichannel Customer Service Survey, customers rank the top two aspects of a satisfying customer service experience as:
- Getting my issue resolved quickly (41%)
- Getting my issue resolved in a single interaction (26%)
So, what is the key to delivering on the above? At the heart of every efficient (and hopefully first contact) resolution is knowledge. It is a simple foundation that, if developed and managed correctly, can be used both internally and externally - and distributed from a single source across almost every internal or external customer-facing channel including phone, IVR, email, live chat, mobile, social, support portal and more.
Knowing How to Make Knowledge Work
The challenge for most brands is not the lack or development of knowledge, but rather the single-source management of and access to the right knowledge in real time. Says noted CRM analyst Esteban Kolsky in a new white paper for Parature, from Microsoft, “not having access to the right information is the most critical time-waste of preparing any answer for a customer.
“If the information is not available quickly, it is nearly impossible to deliver against expectations. Using knowledge management appropriately to fulfill the need for the right information leads to meeting expectations,” advises Kolsky.
The benefits of successful knowledge management in customer service, thinking in terms of both the internal (employee) and external customer, are almost too numerous to list, but include: higher customer satisfaction scores, increased customer loyalty and trust, improved efficiency and effectiveness, increased employee engagement and decreased churn, as well as noticeable gains in both revenue and cost savings due to self-service deflection of frequently asked questions from high-cost, high-touch channels such as phone and email.
Even brands’ SEO rankings have received a boost from well-managed and frequently updated customer service content - and customers, in turn, can find the answers they’re looking for even if they’re not seeking support on a brand-owned property. According to the same multichannel customer service survey mentioned above, more than 84% of 1,000 consumers say they have used the search engines to first look for the answers to their customer service questions.
Knowledge’s Rich Return on Investment
For a real-life customer service knowledge management success story, search no further than Ask.com, a burgeoning brand that over the last few years, has developed a highly-successful multichannel customer service knowledge management offering to serve the hundreds of thousands of visitors that come to the site each month.
Ask.com Global Customer Care Manager Eric McKirdy recently calculated the ROI from just one of the brand’s customer service knowledgebase articles, selecting the most-viewed article which now has been accessed more than 4.5 million times. Calculating that the average annual starting salary for a CSR in their area at $40,000/year, and that it would take a CSR perhaps two minutes to answer the same question on the phone or by email with each of the 4,642,840 (and growing) customers… that’s 64 cents per answer for a $2,971,418 return on investment for this single piece of self-service knowledge.
New Esteban Kolsky White Paper Builds the
Business Case for Knowledge Management
A new white paper from noted CRM analyst and ThinkJar founder Esteban Kolsky not only effectively outlines the benefits of knowledge management for customer service (as well as sales and marketing), but walks readers, brands and organizations through the five steps of justifying a new or greater investment.
For any brand or organization looking to increase employee effectiveness and customer service resolution times, as well as deliver current and consistent answers, information and messaging across all major customer engagement channels, this complimentary white paper on knowledge as the key to better customer service is a must-read.