Knowledge Management For Self-service To Improve CX

This means consolidating answers to customers’ concerns and making them readily available in their preferred channels, resulting in a rising need for effective Knowledge Management for self-service.  

Why is self-service so crucial?

1. Customers demand it

• Globally 90% of the customers expect brands to have an online self-service support portal
• 65% of global respondents and 79& of millennials favor brands that offer a mobile-responsive customer service portal. 
• 81% of customers across industries try to solve issues independently before reaching out to a live representative. 

2. Faster issue resolutions

Today, customers quickly shift loyalties and demand brands to be cognizant of their time. How-to guides, FAQs, and chatbots have become the go-to means for customers to receive instant responses and help them avoid long waiting times to connect with agents. 

3. Increases support teams’ efficiency

Effective self-service not only improves customer experiences but also elevates agent experiences. Self-service channels enable call deflection, which helps agents attend to critical customer concerns while enabling customers to get their solutions successfully. 

4. Improves contact center KPIs

Self-service knowledge management makes information readily available for customers at the click of a few buttons. It boosts agents’ efficiency to resolve more cases in their daily workflow, while some cases get deflected to self-service portals.

This results in reduced support costs at contact centers and improved KPIs like customer satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and First Contact Resolution (FCR).

Why is effective Knowledge management important for self-service? 

A successful self-service strategy needs the backing of consistent and relevant knowledge delivery at the right time. This is where effective Knowledge management forms the backbone of self-service communication. 

Knowledge management is the practice of creating, organizing, managing, and disseminating information across the organization and externally to customers through the self-service knowledge base. Here is why effective knowledge management is critical for self-service.

1. Creates a centralized Knowledge base for all channels 

• A Knowledge base consolidates all the information in the form of FAQs, articles, how-to guides, and picture support that customers need to solve their issues. It acts as a single source of truth for customers to find instant solutions without the need for agents’ assistance. 
• An AI-powered knowledge base solution like Knowmax offers a no-code DIY (do it yourself) capability to create different content modules like guided workflows, articles, and visual guides that can be disseminated across self-service channels like web portals, in-app support, and chatbots. 
• While a centralized knowledge base organizes all the relevant information in a unified place, the intuitive search function makes it convenient to access relevant information from a pool of knowledge base content. With actively working self-service channels powered by a robust knowledge base, customers experience uniform and consistent services irrespective of the channel they use. 

2. Fast-tracks resolutions and provides personalized customer experiences 

• A chatbot tailored to customers’ needs can significantly improve experiences and boost satisfaction. 75% of customers are more likely to buy from a brand when they are acknowledged and remembered. 
• With Knowmax, chatbot workflows can be integrated with CRM platforms to auto traverse customer information through any workflow step. With insights into customer context, chatbots can fast-track the resolution process and personalize customer experiences.

3. Enables content interlinking for immersive customer experiences 

• The content in the customer service knowledge base should be understandable and provide all the relevant details to a customer on the first go. Customers should not feel the need to check different platforms to confirm the validity of information; instead, a self-service support channel should deliver it at their fingertips.
• With Knowmax knowledge management solutions to create a customer service knowledge base, organizations can ensure inclusive content for customers and support teams alike. Content created on the platform can be interlinked for a unified view of the relevant information. 
• For instance, an article may need a visual aid, and a troubleshooting script may require additional information to help customers solve issues independently and successfully. With Knowmax, content modules can be interlinked for better information access and immersive customer experiences across touchpoints. 

4. Leverages analytics to optimize customer service Knowledge base 

• Outdated and irrelevant content on self-service channels creates inconsistent experiences and breaks customers’ trust, making it essential to timely optimize the customer service knowledge base. 
• With Knowmax’s micro-segmented analytics, content admins can identify top searched keywords and the performance of different content modules to draw actionable insights for content improvement. This helps identify crucial knowledge gaps and cover them with relevant and updated knowledge for customers. A constantly updated knowledge base is the key to driving higher customer satisfaction through self-service use. 

Benefits of Knowledge Management for self-service 

1. Omnichannel customer experiences

• Fifteen years ago, an average customer typically used two touchpoints to interact with a brand. Today, customers use an average of six touchpoints and expect the same level of services across all the channels.  
• Effective self-service knowledge management creates omnichannel customer experiences by ensuring the same quality support across multiple communication channels. 
• With robust self-service channels delivering relevant solutions, customers need not take the pains of waiting to connect with an agent for simpler issues and can even conveniently switch channels when the need arises. 

2. Higher customer satisfaction

Self-service channels supported with the right knowledge management solutions enhance the findability of information and ensure that content stays relevant for the customers.

Given the evolving digital channels for communication, customer satisfaction increases for brands that can offer viable solutions to customers to help themselves. 

3. Reduced support costs

• Self-service Knowledge Management takes care of the mundane and repetitive customer queries, reducing the number of phone calls for support reps. 
• The average cost of handling a customer call falls between $1.15 to $0.75 per minute. Robust self-service channels reduce the number of inbound calls, reducing support costs while maximizing customer satisfaction. 

Conclusion

Providing self-service customer service is no longer an option but a need to sustain and thrive in a customer-first world. However, the mere availability of self-service channels is not enough to help customers fix issues.

An effective knowledge management solution is needed to create, manage and consistently distribute relevant content to all customer service channels, including self-service portals, so customers can see the brand as a unified entity irrespective of the channel they use.