Learn Everything About Knowledge Management Framework

Knowledge is power, and it is like a revenue-generating machine for businesses that can leverage it effectively. 

However, the problem with most organizations is that they lack the right ways and tools to harness the vast scheme of benefits that existing knowledge resources hold.

This makes it critical to realize the importance and vast possibilities a successful Knowledge Management framework can bring to organizations across industries. 

What is a knowledge management framework? 

A Knowledge Management framework is a structure to help create, organize, manage and distribute knowledge across the organization. It involves consolidating all information as a single source of truth and ensuring its availability to the right people at the right time.

For customer-first companies, a successful Knowledge Management framework can help:

• Bolster the efficiency of the knowledge management for the customer support team by making knowledge readily available
• Aligns different teams by eliminating data silos and encouraging Knowledge sharing across the organization Increases customer satisfaction by creating consistent experiences across touchpoints 
• Reduce support costs and improve operational efficiency with a single source of truth for all information.

Pillars of a Successful Knowledge Management Framework

According to a McKinsey report, a searchable record of knowledge can reduce 35% of the time employees spend looking for the company’s information.

That being said, it is clear that lack or unavailability of knowledge is not the root challenge. The lack of the right process and tools makes it difficult to avail organizational knowledge. 

This is precisely where organizations need a Knowledge Management framework to effectively identify, collect, manage, and share their knowledge.  

1. People: Putting the right people in the right places

Without the right people, a product cannot help organizations reap benefits, no matter how good. Allocating the right responsibilities to the right people in the right places is the first step to building a successful Knowledge Management framework. 

A successful Knowledge Management framework requires the following: 

• KM owner: An expert or a team of experts to take charge of everything from content creation to successfully adopting the Knowledge Management platform. KM owner(s) need to have an all-around experience of the business dynamics and the skills to plan, evaluate and execute the platform. KM owners act as the point of contact (POC) for everything related to the platform, from designing strategies to hiring people and ensuring the platform’s success. 

• Knowledge creators: An interdepartmental team of content creators to identify the existing content and create new content on the Knowledge Management system. Building a team of knowledge creators requires selecting Subject Matter Experts from across the departments to create contextual knowledge and oversee its performance on the platform.  

2. Process: Ensuring the right knowledge is available to the right people at the correct time

The primary purpose of Knowledge Management is to make knowledge readily available to people when they need it. The process organizations use to capture, organize and disseminate knowledge is crucial to the success of a Knowledge Management framework. 

To streamline the Knowledge Management process, organizations need technological sophistication to create, measure, and ensure success at every phase of the Knowledge management implementation.

The Knowledge Management process should include the following technology solutions:

• Intuitive search: The KM platform should have intuitive search functionality to understand the intent and context of the agents’ search. KM platforms with intuitive search can predict users’ intent and complete sentences for their search and display meta tags for faster identification and retrieval of content.  

• Collaboration features: A KM solution should make collaborating on key KM activities convenient. For instance, a KM solution should enable stakeholders to collaborate on content creation, reviewing, and publishing from a unified dashboard. The platform should be user-friendly and empower agents to rate the effectiveness of knowledge base content and share their feedback.  

• Personalized experiences: Deploying knowledge management at contact centers should amount to seamlessly delivering personalized customer experiences. The KM solution should be compatible with CRM integrations to help agents customize experiences. 

• Integrations: A KM solution should integrate seamlessly with existing contact center technology to help agents adapt the Knowledge Management solution and leverage it effectively. 

3. Content: Documenting product and process information

• Content creation involves documenting relevant products and processing information in suitable formats. Content readiness should be prioritized to design a Knowledge Management framework that produces concrete outputs. Organizing the Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs) and making them accessible to agents under a unified dashboard is essential. 

• The success of a Knowledge Management platform hinges on the content. Organizing information into relevant formats, like creating articles and FAQs for primary and self-resolvable questions while creating troubleshooting guides for complex problems, is vital. It is also essential to ensure the correct multimedia files are attached to different content types. 

• Since content creation is an ongoing process and a vital component of a Knowledge Management framework, investing in a no-code technology solution is essential. A no-code do-it-yourself KM solution makes it convenient for any subject matter expert (SME) to create content without needing specialized technical expertise.  

4. Strategy: Measuring success and setting goals 

A successful Knowledge Management framework requires a well-documented business strategy to adopt, implement and optimize the KM solution. 

A Knowledge Management strategy should constitute the following: 

• List of all the current challenges  
• Clearly defined goals to be achieved with the implementation of the Knowledge Management platform 
• Evaluation of KPIs before and after the implementation of the KM platform 
• Training programs to ease internal teams with the KM adoption
• Gathering feedback from stakeholders across the organization to maximize the benefits of the KM solution 
• Creating a strategy for content creation, review, and optimization 
• Reviewing the platform performance regularly and identifying areas for improvement 

Conclusion

Given the rampant growth of data that companies witness daily, achieving a perfect Knowledge Management framework may seem arduous.

However, by aligning the core components viz People, Process, Content, and Strategy, organizations can fully leverage their Knowledge Management solution.

A full-suite Knowledge Management platform like Knowmax helps organizations focus on all the components of a Knowledge Management framework to achieve maximum customer satisfaction while saving support costs.