The Importance of Customer Knowledge Management
What is Customer Knowledge Management?
Knowledge management for customer service relates to the processes and tools organizations use to capture, store, organize, access, and analyze data about its customer. It can include, among other things, personal information, purchase history, demographics, and past customer service interactions. The insights gleaned are then used to create value for both customers and agents.
The process typically includes:
- Acquiring or extracting knowledge from a customer that can be leveraged in new product or service development or existing product and/or service improvement.
- A systematic process of collecting, preserving, sharing, and using customer knowledge to build up and maintain long-lasting relationships with customers.
- Focusing on how the organization can use knowledge management techniques to support continued feedback from customers in order to get maximum benefits from knowledge as a valuable asset.
Knowledge management software brings all collected data into a centralized location and builds a holistic picture of each customer. Agents are then able to personalize interactions and improve satisfaction and loyalty in a single, integrated interface.
Customer Experience and AI
“The primary purpose of artificial intelligence is found in its ability to analyze massive datasets in a fraction of the time it takes a human,” says Jim Iyoob, Chief Customer Office at Etech Global, and “this analytical advantage means everything in today’s marketplace.”
If you’re looking for how to improve the customer experience in your organization’s call center, AI represents the next generation of knowledge management. An AI-driven customer knowledge management solution supports a great customer experience and, as a bonus, makes for happier employees. Here’s how.
- Empowered self-service. No one likes to wait on hold. AI makes it possible for customers to help themselves via chatbots and virtual assistants, getting answers to common questions. While chatbots are nowhere close (yet) to giving the personalized service a live agent can, they are ideal for people looking to solve common problems.
- Improved personalization. That said, personalization is possible with AI, as it can make recommendations based on a customer’s past history.
- 24/7 Availability. Some companies offer 24/7 live agent access, but for those who don’t AI allows them to offer round-the-clock customer service to people wherever they are at whatever time they need it and on whichever device they choose to use.
- Fix problems before they occur. Chatbots are designed to proactively create a seamless customer experience, resolving customer problems before they even realize they exist.
- Streamlines conversions. A pain-free process makes customers more inclined to buy. AI-powered chatbots are programmed to keep it simple and provide exactly what the customer is looking for.
The perfect way to adapt AI into the customer experience is to have it serve your customers without them having to ask. Personalizing customer interactions via AI significantly improves brand image and enhances the overall customer experience. An effective customer knowledge management system helps deliver the right kind of assistance to customers more quickly and accurately. And since all agents have access to the same information, customers receive consistent service no matter whom they speak with.
Benjamin Franklin once said that “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” Customer knowledge makes it possible for organizations to provide top-class customer service, design products and services customers say they want, and align business processes and operations so to forge strong customer relationships.
