Knowledge Management—An Engine of Employee and Organizational Transformation

Verint Team October 7, 2015

In previous posts we’ve examined the value of effective knowledge management (KM) on customers and on the organization. What about employees? Does it matter whether they have a knowledge base or not? Are there specific identifiable drivers of value for support agents through KM?

The value of KM to employees is not just tactical—it can be a driver of strategic transformation for a support organization. Good KM changes the value proposition for agents and the type of work that they do on a daily basis.

No longer is their value based on how much information they can memorize or store in their heads. Instead—and this is an important shift—their value is based on how quickly and effectively they can learn new information, analyze and solve complex problems, and share new knowledge with others.

KM stimulates a culture where collaboration, knowledge sharing, feedback, learning, and personal development are encouraged and highly valued. As a result, the people themselves often feel more highly valued as well.

The following capabilities emerge:

KM helps eliminate the ‘agent knowledge gap’:

  • Allows your new agents to find information quickly and get up to speed faster
  • Provides new agents with a source of information to learn from without constantly having to ask more senior staff
  • Allows your most knowledgeable agents to scale their knowledge and expertise to the whole organization—using the knowledge base

KM engages and empowers support agents:

  • Provides them with a trusted source of information
  • Helps increase agent confidence and knowledge, driving positive customer engagement
  • Helps agents feel valued, because the business is investing in tools to help them succeed

With self-service, KM drives call deflection and improves resource alignment:

  • Helps reduce the amount of repetitive, mundane calls that drive support agents crazy and lead to burnout
  • Allows support agents to handle more complex calls, which are more interesting and ultimately more satisfying
  • Fosters a shift in complexity that encourages and enables agents to continually learn and develop expertise

The results of achieving a knowledge-centered approach can be dramatic:

  • Ramp-up time for new agents can be reduced from months to weeks, as they learn to use a knowledge base as their core knowledge resource
  • Employee attrition can be reduced, due to easier access to answers that helps lower the stress and confusion of the support job
  • Customer confidence and satisfaction potentially increase as customers interact with efficient, well-informed people.

Remember, in a contact center your people are your business. So the faster you can get them the right answers, the more they can focus on making customers successful. It’s another true “win-win” of KM!