What Marketers Should Know About Knowledge Management: Part 2

Topic #2: Using Knowledge Management to Guide the Digital Experience

Over 70% of customers prefer to self-serve to find answers on your site. Chances are, if you don’t give them that option, they will find another brand who will. However, it would be a mistake to believe that just because they start with self-service, they will end there.

The key to providing a loyalty building digital customer experience is providing the right answer via the right channel at the exact moment that the customer wants it. Having an effective web self-service channel is paramount to this. Of course it provides the potential to answer the customer’s question, but you can also gain a valuable understand your customer. The best knowledge management systems will use natural language processing to understand not just the keywords used, but the actual intent of the question(s) being asked, providing vital insights about your customer. This information can then be used to guide the digital experience.

While interacting with the knowledge management system, there are a number of paths that can be orchestrated beyond simply providing a curated response:

1. The knowledge management system (KMS) can walk the customer through a two-way dialog to better determine the best answer to their question, rather than providing a list of possible answers to be sorted through by the customer.
2. If similar questions are being repeatedly asked and it seems as though the customer is not getting a satisfactory answer via self-service, the customer can be given the option to chat with an agent via web, voice or video chat.
3. Sentiment tracking can be used to determine if a customer is frustrated or upset. If this happens, auto-escalation to a real-time engagement channels can be offered to the customer.

In the cases where escalation to another channel is suggested, sending in-context information to the agent allows the continuation of the conversation versus a brand new interaction.

In part 3 of this series, we'll discuss how Knowledge Management can build trust by being part of a unified, consistent brand experience.

Related Content

• What Marketers Should Know About Knowledge Management: Part 1
  
• What Marketers Should Know About Knowledge Management: Part 3
• What Marketers Should Know About Knowledge Management: Part 4
• What Marketers Should Know About Knowledge Management: Part 5

by Shellie Vornhagen

Shellie Vornhagen is the senior vice president of marketing for Astute, a leading provider of smart consumer engagement solutions. A veteran in the software industry, she is passionate about using technology to improve people’s day-to-day lives.