First things first, let’s all agree that a general plan to make knowledge accessible to your employees does not constitute as a strategy. To develop an effective knowledge management strategy that will pave the path for future success, your organization needs to make sure your people, processes and technology are working together. Failure to do so will inevitably result in the fossilization of your company’s knowledge. But don’t worry, we’ve got 4 ways to future-proof your knowledge management strategy that will help you to anticipate the needs of your employees and customers, and scale your knowledge management efforts.
Make the case for KM across departments
Developing a knowledge management (KM) strategy and getting the budget to do so properly can sometimes be a tough sell. An effective KM strategy certainly plays a big role in improving the customer experience by enhancing the findability of your content, engaging your customer community and enabling employees who work with your customers on a day-to-day basis to offer an exceptional customer experience—but the benefits extend well beyond support and can make a drastic impact in other areas of the business.
With a KM strategy backed by AI-powered search, all your company knowledge is findable and easy to access. Your knowledge base articles, videos, FAQ’s, manuals and more are accessible to anyone looking for information, in the context of their query. This means:
- Your customers can self serve which results in time and money spent answering their questions
- Your sales force is equipped with business-critical information the moment it’s needed. Increasing sales volumes
- Your IT department will be able to address employee technology issues based on what services and equipment the employee is using
- Your product team will have a better understanding of what is being searched for and can use customer knowledge to inform your roadmap for future products that will better meet their needs
Results from recent a TSIA report indicate that 43% of respondents think they could improve employee productivity by 30% or more if they had the tools to share knowledge more efficiently. Find out how different departments’ productivity are suffering without access to vital information and determine how improved knowledge management can help. Getting their input sets the groundwork for adoption of a knowledge sharing culture. And with a comprehensive view of how KM can benefit the business as a whole, upper management will view a proper strategy as a must-have rather than a nice-to-have, and will have an easier time backing a KM investment.
Measure your knowledge management efforts
You know what they say: you can’t manage what you don’t measure. As we advance through the digital age, where employees and customers alike are turning to their devices as their preferred source of information, they expect to find what they’re looking for. In order to deliver the right content to them, you need a clear understanding of what matters to your users. Search usage analytics allows you to track behavior patterns, trends, content gaps, the relevancy of the content you have based on consumption and engagement rates, and if it’s helping your employees and customers to successfully self-serve. All of this informs your insight engine and empowers your organization to make data driven business decisions.
Measuring your knowledge management efforts is critical to future-proofing your strategy, but it’s also important to know how you organization’s KM capabilities stack up to industry standards. TSIA’s 2017 State of Knowledge Management report helps you to better understand your organization’s current KM state, it also identifies areas where your organization lags behind the industry benchmark and highlights measurable returns of adopting a strong KM strategy.
Create a knowledge management flow
Think about your daily routine, can you visualize how information flows throughout your company to help you complete your tasks? You probably don’t spend too much time thinking about where the information originates from, where it’s stored or how is it accessed, but you’re probably all too familiar with sifting through emails, servers, databases and fileshares to find what you’re looking for. Doesn’t sound too effective, does it?
The reality is, most people aren’t aware of the expertise and existing knowledge residing elsewhere in the company; and only a fraction of that knowledge serves best practices or to help customers. A flawed information flow creates bottlenecks, prohibits employee collaboration and is ultimately costing your organization.
Thankfully, making KM improvements is easier now than ever before with intelligent search. Because it is critical to have access to corporate knowledge and contextual content wherever it resides, including in employee’s minds, there is no need to move this data. AI-powered search allows you to keep your company’s collective knowledge where it is, but unifies it under a singular index, so that employees can easily locate the right information and the right expert – whether they’re across the office or across the globe – to complete their tasks faster and more insightfully. The impact of sharing employee knowledge is huge, employees will start collaborating more and re-creating less work. With more nimble employees, companies can ultimately become more competitive and delight their customers.
There are different methodologies you can use to truly leverage the work and brain power within your organization. Knowledge-Centered Service® (KCS) is one such methodology which integrates the creation and maintenance of knowledge into every touch point of your digital experience, consequently improving the capacity of your team and increasing and knowledge sharing across departments. Check out our recent blog post to know if KCS is right for your organization.
Remain alert and agile
Your KM strategy is not something you can set and forget, it will continue to evolve and require process revisions, top-notch collaboration tools and a strong employee adoption—all of which needing regular maintenance. It is crucial to track trends, gather data and use the insight to inform business decisions across your organization. Being able to make informed decisions on the fly will help your organization transition from a reactive state, to a proactive one, keeping you one step ahead of the competition and securing your place in the market. It is no easy feat, but the rewards are well worth the effort.
Leading companies are seeing tremendous employee proficiency gains and increased customer satisfaction with the implementation of an effective knowledge management strategy and Coveo’s AI-powered search:
- Informatica has seen a 5% increase in CSAT since go-live
- Medallia experienced a 5 point NPS increase in one quarter 34% increase in agent proficiency
- A Fortune 50 Healthcare Company saw a 12x improvement in time-to-competency for new employees and successful expansion of customer support operations in emerging markets
See more examples of companies using AI-powered search to drive their knowledge management strategies here.
To learn how you can achieve an efficient state of knowledge management and develop a realistic future-proofed KM roadmap, get a complimentary copy of TSIA’s 2017 State of Knowledge Management report.