Giva Blog

Yes, it is important to build a knowledge base to help increase first call resolution, provide consistent answers and stop your team from reinventing the solution every time the same type of call is received by the call center or IT help desk.  A great knowledge base software tool should also have exceptional Real-time Reports. You should be able to generate the following Real-time Reports about your knowledge base and employees to lead your organization.

• In ten seconds or less, can you determine which employees are generating knowledge records and at a very granular level can you determine if this knowledge is solving problems?
• In ten seconds or less, can you determine what categories of knowledge employees and customers need?
• In ten seconds or less, can you determine the quality of knowledge by user ratings and how often knowledge records were used to solve problems?
• In ten seconds or less, can you determine if an increase in knowledge records is causing an associated increase in First Contact Resolution?

Does your firm provide valuable incentives to reward employees for building and maintaining a high quality knowledge base? People need to know that you can measure their contributions and differentiate between employees on the help desk or in the call center. If you provide some valuable incentives to motive people and you can measure the value/quality of knowledge over time...just watch your high performers..they will seek to impress and help you build an outstanding knowledge base.

Let everybody know about the incentives that are available. Think iPods, iPhones, digital camcorders and cameras or some of the bling on display at https://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/bling/  It will actually be cool to work on the help desk or in customer service.

Here is a White Paper with more detail. https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/customer-service-best-practices-features-functions-customer-service-software/

Any good help desk and customer service software should allow you to, in ten seconds or less, measure overall customer satisfaction as follows:

By Service Group

By Analyst

By Call Category

By Root Cause

           Further by time:   This morning, Yesterday,  Last Week, Last month

           Further by:  Region, Country, Office,  Department, Customer

Also, in ten seconds or less, can you also review survey comments made by customers?

If you have to spend hours preparing reports, that will not allow you to react in Real-time to important customer situations. Reports are everything!

Thanks for reading.

You may find this White Paper interesting. https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/customer-service-best-practices-features-functions-customer-service-software/

If you are evaluating help desk and customer service software these are some key features that you should look for when assessing the the knowledge base capability.

FAQ and Most Frequently Used

These allow both agents and customers to leverage a list of common questions and answers in the knowledge base software application. An FAQ can easily be set-up by specifically designating that a knowledge base record is included in the FAQ listing. A Most Frequently Used listing of knowledge base records will leverage the knowledge base and help customers and Agents to quickly find answers.

Problem Solving Score- Knowledge Base Record

When a knowledge base record is used, a "Problem Solving Score" is incremented. The search engine utilizes these ratings to prioritize subsequent knowledge base search results. Reports use the “Problem Solving Score” to indicate which knowledge base records have the highest value and which may need improvement. A knowledge base software system should learn and get “smarter” over time.

User Rating Score-Knowledge Base Record

An Agent can rate knowledge base records each time they are used. The search engine utilizes these user ratings to improve subsequent knowledge base search results. Reports use knowledge base record ratings to indicate which records have the highest value and which may need improvement. A knowledge base software system should learn and get “smarter” over time.

Here is a great White Paper on Customer Service Best Practices-What Features and Functions to look for in Customer Service Software.

https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/customer-service-best-practices-features-functions-customer-service-software/

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the weekend.

What benefits can companies expect from a Knowledge Base and Self-Help Knowledge Portal?

Some benefits of a Knowledge Base software system correlate directly to bottom-line savings, while others are more difficult to quantify. In today's information-driven economy, companies uncover the most opportunities — and ultimately derive the most value — from intellectual rather than physical assets. To get the most value from a company's intellectual assets, Knowledge Management practitioners maintain that knowledge must be shared and serve as the foundation for collaboration. Yet better collaboration is not an end in itself; without an overarching business context, a Knowledge Base is meaningless at best and harmful at worst. Consequently, an effective Knowledge Base software system should help a company do one or more of the following:

• Foster innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas
• Improve customer service by streamlining response time
• Boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster
• Enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employees' knowledge and rewarding them for it
• Streamline operations and reduce costs by eliminating redundant or unnecessary processes
• Increases customer satisfaction since a knowledge base portal is available 24 hours/day

Source: CIO Magazine. The ABCs of Knowledge Management, Megan Santosus & John Sermacz

If you would like a White Paper on this topic please download it at:

https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/help-desk-best-practices-features-functions-help-desk-software/

Thank for reading! Please let me know the topics that interest you.

In conjunction with using a web-based help desk software system, using a fully integrated web-based knowledge base software tool is a very important help desk best practice. The greatest asset a service organization has is the knowledge of the staff. When an employee leaves the organization, they take all that knowledge with them. By encouraging and rewarding employees to document their knowledge, in a centralized knowledge base software system, it becomes available for all the staff to leverage. Independent research supports that a knowledge base will decrease call handle time, talk time, call escalation percentages, employee turnover, agent training time and increases first call resolution rates. A knowledge base software application will also increase consistency in answers and overall customer satisfaction.

When customers use a knowledge base software self-help tool, it reduces repeat calls to the Help Desk. Using a customer accessible self-help portal will reduce calls by increasing call avoidance and is a great way for your support organization to save costs. In the 2007 Help Desk Institute Practices Survey, 48% of respondents use a web portal knowledge base system. When companies employ web-based self-help technologies, 74.5% of them use knowledge base search tool!

Source: HDI Practices Survey 2007

If you would like a White Paper on this topic please download it at:

https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/help-desk-best-practices-features-functions-help-desk-software/

Thank you!

Did you know that customer feedback loops can help build long-term customer loyalty?

Whether your company is a product or service company, there is an organization that produces new products. In high technology, this department is Engineering. Every engineer should spend 1 day/week working in the customer service department listening to real live customers. The people who make the products should listen directly to the people who use the products. If Engineering gets feedback from the customer service department, they are likely to discount it. This is especially true if it is highly critical. Send a few promising engineers or folks who create your products to customer service training and "embed" them in the customer service department 1 day/week for a month. They will gain valuable insights to share with fellow engineers. World class companies know the value of “embedding” engineers on a rotating basis in customer service. Their creditability within their own team will increase and you will have an advocate to help spread the truth about what customers really think about your company’s products.

Here is a great White Paper on Customer Service Best Practices-What Features and Functions to look for in Customer Service Software.

https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/customer-service-best-practices-features-functions-customer-service-software/

How do you deliver world class customer service and support?

Be prepared...some of your customers may act shocked when you ask them for unsolicited feedback. Their other vendors are probably not as inquisitive and curious about them. Keep "peeling the onion" on your customers. Uncover their needs and pain that is there, but not quite at the surface.

If the customer service department has managed to solve a customer problem on the phone and they seem satisfied, then you are in a good position to leverage the phone call.

1. Ask customers for ideas to enhance the current product and build entirely new products.
2. Conduct market and competitive research.

More on this topic at another time.

Here is a great White Paper on Customer Service Best Practices-What Features and Functions to look for in Customer Service Software.

https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/customer-service-best-practices-features-functions-customer-service-software/

Here are a few additional thoughts on customer satisfaction surveys. Look for these features when assessing the customer satisfaction survey capability in Help Desk and Customer Service software.

Personalized Customer Satisfaction Surveys

This provides the capability to include a digital photograph of the person who closed the service request along with the customer satisfaction survey that is sent via email. This allows employees to view a picture of the person that resolved their problem. This helps connect employees to the help desk department and puts a "face" on the people in the department.

Choice of Customer Satisfaction Survey Delivery Method

This provides an option for the customer satisfaction survey to be sent either in an independent "customer satisfaction survey" email or integrated with the standard close service request email notification. The customer satisfaction survey will display as a nice sharp looking HTML document directly in the email. This will increase customer satisfaction survey response rates.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Alerts- "Please call me"

This provides a "check box" that the customer can check if they would like a help desk manager to call them. When checked, a manager is immediately notified giving them a "heads-up" that a customer wants to speak with them. This allows for a written record and an opportunity to more closely communicate and meet the needs of your customers.

If you would like a white paper on this topic please download it at:

https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/help-desk-best-practices-features-functions-help-desk-software/

Thank you!

If you are evaluating help desk and customer service software these are some key features that you should look for when assessing the customer satisfaction survey capability.

Create Your Own Customer Satisfaction Surveys or Use a Default

This provides for creating your own customer satisfaction survey greetings, questions, answer formats and values including follow-up thank you notes. It is important to be to able to generate your own custom customer satisfaction surveys. Customer satisfaction surveys that can be set up with text, lists, text inputs and radio buttons allow for the most customization. A default survey will also help you get started right a way with surveying. An associated customer satisfaction report allows for quickly viewing the survey results.

Customer Satisfaction Rating Alerts

This provides for setting minimum levels of customer satisfaction ratings that trigger alert notifications if levels are not achieved. This allows quick remediation.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Frequency and Survey Exceptions

This provides the capability to survey each customer every X service requests, but no more than Y service requests over Z time interval. System Administrators should be able to place some customers on a survey exception list so that they do not receive surveys. Senior executives sometimes do not want to complete customer satisfaction surveys. Some employees who frequently use the help desk many not want surveys each time they call the help desk.

If you would like a white paper on this topic please download it at:

https://www.givainc.com/resources/wp/help-desk-best-practices-features-functions-help-desk-software/

Is this interesting information? Please share your thoughts. Thank you!