Today there is an abundance in the variety of CRM systems available for organisations to purchase and implement within their environment. These environments are suitable for multiple industries, with the ability to record many different forms of customer interaction. Interactions with customers at an individual level present a key challenge to customer service agents – how do we effectively capture these interactions whilst also finding the time to process them to provide a satisfactory resolution? Effective customer Knowledge Management could hold the key.
Regardless of the vertical market, all organisations implement CRM systems to achieve the same goal – to improve the customer experience and thus improve the satisfaction and retention of these customers. Within each, a CRM may be utilised for many different channels such as web self-service or customer contact centres, and it is through these channels that CRM and Knowledge Management tools are increased in synergy.
The world of CRM is no longer confined to call centre enquiries, as more and more customers are choosing a multi-channel approach for their enquiries. This requires the need for the ability to search for customer-related information from a multitude of inbound channels such as web self-service, email, social media, chat and telephone. No matter the chosen channel, in order to respond to customer enquiries effectively, the knowledge must be stored and accessible from one single repository.
You Are Currently in the Queue…
A pet hate of the modern-day customer is having to wait for up to as long as 10 minutes just to speak to an advisor, only to find that the information that they are given isn’t of a satisfactory standard. Through no fault of their own, agents find it increasingly difficult to provide customers with the right information at the right time, whilst also recording interactions within their CRM systems.
Chopping and changing between different systems and information sources during a call not only leads to an increased time to resolution but also a great deal of confusion for an otherwise competent agent and the customer on the call. The result? Low satisfaction and reduced customer retention.
Repeated Queries – Repeating Answers
Many customer service agents often find that customer queries are generally directed around the same topic of interest, topics such as returns policies or how to update their current account. Whilst frequently resolved by agents, there is no history of a previous solution within the CRM to these recurrent questions and so no fast way to address them.
As a result of this, customers and staff alike can find themselves unhappy at the speed at which queries are resolved and more irritatingly for the staff, there is no easy way to record these interactions but to repeatedly input the same query and resolution for every interaction into the CRM system, resulting in plummeting productivity levels.
CRM Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management is increasingly becoming a key solution within the world of CRM, helping customers, agents and businesses all achieve their main targets; increase customer satisfaction, improve agent productivity, reduce costs and ultimately sustain and increase customer retention.
By working alongside and integrating with CRM systems, Knowledge Management is a powerful tool that searches customer-relevant information making this information accessible on the front line. This significantly increases efficiency through every step of the customer journey
The key benefits of a CRM Knowledge Management synergy are:
Increase speed to resolution by up to 30%– information is readily available to agents and resolutions are provided swiftly
More consistent and accurate answers– once a customer query has been resolved, this interaction can be made available to help answer future interactions, providing consistency and accuracy in resolutions
Reduced escalations– whether it be via an online customer self-service knowledgebase portal, dynamic FAQs or front-line customer service, customer enquiries can be resolved by easy access to accurate information at first contact. The time taken to find an answer is reduced by more than 50%
Reduced training times and increased productivity– customer service agents have the tools to become competent in half the time and spend more time resolving issues rather than carrying out the same processes repeatedly
Universal Knowledge – Effective Customer Knowledge Management
When choosing a Knowledge Management system to work alongside and within your CRM system, a versatile and adaptable tool is required to ensure that your CRM Knowledge Management processes run as smoothly as possible. The KPS Universal Knowledge system is able to integrate with CRM systems to deliver the above benefits via the following key features:
A comprehensive set of APIs: Integrate with a host of CRM systems including those such as Salesforce to ensure that customer data and knowledge is accessible on one page.
Self-service portal and dynamic FAQs: Through creating a web portal or by providing a dynamic set of FAQs, customers have direct access to the knowledge that you choose to be available to them.
Natural Language Search: Understand the context of customer queries either by phone or web self-service and answer questions with accurate and relevant information.
Self-learning: As your customer base grows, so does your knowledge, Universal Knowledge is self-learning to improve the quality of future resolutions.
Reports: Understand your customers and monitor inbound enquiries to ensure that customer queries are always answered to exceptional standards.
Integrate with social media: Push information from the knowledge base to your customer base through channels such as Twitter or Facebook to broaden your customer support.
For more information on CRM Knowledge Management and how Universal Knowledge can benefit you and your customers, click the links below to contact us or to request a demonstration:
