3 Advantages of a Knowledge Management Solution

In the business world, knowledge is power. A team of bad ass, knowledgeable employees will impress even the most difficult customers. However, finding the right people to build a team like this isn’t easy and can take a lot of time.

In many companies, knowledge is acquired through direct experience. A senior employee that has been working on a product for a long time will know it inside and out. But, as a result of everything they know, they can often feel overburdened or overworked. They become the “go-to” person for the product, and even though new employees may appear to be a remedy for the taxing position they are in, sometimes they can make the situation worse. In-person training on complex subjects is exhausting and there’s no guarantee the new employee will stick around for good after the training has been completed. Even worse, should the senior employee leave, all knowledge is lost forever.

Instead of continuing this convoluted “pass the baton” training strategy that’s high risk and low reward, more companies are transitioning training and knowledge into digital assets. Compiled together, they create a “knowledge management solution”, or a repository of digital information for both internal and external (customer) use as needed.

Why does this change make sense? Here are three ways knowledge management solutions create happy employees and customers:

1) It improves communication with internal employees – In the introductory example, one employee had too much knowledge and a tough time sharing it all with new and existing team members. With a knowledge base (the core piece of a knowledge management solution), this issue can be alleviated. One way for busy professionals to convey knowledge is to have them do a “lunch and learn” with a content specialist where they discuss a specific topic. The specialist takes notes and creates a piece of knowledge base content for the senior employee to review. After some edits, information about the topic is pushed live on the knowledge base for everyone to see and utilize as needed. This provides support agents with access to the information in real-time (through the knowledge base) so they can solve customer issues faster.

2) Customers can find answers on their own time – You can see how knowledge base solutions impact teams internally, but they can also stop customers from submitting a ticket altogether. A solid knowledge base with excellent content is a cornerstone of any good ticket deflection strategy. By placing the content to solve problems directly in the hands of your customers, not only can they avoid creating a ticket, but they can also find a solution whenever and wherever they want to. Knowledge base solutions are online 24/7, making customers happy as they don’t need to conform to a schedule or wait for a response to get a simple answer.

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3) Businesses can identify which methods of sharing knowledge work best – The last point is less about content distribution and more about the value a knowledge management solution provides behind the scenes. Every page within a knowledge base can be fully tracked and tested to get a better understanding of what customers want. For example, a business can run two different variants of the same knowledge base article (one with a video and one without) to see what their customers prefer. If they notice a decline in support requests by customers who visit the video variant of the article, this lets the business know that they should consider investing in additional video content in the future.

To summarize, knowledge management solutions create happier employees and customers because they improve the level of communication for everyone. Responses from support agents are faster and more comprehensive, and customers will be less likely to submit a ticket in the first place with so much information online. Knowledge bases are also great information hubs for better understanding which types of content work best with customers. Take the information burden off your senior employees and build up your knowledge base technology today!