Just the other day, I was asked what my customer experience philosophy was. At first, I thought that this question was easy to answer…we have all heard the one-liners and cliches for many years now. “The customer is always right” is the first to come to mind. And although I do believe that this holds true, I think that there is more to it than just that.
My customer experience philosophy is ‘Always start with ‘yes’ and then lead with empathy’. To unpack this a little more; start with ‘yes’…let your customers know that their enquiry can and will be resolved. And then lead with empathy; Really understanding the experience that your customers are having, putting yourself in their shoes so that whether you're designing an experience for them or responding to an inquiry that they've got, you're really looking to try and get the best possible outcome for them. If you have empathy, then you're going to be streets ahead of everyone else.
I spent the weekend thinking over my philosophy, and in order for contact centres to truly be able to deliver on it – agents need to be able to focus on the human element of each customer interaction…as this human element is something that cannot be replicated or substituted by any technology. In turn, this means that the technology that the agents do use, must be able to support this aspect of their role.
Here at The Agile Contact Centre, we talk about something called ‘the system of work’…It's sort of like the operating system on your phone. In the contact centre, a system of work is made up of a number of things. You've got training, workforce management, performance management, KPIs and knowledge. Each of these systems needs to be in tune – particularly knowledge, if you want to be able to deliver the best possible customer outcomes.
I believe that knowledge is a foundation for the contact centre. It's one of those core pieces that if you don't have right - sure you can still run your contact centre - but your staff are going to have a hard time being able to provide the service that they want to and that your customers expect. So, whenever I'm talking to clients, I always ask them about how they manage knowledge. Those who have a fit for purpose knowledge management solution in place better allow agents to focus on the customer they’re interacting with, not get bogged down in the details of the problem, because the answers are there for them in a system designed to support them.
A CX designed KMS is key
In my 25 years of experience in customer experience, I have seen many different solutions on the market; and although some system of managing knowledge is better than nothing, I believe that utilising a system that has been specifically designed for use in the contact centre is the only way to stop from falling behind the eight ball. Many organisations use SharePoint or a Wiki, but for a good customer and employee experience the knowledge solution needs to be more sophisticated.
That’s why I recommend a Customer Experience designed Knowledge Management System (CX KMS) to my clients. These platforms are built and laid out for the contact centre. Everything is designed to be navigated at conversational speed and takes the needs of the user into account. There are a few key features any KMS worth its weight should deliver:
1. Process guidance
A really strong process guidance feature is key. Particularly where teams don't have a lot of technology automation at their disposal, long and somewhat clunky processes and the anxiety of compliance, a good process guidance feature removes the stress and anxiety from the employee experience and allows them to focus on the customer on the other end of the line.
2. Analytics and data
Another feature that I think is essential is a thorough in-app reporting suite.
This allows leaders to use analytics and data coach their team. Knowing what pieces of knowledge employees are looking at, being able to link this back to customer complaints or NPS data is key to allowing you to not only tune and refine the knowledge in the system, but also to reinforce the behaviour with agents that the KMS is the place to go to get the information needed, rather than asking the person next to them or relying on memory.
3. Feedback
On the same line of thinking, Feedback is another critical feature. Having a feedback loop in place ensures that the knowledge served is always up to date and reinforces employee confidence in the system. KM solutions that don’t have a sophisticated feedback feature result in outdated or incorrect answers and decrease in user trust and engagement.
4. Integrable
A good knowledge management system integrates seamlessly with the other platforms and tools used in the contact centre. I was having a conversation a while back with someone about how enabling your employees with smart technology is like giving them superpowers; and that’s something that a CX designed knowledge management system does. Connecting to all other CX tools removes the stress and anxiety of the job and enables human-to-human connection and empathy.
Human to human interaction will always be a requirement of customer service, but in today’s competitive environment it must come with superhuman sophistication. A great Knowledge system is engineered to allow users to navigate Knowledge intuitively, deliver or receive information at conversational speed, and handle the tech side of things. If you can achieve all of this while building relationship, empathy, and personable experience, then you have found the right solution.