As anyone can attest, the success of any knowledge management system is measured on its ability to reduce support costs, increase customer satisfaction, and drive return on investment.
In summary, a knowledge management system is a platform that allows for storage and retrieval of information. Its goal is to improve the understanding, general know-how, use, or processes of a product, system, or solution.
Knowledge management systems generally exist within organizations or teams. However, they can also support customers through a centralized database of information. That information might include frequently asked questions, product demos and other “how to” information.
This definition of a knowledge management system is probably the most widespread understanding of their purpose. To be sure, these systems provide proactive customer support strategies. They help customers solve their problems on their own vs. needing to contact customer support representatives. However, these systems can also provide other useful data points for improving customer satisfaction and boosting business outcomes.
Examples of Knowledge Management Systems
There are many examples of knowledge management systems in place today. Below are a few that are notable in today’s marketplace.
Google Adwords: Well-defined platform with how-to guides and FAQs, which also leads users to sign up and start using their platform.
ServiceNow: Great system that offers information around product benefits, guides visitors to company resources, and also provides off-ramps to contact a customer success manager.
Pecan AI: Pecan AI also offers a knowledge management system driven by user search. Currently the knowledge management system focuses on platform utilization. It offers information and resources on getting started, importing data, and building and interpreting predictive models.
What Knowledge Management Systems Can Do For Businesses
Prior to building out a knowledge management system, it’s important to understand the two primary benefits from the platform:
- Cost reduction: It can be quite costly for a customer service representative to interact with customers to respond to each and every product inquiry. A knowledge management system provides easy access to product information that can support the user via a self-serve model. This access avoids routing the inquiry to customer support.
- Drive sales: Roughly 32% of today’s buyers look for guides, product tutorials, and other educational materials prior to making a purchase. An easily accessible, comprehensive knowledge management system gives potential buyers more information about your product and service. They can then make an educated purchasing decision.
How Does a Knowledge Management System Support Predictive Analytics?
When sourcing information for your knowledge management system, it’s important to pay attention to your customers’ pain points. The No. 1 place to do this is to review your support tickets and create content that addresses the most common issues.
Talking and engaging with customer support agents is another great way to learn about customer issues. However, this process takes more time and resources.
Another emerging trend in building out knowledge management systems is the use of predictive analytics. Traditionally, predictive analytics and knowledge management systems were viewed as unusual partners. However, today, leveraging advanced AI software allows businesses to anticipate questions, bugs, customer churn, and other emerging issues. They can then build content within their knowledge management system to address these issues before they become major customer pains.
In particular, this task could be especially informed by predicting customer churn using a predictive analytics platform that points to the likely reasons a customer may churn. For example, if the predictive modeling process reveals that customers who visit a particular page of a web-based knowledge management system are likely to churn, it may be possible to either deal with the root issue and/or improve support around the concern represented by that page.
Regardless of your industry, ensuring customer satisfaction is key. Offering detailed knowledge management systems informed by deep understanding of customer needs and behavior will reinforce customers’ long-term relationship with your company. Predictive analytics offers an excellent way to develop that thorough understanding of your customers so you can retain them for the long haul.