Today the Questioning Mindset can be a barrier to advancing one's career and this impacts also in many what Knowledge Management must be offer. It can be attributed mostly to the 'users' unclear needs exploration that can be a challenge to overall adoption.

If we only limit KM to advancing a user's needs based on the remit of the organizational objectives, then possibly we are not addressing his/her 'Fears' and many-a-times 'Aspirations'. If a user for example is a Business Consultant and wants to grow into a Practice Leader in 10 years, then we need to ensure we also help him Grow feels values for his/her Contributions towards KM.

Let me introduce the 7-step framework which is a Pain-Gain Journey map that helps you understand how to advance the 'user' to becoming a believer in Knowledge Management.

1) Know: Today many leaders are focusing on enabling new-joiners to learn around the benefits of KM practices and the ready tools through the on-boarding. They are ideally introduced to a buddy who is a Champion either from their project team or at the department level and it is this person who is responsible for ensuring that the tenets of the leadership talk during the induction are translated to practices that help the person recognize KM as a part of the culture of the firm.

Larger issue that remains un-addressed is the user has his own learning-apps, personal-devices that he uses and work-apps that are not linked to the World of Organizational KM.

2) Search: Let us assume the 'user' moves ahead and has accepted the stand-alone KM system with its features and is compelled to use the system due to collaborative rule-based nature of his internal work-practices. Then in such cases we see that the user is sub-consciously accustomed to visiting KM portal when he/she is lost. They explore the expert corner; they view the self-help group channel for frequent km trainings and in-time slowly KM is becoming a part of their daily routine.

Larger issue is we are still not addressing the user's aspirational need for a personalized system that helps him get noticed at work. Most would say Gamification is the key. However, throughout my career I have seen simple things like a simple reward & recognition page for the quarterly winners being published on the intranet where a simple Like button & Comment section did the trick. It helps peers appreciate the person for the mentor they are, the team member they have always been and most importantly as a humane leader who practices the firm's values, while congratulating the person.

3) Qualify: Most of the time a CKO is chartered with measuring metrics and the focus is on ensuring the team is responsible for talking about KM in a standardized manner, so it is adopted by all. However, this leaves out the aspect of 'Fear' as today there is a rich tacit knowledge that is not so easy to codify and hence the KM team tries to address this larger issue with standard templates and contests for collecting what is available.

The larger issue at hand however is how can we ensure the expert community is initiative-taking and sees benefit in co-authoring / co-developing or co-innovating articles / IP or other differentiators that would help the user advance. Can KM ensure the user moves away from always depending on this team lead to advancing a conversation with a pool of SMEs available on a Community of Practice forum, which is credible as a source?

4) Apply: Usually as a part of a KM audit we are given a mandate to check the categories of knowledge that is most effective. Right at the top we see whitepapers, webinar content , practice asset SOPs and more such artifacts/tools as enablers. These are a clear sign that the organizational KM framework is developing,

The larger issue at hand is such artifacts also exist on client systems and there is a growing need for both clients & the organizations KM system to be unified to ensure minimal effort, better quality of output and higher usage by the community.

If we look back then we have managed to map KM by understanding the user's persona through his Fears, Aspirations and partially Skillsets. However, to advance a user and ensure he/she sees KM as a true enabler we need to also address their 'Interests' partially.

5) Realize: If you have read the Knowledge Management Toolkit by Amrut Tiwani the book talks about how a system must advance the user to know-why and ensure his knowledge orientation is aligned to exposing him/her to extensive exposure to problem solving.

However, if as leaders we only feel ecstatic that KM has been accepted and not acknowledged we fail to build the right system that is aligned to bringing in the ability to deal with unknown interactions and unseen situation. There by we remain at the know-how stage only as we fail to encourage employees to participate in the problem solving and get a feel for the issue-at-hand. It is important we are clear about the KM touchpoints, and we allow employees to get together fortnightly and share their Failures / Lessons learnt, talk about their failure moments and this improves the overall culture that it is ok to speak up.

6) Grow: While running a design thinking workshop we surveyed twenty-five leaders across various departments like Marketing, HR, Finance, Sales and few more aligned to the cohort of designing an org-wide customer portal. We intended to understand how does KM enable / impact their roles. There was a mixed consensus as the room was pivoted to design a better system based on standardizing KM templates aligned to marketing case studies, offering decks aligned to how the sales present it to clients etc.

The larger issue at hand was there was not anyone who shared that we have enabled a People Champion to talk about the need for knowledge management in not duplicating our content. Many times effective KM can come out of a conference deck, a networking dinner or a sales representative traveling to the client side.

7) Contribute: Lastly knowledge cannot be consumed unless someone creates or shares it. Having a governance policy in-place and a well-trained KM team are just enablers unless the individual is intrinsically motivated.

The larger issue at hand is how can we advance a user to promote KM and be an evangelist and along the journey help us build systems , define policies and be a true people champion.

The next time you take that all important induction remember you are advancing someone's career and hopefully this article helps you to address the user's persona-based needs rather than your structured KM approach. Who knows you might help someone turn into a believer?

Pundits have long talked about the importance of customer experience for business performance. You may have received the edict from the CEO or advice from your consulting firm to differentiate yourself through CX. However, you may also know that businesses have been at it for years with only a handful having any semblance of success. Just look at CX benchmarks, such as the Forrester CX Index, which have plateaued or dropped with not a single organization delivering “excellent” customer service in Forrester’s evaluation. How do you separate yourself from the pack?

The answer lies in knowledge management. According to Gartner, Inc. (paywall), organizations with a high level of CX maturity are investing disproportionately in KM.

Based on my experience working for a company that offers knowledge hub solutions, I want to help you understand what to look for in a provider. But first, let’s explore an approach to knowledge-powered CX differentiation based on the ability to solve customer queries.

Recognize not all customer queries are equal.

Customer queries come in different shapes and sizes. They can be broadly grouped into the following categories, organized in ascending order of customer effort involved: 

• Informational queries: Informational queries are of the “garden variety,” where customers are looking for basic information like when a store may be open, what their account balance might be or the status of an order they placed with a retailer.

• Procedural queries: More complex than informational queries, procedural queries are about how to do something like return a product, get a refund or fill out a form. Another example would be helping a customer open a certain type of account by not only answering customer questions but also taking compliant conversational and action steps with the customer along the way.

• Problem resolution: This is where the customer states the symptom of a problem and the self-service system or the contact center agent converses with the customer, diagnoses the problem and prescribes a solution. This requires reasoning expertise, where the agent can get from symptom to problem by asking the right questions, looking at similar cases from the past and what resolution worked and prescribing that resolution to the customer. Depending on the query and the industry that the business is in, the conversation may also need to go through some steps that are required for compliance. For example, when a customer calls the contact center regarding a mortgage loan in progress, the agent is required to identify the customer by asking a certain set of questions.

• Advice: Examples of advice queries include suggestions on what dishwasher to buy from a big-box retail store or what type of investment to make in the case of a financial services firm. Not that different from problem resolution queries, the agent or advisor has to have a conversation, asking the right questions of the customer and prescribing the right product or plan to buy that meets the customer needs, while still making sure to comply with industry regulations.

• Coaching: The next frontier in knowledge-powered customer engagement, coaching is not a query type, per se. In fact, it typically entails all the above query types. Customers are not only given answers and prescriptions but are taken through a coaching journey that adapts with evolving customer context and gamification motivation to help them reach a certain goal. An example is coaching a consumer to financial wellness over time so they can buy a house or car.

Understand the different query types and CX differentiation.

Handling informational queries may seem like table stakes, though many businesses are not even doing a good job in handling these basic queries. While perfecting the handling of informational queries is a good start, handling the more advanced query types that create significant effort for customers — procedural, problem resolution, advice and coaching — presents an even bigger opportunity for CX differentiation. Let’s categorize each query type by differentiation:

• Medium: Informational.

• Medium High: Procedural.

• High: Problem resolution.

• High: Advice.

• Super High: Coaching.

Handling queries well and getting to high levels of differentiation is not easy to do. The answer lies in seamlessly combining knowledge tools or technology building blocks into a unified and complete knowledge hub. In fact, per that earlier Gartner, Inc. study, a common challenge that organizations face is they need all the tools to achieve their CX goals but have just one or two of them, which hinders their effort to improve CX.

Look for certain criteria as you seek a solution partner.

A knowledge hub can maximize your CX differentiation by enabling you to handle a broad range of customer queries with context, content, consistency and compliance at scale. But not all knowledge hubs are created equal. Here’s what to look for:

• The knowledge hub should have rich functionality immediately out of the box for quick business value. If you have to start from scratch with a toolkit or do extensive development and customization to get deep functionality, you may wind up with a multimonth or multiyear project, which you likely can’t afford at today’s speed of business. Ask unambiguous yes/no questions upfront to determine if vendors offer your required capabilities out of the box.

• The company demonstrates domain expertise in knowledge management best practices. Have they deployed knowledge management at scale for demanding enterprise clients? What is their deployment and business value assessment methodology?

• Do they have a track record of successful deployments at scale in your own industry? Ask for customer testimonials and references.

• There should be a risk-free way to try out the solution. For example, do they offer a production pilot with no cost and no obligation to you? This tells you whether the vendor is willing to put real skin in the game.

Understanding what a knowledge hub can do for you and working with the right solution partner can get you to high CX differentiation, great agent experience and market domination at warp speed!

Originally published on Forbes.com.

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Did you know more than 70% of consumers are at least somewhat likely to buy based on experiences alone? It's no wonder to find customers moving away from a brand after just one bad experience. One-third of consumers agree they would change brands after one bad customer experience. Clearly enough, Customer experience is becoming a fundamental competitive differentiator, making it essential for businesses to prioritize their customer services. 

Your customers likely use more than one channel to reach out to you. One of the key ways to achieve excellent customer experiences is by providing adequate services across multiple customer touchpoints with the help of knowledge management software. All these various channels for customer support, including email, social media, website, physical store, or your call center, provide an opportunity for your business to attract, delight, and retain customers. It depends on your CX strategy and how well it is oriented to achieve your brand objectives. 

While it is vital to provide your customers with as many channels as possible to engage with you, it is equally important to map your customers' journeys and measure their satisfaction across every touchpoint. Therefore, having a multichannel approach to CX is essential but not enough in itself. In an age of growing digitalization, brands can combat all their CX challenges and even thrive by adopting an omnichannel customer support strategy.

Before we delve into how omnichannel customer support boosts CX, it is crucial to understand what it exactly is.

What is Omnichannel customer support?

Like multichannel CX, omnichannel customer service includes several channels customers use to communicate with brands. The critical difference is the integration and relatedness between different channels that omnichannel customer support provides. When these multiple channels integrate, customers get seamless experiences across all touchpoints.  

Having multiple channels for your customers to communicate with you is not enough. Providing seamless customer experiences across all the channels is the key. Here is why omnichannel customer support is the best way to boost CX.

Seamless customer engagement

When customers interact with your brand on one channel, they expect the same services from you on another one. They do not like it when your customer support agent gives them information that is different from the one they see on your website. Customer engagement, therefore, depends on providing consistent information across all channels.  

An omnichannel customer service connects all the channels to make it easy for your customers to switch from one channel to another while completing a purchase. If a customer makes an initial purchase offline and does not want to revisit your store for further assistance, your agent should rise to provide appropriate support through digital channels and make it easy for the customer. In this case, having a robust knowledge management system in place could be of great assistance.

The customers need not think which channel is best suited to their needs. Instead, they should be convinced of the adequate support your brand will provide them, irrespective of the channel they use. Omnichannel customer support tracks customer journeys across multiple channels to provide the right engagement at the right time to your customers.

Integrated channel approach

As the discipline of Customer Experience continues to evolve with new technologies like AI-backed knowledge base software, brands must focus on providing exceptional CX that creates an impact in customers' minds. 

Unlike the multichannel approach, where different channels operate separately, omnichannel customer support integrates all the channels under one centralized location. All the channels coordinate with one another to improve customer experiences.

During a particular customer journey, a customer using a live chat knowledge base management system to solve a problem may shift to a voice call with an agent for better clarity. Since the information is retrieved from the channel last used by the customer, there is no need to repeat the problem. 

The agent, therefore, is aware of the challenge faced by the customer and resolves the issue quickly. This reduces the average handle time (AHT) an agent takes to resolve a customer query and improves the quality of customer support across all touchpoints. 

An integrated channel approach gathers customer data from different channels, which gives you insight into your customers' specific needs. This can help you customize experiences for your customers and increase customer retention.  

Assistance through the customer journey

To boost your CX, you should be ready to support your customers wherever they are. It is undoubtedly beneficial to increase engagement by giving your customers multiple options to communicate with you. However, the quality of support you provide them at each platform is more important. An omnichannel CX tracks customer journeys from beginning to end and ensures that customers receive assistance through every stage.  

There are certainly newer sets of challenges that CX poses for brands every day. However, as long as your customers feel valued, they will stay with your brand. The key, therefore, is to strengthen the foundation of your CX strategy, which should prioritize your customers' satisfaction & having next-gen knowledge management software can be of great help. An omnichannel customer experience removes friction across multiple platforms so customers can move seamlessly from one channel to another and receive quality support throughout their journey. 

Improved Brand trust

Exceptional customer service ranks number one in creating customer loyalty for brands. 

To retain your customers' trust, you need to value their time and care for their convenience at every step. An omnichannel strategy with the help of a knowledge management tool uses data integrations to unify customer information. You can leverage this customer data to create personalized experiences for your potential and existing customers. The unified customer data also increases your agent productivity, enabling them to resolve customer queries at the first go.    

Customers trust brands that are clear and consistent with their message across all channels. Being omnipresent across all channels can help you increase brand awareness among your customers, and consistent brand messaging can help you strengthen brand-customer relationships for improved CX. Omnichannel customer service focuses on improving customer satisfaction by tracking customer interaction at every touchpoint. 

When customer needs are taken care of at their desired channel, it elevates customer experiences and increases brand loyalty.  

Conclusion

An omnichannel customer service equips you to utilize opportunities that data holds, empowers your customers to communicate with you through their preferred channel, and creates a consistent and solid brand image across multiple channels. With the right knowledge management software that promotes omnichannel support, you can enhance the resilience of your CX strategy to embrace challenges and improve customer experiences across all touchpoints.  

Nonaka & Takeuchi developed the SECI model by introducing the Japanese concept of 'Ba', which roughly translates as 'place'. Ba can be thought of as a shared context or shared space in which knowledge is shared, created, and utilized.

Through this article I intend to help my readers understand how vital KM is as an enabler in helping you realizing and tap into honing your competences to magnify your personal brand.

Conference badges - how many of them do you have? If you’re a leader in sales, a marketer or even a business consultant, I am sure you have traveled often and have a collection over the years!

Many times we attend conferences to network and learn about new markets, industry upcoming advancements in technology and many more such events for keeping ourselves updated. Over the years we display our badges from these events as a sign of knowledge we have gained to our surrounding teams.

The larger question I reflect on in this article is how Knowledge Management can help us re-invent ourselves through ensuring we part-take in being a co-speaker rather than just another participant at a Masterclass in a conference.

Let's introduce you to the four quadrants of the SECI model to learn more.

• Socialization (Tacit to Tacit) – Socialization is about capturing knowledge by physical proximity; wherein direct interaction is a supported method to acquire knowledge. The tacit knowledge is transferred by common activity such as being together in the same environment.
• Externalization (Tacit to Explicit) – Externalization is the process of making tacit knowledge explicit, wherein knowledge is crystallized and is thus able to be shared by others, becoming the basis of new knowledge. This includes publishing or articulating knowledge. Concepts, images, and written documents, for example, can support this kind of interaction.
• Combination (Explicit to Explicit) – Combination involves organizing and integrating knowledge, whereby different types of explicit knowledge are merged. Here explicit knowledge is collected from inside or outside the organization and then combined, edited, or processed to form new knowledge.
• Internalization (Explicit to Tacit) – Internalization involves the receiving and application of knowledge by an individual, enclosed by learning-by-doing. On the other hand, explicit knowledge becomes part of an individual's knowledge and will be assets for an organization. Internalization is also a process of continuous individual and collective reflection, as well as the ability to see connections and recognize patterns, and the capacity to make sense between fields, ideas, and concepts.

I am sure you can now relate each of the four quadrants of the SECI model on how our tacit knowledge can help us better re-invent our personal brand in-time.

The obvious next question however is how does one role-model and hone such a change and how does one identify the right opportunities in-time.

While there are many models I would like you to read more in detail the Four stages of competence as I relate it to the Quadrant graphic above.

• Quadrant-I > Quadrant-II : As you participate in the Masterclass as an audience the first-time you know very little about the topics as most of the content is new to you. So, in such instances its ok to just keep an open mind and have a few grey areas to which you relate in which your skilled over the years. This is the base for moving from a stage of 'Unconscious Incompetence' to 'Conscious Incompetence'.
• Quadrant-II >> Quadrant-III : As you move away and reflect on the key takeaways you are slowly realizing what areas of the conference for which you need to develop your own subject-knowledge and possibly invest in reading more. You start moving from a stage of 'Conscious Incompetence' to 'Conscious Competence'.
• Quadrant-III > Quadrant-IV : You are beginning to discover yourself and with time by volunteering for expert field work, participating in key research projects & giving talks to smaller communities of practice. You begin to develop mastery of presenting on similar topics and relating content with right examples and resources.

To become a professional speaker requires the right opportunity and one can start with taking professional course as a Certified Learning Champion at work and engaging audiences based on professional opportunities-at-hand.

Knowledge management tools can improve employees' capabilities, contribution, and efficiency provided they have access to the appropriate information at the right time. Your employees may develop and unleash new prospects within your organization when you have valuable internal data. Better performance also can be achieved with the use of knowledge-sharing technologies. 

With a knowledge-sharing solution in place, you'll be able to provide your employees with all essentials they need to achieve their professional goals while also maximizing their contribution to your bottom line.

A robust knowledge management system will simplify locating and reusing essential data and resources throughout your organization. A knowledge management platform helps you: 

- Develop better products and services

- Develop better strategies

- Increase profitability

-Repurpose existing skills and expertise

-Improve operational efficiency and staff productivity

- Identify market trends early and gain a competitive advantage

-Set a benchmark against your competitors 

- Maximize your collective intellectual capital.

Following are 5 ways in which the right km tools empower your customer service teams: 

As mentioned above, knowledge management tools help around several areas in the organization as a whole. Below are listed ways in which knowledge management tools help customer service teams exclusively. 

• Aids the customer service team with reasoning and understanding:

Knowledge sharing technologies provide your staff with access to and visibility into company-wide data, which in many cases gives context to the decisions they make. 

This is crucial at times because management decisions might make certain employees' jobs more complex. It makes sense to assist them in understanding why a decision was taken to minimize problems. 

Employees can understand how the organization runs and use that information to inform their decision-making in the future by looking at the bigger picture. 

This is crucial for comprehending how the business operates and why specific procedures perform the way they do. The customer care team is more effective when they have access to the proper information.

• Helps create and understand opportunities:

Your staff will be able to take control of their personal growth if they have the correct knowledge-sharing tools at their disposal. Your employees will be able to pick and choose what they wish to learn and pursue their own development goals utilizing your internal knowledge if you provide them access to vital information. 

This implies that they improve their understanding of the company's operations. They aren't acquiring material from an unaffiliated third party; therefore, they learn how to grasp the theory and apply it in your company.

Employees can increase their value and contribution to the organization by expanding their skill sets. Learning new abilities can sometimes lead to new opportunities and efficiencies.

Furthermore, your staff becomes more adaptable with a broader skillset, allowing you to relocate resources between business units as needed. Sometimes all it takes is a little more visibility to give employees more authority. A knowledge base can help you take advantage of this potential.

Helps fill the gap between Teams and Business Units:

Knowledge-sharing solutions aid in the dispersal of information across the typical knowledge gaps that most businesses face. Increased sharing can help decrease barriers to collaboration by allowing all employees access to critical information.

This will enable individuals to understand and empathize with the internal issues that others in the business experience. This is crucial for establishing a positive working relationship that maximizes production and efficiency. 

Information can be aggregated into a single centralized area using a knowledge base, allowing employees from around the company to access the same data. 

This helps to bridge the inherent gaps that exist across teams, allowing for even more collaboration chances. Teamwork, communication, and coordination become easier to achieve when everyone is working from the same information.

• Improves the decision-making process:

Every day, your employees make decisions. These are based on their personal experiences and knowledge. While this is usually sufficient, there is likely additional information in the industry that could assist them in making the best selections.

You can help your employees make the best decisions for the company and their coworkers by implementing the correct knowledge-sharing tools in the workplace. 

Employees can further defend their actions and ideas by using information from various knowledge-sharing systems, such as content repositories and knowledge bases. This allows them to go above and beyond their degree of ownership and open up new business prospects.

• Helps the team members understand their role: 

You may encourage your staff and help them appreciate their contributions by giving them a better understanding of what they do, how it affects and benefits the firm and its position in the systems that offer value to your consumers. 

This is especially crucial when things go tough; if your employees understand why and what their hard work contributes, they'll be even more inspired to work hard. 

A knowledge base software can help with this by providing insight into the company's overall operations. Employees will appreciate what is going on around them as documentation is written and preserved, and they will be able to change accordingly. This is significant because it allows them to see processes and infrastructures that would otherwise be hidden

With the proper information sharing technologies in place, you can boost your employees' productivity, empower them to grow and diversify at their own speed, and guarantee they have everything they need to learn what they want when they want it. This is critical for keeping your employees happy, allowing for professional development, and fostering continued growth.

Conclusion 

Knowledge management tools have shown their value throughout time. They provide a new way of doing things and a better experience for both customers and staff. Choosing the right knowledge management platform for your firm streamlines the process, saves time, and increases team efficiency.