Introduction

The use of a Knowledge Management system (KMS) has been prevalent for some time; however, it's not been long since technological advancements have changed the face of customer service and how it is perceived. 

With innovations in the branches of AI, Knowledge Management Systems have become an integral part of customer service. Technology has made the retrieval of meaningful and crucial data instant, with knowledge bases (KB) now being used extensively throughout the world across all major industries. They add incredible benefits to the existing framework and long-term benefits to customer experience and satisfaction scores. 

Knowledge management software works as a knowledge directory for agents and customers, storing and managing information to allow brands to digitally implement and enhance their business strategies. It quickly conceptualizes, collects, analyses, and displays data, improving overall business efficiency and expanding opportunities in customer experience. KMS enables the stabilization of data creation and information findability for empowering support agents.

Top contact center challenges

Companies also face difficulties in running a contact center efficiently. Maintaining a healthy Customer Satisfaction (C-SAT) score is vital for long-term growth and development. Let's take a glance at some of the problems faced by call centers:

· Hybrid working model:

Agents have primarily been working from home during the pandemic. Companies are trying new ways to find a progressive balance and provide remote agents with the necessary infrastructure and technology to help make their tasks easier. Moreover, these technologies are helping in streamlining employee productivity tracking for BPO. 

· Accurate and Easy Information:

Customers often get frustrated with resolutions that are vague and difficult to follow. In-accurate information could also reduce efficiency for agents and reduce the customer experience.

· Scalability:

A sudden rise in incoming calls due to external factors could become a significant problem for small call centers. Longer wait times are one of the primary concerns for brands, and it negatively impacts the customer experience.

The scope of knowledge management

A Knowledge Management system reforms customer service through multiple approaches. A sound Knowledge Management system must cover the following elements in its scope:

· Decision Trees:

Decision trees help in creating guided interactive workflows for quick and accurate resolutions. Decision Trees can help agents derive the most accurate solution without going through a large amount of text. 

· How To Guides:

How-to Guides are used extensively in self-service. They give a step-by-step approach to troubleshoot issues. How-to guides are used anywhere from setting up a new service to troubleshooting an issue.

· Knowledge Base:

A Knowledge Base is a searchable repository for agents and customers with in-depth information about the product/service. A well-developed Knowledge Base could substantially improve Average hold and resolution times.

· Self-service Modules:

Self-service modules help set up a support page, train bots, and enhance the in-app support to handle large volumes at call centers. 

· Learning & Quiz Management:

Knowledge Management systems also offer to send regular brand updates and keeping the customers engaged with texts, e-mails, videos and also help run assessments to figure out employee and agent knowledge.

· Visual Assistance:

Visual Assistance is driven by Augmented Reality and is a unique way to transform customer experience digitally. Visual Assistance offers a contactless way to engage with customers and is widely appreciated as a benchmark for solid customer experience. 

· AI-Bots:

Bots could be of radical help in managing redundant queries and issues. They are slowly taking over manual tasks and are starting to learn to solve more complex problems. AI is still in its early phase, but bots are the future of customer service, and minimal human intervention is expected in the time to come.

Benefits of using an AI-powered KM

Incredible development in Artificial Intelligence and its branches in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing has made it easier for call centers to resolve more straightforward queries that are repetitive, quickly. 

An AI-powered KM could substantially reduce the load of an agent who might focus on more complex tickets. AI can also efficiently hold the history and context of a conversation, enabling an omnichannel experience for customers across any platform they choose to interact with. 

AI-powered Knowledge management systems can smartly update the Knowledge Base regularly and help remove useless data. It can also simplify solutions with the help of predictive capabilities.

Conclusion

The way customers interact with brands has changed drastically over the years. Customers expect more self-service and unique ways to solve their issues with a preference for personalization and quick resolutions. AI-powered knowledge base efficiently delivers quick and accurate solutions. It can easily understand the context, studies behaviors, and offers a personalized and customer experience to users. 

An omnichannel Knowledge Management system provides consistent information across all channels and acts as a single source of truth. It can speed up your access to information, deliver instant actionable answers, help in faster onboarding and learning, and supercharge a brand's self-service.

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