Where Knowledge Matters Most

"By contributing to the knowledgebase, you help others and you help yourself. One of the returns on that investment is that you get to focus on more challenging issues. All those mundane, everyday solutions that no one wants to do get written, pushed out and shared, and self-service kicks in. The questions that start coming in after that are more difficult, more challenging and thus make you look better when you answer them," said Duane. "Solving that ‘new problem' that no one else did is a great accomplishment for the day," said Duane, as opposed, I guess to the soul-devouring rut customer service agents might otherwise find themselves in.

But, I had to ask, what kind of person gets up in the morning and says: "I need to find a way to make my job harder today"? Duane laughed at that: "Call center agents are learners by nature. They WANT to learn new things and compete in that process. Now, admittedly, this kind of agent is more likely to be in a more technical and complex line of work—high-tech problem resolution for example, not selling soda pop. By solving the more complex customer service problems, they not only get satisfaction, but they're also in the spotlight to advance up to tier-two and tier-three leadership positions."

The Agent Knows Best

So how does that work? How does a solution that gets solved by one of these crackerjack CSRs get transferred down the line to become a knowledgebase article that other people can use and benefit from? "This is where a KCS and a KCS-verified solution comes into play. During the agent's wrap-up time, he or she needs to be able to publish that solution immediately, and present it for review," said Duane. "That's one of the hallmarks of a KCS solution—ample wrap-up time," he explained. The solution is at that point still a draft, but it is shared immediately for other agents to at least think about using. "Once it's blessed, it can be used without fear or hesitation. But KCS allows agents to share knowledge in near-real time," said Duane.

The idea is a viral one. "As other agents begin using the article and linking it to various cases—and after five or seven times of success doing that—it gets kicked up into a workflow for verification. It can then get cleaned up to fit style guides and branding for the company. Then the agent gets credit for authorship, and the analytics in the system can confirm how many cases were solved by it, and that it was sent to self-serve and is continuing to solve cases in self-serve mode. That accomplishes two things," added Duane. "It raises the stature of that agent, and it saves the company money."

I shared this idea, as I often do, with my wife Denise, who is just about the smartest person I ever met. She was typically blunt and solid: "It's not hard to figure out: You got the ‘A' students, who will succeed, and the ‘B' students, who will do OK, and then you got the ‘probably-not-gonna-be-around-much-longer' students." That is as accurate a read on customer contact centers as I've ever heard.

I asked Duane his take on this idea. It constantly amazes me the degree to which "ego," and "psychic reward" and "job satisfaction" factor in here. Going back to the Bruce Taylor days of knowledge management, we used to discuss how to "incentivize" and "compensate" knowledge workers for sharing what they know instead of hoarding what they know. We used to imagine compensation packages that were based on the number of words they contributed to the knowledgebase (or whatever it was called at the time). And that they might be paid two cents a word, or $50 per article. I am always startled to learn that the true incentive is sheer, pure and unabashed recognition.

"I've seen a few examples where the organization requires the leading agents to contribute a high level and volume of content in order to remain a tier-two or tier-one agent," said Duane. "But more often, it's a movie pass for two, or a nice dinner or even their name on a leader board in the call center."

Me, being the ultimate skeptic, challenged Duane on this point. "Seems to me," I pontificated, as only I can, "that might work in a customer-service environment. But I cannot imagine salespeople, for example, sharing information that freely for so little reward. The typical salesperson considers personal information on prospects and sales opportunities sacred, and is unlikely to share information that might help another seller out." I can get downright obnoxious.

"A good salesperson can share knowledge, still outsell and continue to add new perspectives and new flavors as they go into new deals," countered Duane. "OK," I said. (What else is there to say?) For instance, how does your theory apply to other areas, such as product development? It still requires a certain level of altruism, I say, to make it all work... right?

"It has more do with trial and error, and testing, and getting to the solution of the problem. I can share a piece of information from my end of the process—I'm working on the widget—with the people on the other end who are devising the gadget," claims Duane. "It saves time for the agents themselves, it saves money for the company and overall raises the tide for everyone who stands to benefit from the effort."

I cannot think of a better punctuation for this article than that. Please read on for more views on the common subjects of "knowledge," "service" and "support" from those who are much better equipped to present them than me.