Entries Tagged 'Web 2.0' ↓

To keep up with the latest trends in customer service, collaboration and search tools, I am always scouring the Web to soak up as much information as I can. In no particular order, here are just some of the blogs that I read on a regular basis – the list is a combination of knowledge management, customer service, collaboration, search, and CRM sites, because the nature of our business means we need to stay on top all these issues. This is only some of the great information that is available from some of the smartest people who are working in the trenches every day. Let me know what sites you read to stay informed and I will add it to my growing list!

1. KM Edge: The American Productivity & Quality Center’s (APQC) Knowledge Management blog- Carla O’Dell and Lauren Trees and some insightful commentary to news and trends.

2. John Ragsdale’s Eye on Service: VP of of Technology Research at Service and Support Professionals Assocation (SSPA), the Association for Services Management International (AFSMI), and the Technical Professional Services Association (TPSA), shares information, news and analysis on the latest technologies intended to improve customer service.

3. Content Management Connection: George Dearing’s blog combines insight from content management experts with an emphasis on collaboration tools. The blog touches on content management through various aspects including customer service, Wikis, social networks, search engines, and Web services.

4. Bill Ives’ Blog: Bill Ives’ blog discussing practical applications of portals, blogs, and knowledge management.

5. Enterprise Search Practice Blog: This blog hosted by The Gilbane Group offers analysis and the latest news on enterprise search technologies and implementations

By engaging customers with web self service, Sprint eCare is redefining the telecom support experience. Mike Kidder, Senior Manager of Sprint.com eCare, discusses Sprint’s “Path to Loyalty” strategy and how new technologies will be integrated into Sprint’s web self service applications to improve customer satisfaction.

As pervasive as email remains in our personal and professional lives, it’s hard to believe that in some applications, its days are numbered. I’m talking about email as a channel for support, and as I was reading John Raggsdale’s recent post “The Death of Email Support”, I started to wonder why its demise hasn’t come sooner.

In the posting you’ll see that email is slower, less efficient, and less effective than phone—and only a small percentage (7-10%, depending on demographic) of consumers prefer the channel.

While companies have long latched onto the idea that email support would provide cost savings, the results delivered make clear that, even if some incremental savings are realized through call deflection, the degradation in the customer experience and in customer satisfaction far outweigh any gains.

So what’s next? In a word: forums. The companies John spoke with did away with email support completely (with nary a whimper from the customer base), and the bulk of that support volume went to forums. Why? In short, forums represent the logical evolution of institutional knowledge management, where not only the knowledge inside the organization, but the expertise of customers, partners, and other stakeholders can be fully leveraged for the good of all involved.

As we’ve been seeing in our customer deployments, these forums can pay off in terms of internal efficiencies, improved customer satisfaction levels, and reduced costs. When it comes to achieving these results, however, a foundation of knowledge—having the right information and making it easy to find—is key.

Interested in learning more about forums? See some previous articles below:

• How can companies leverage collaboration technologies to increase customer satisfaction with online help?
• How Do You Manage Your Organizational Memory?

At the SSPA Best Practices 2008 conference last week, InQuira moderated a panel discussion with recognized service leaders and innovators that was one of top sessions of the day. Panel participants included:

• Joe Hines, Manager Applecare Knowledge Management, Apple
• M.J. Hawes, Senior Manager Applecare Global Online Support, Apple
• Scott Duhaime, GlobalCare Product Manager, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
• Kim Kelly, Support Delivery Systems Program Manager, Mentor Graphics
• Brad Smith, Senior Director of Online Support, Symantec
• Brent Hayward, Vice President of Professional Service and Worldwide Support, InQuira

The format combined minimal brief panelist presentations with questions from the audience, and covered four primary topics:  best practices in knowledge management, web 2.0 for customer support, making the most of web self-service, and support management challenges for mid-size businesses.  Highlights included:

• Apple
  • Design your web self-service experience for your customers and provide content that meets their needs through guided assistants and troubleshooting tools; dynamic content management based on the products they own; and through the ability to complete self-service transactions.
  • Measure, measure, measure. Use, satisfaction, efficiency and cost are all areas that will provide you the insight you need to ensure that you are providing an experience that is meeting [and exceeding] customer expectations.
     
• GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
  • Incorporate “how to write a good KB article” into your support agent training and provide a template that can be used by all content authors.
  • Perform frequent data mining of all support cases to catch trends and recommend what types of articles should be written or what changes should be made.
     
• Mentor Graphics
  • Content is the key to success. From creating the content to address user needs, mining content from community conversations, to making sure the right content is shared with the right people, no matter how flashy the experience without the right content it is destined to fail.
  • Your customers are telling you something about your experience every time they search. Leverage the knowledge gained through the search experience to understand where content gaps exist and how to increase search adoption.
     
• Symantec
  • Don’t forget about the post sales user support experience. Providing customers with an experience that is relevant to where they are in the lifecycle is key to retaining customers and earning their new business.
  • The customer experience is a journey. Keep that in mind as you design your experience so that at every step – exploration, formulation, validation and finally action – you are able to provide customers with the information they need.

View the slides shared by the panelists here:

 

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