1. KCS sm Overview An introduction to Knowledge-Centered Support by the Consortium for Service Innovation

2. What is the Consortium? 2 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation An alliance of support organizations Focused on innovation –New ways to improve the customer’s experience and productivity while managing the cost of support –Dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity: it’s not for everybody Member funded, not for profit –For the benefit of the members The members are the Consortium –45 member companies –Membership informationMembership information –Staff: 2 full time, 2 part time employees

3. Members Include Board of Directors includes executives from Avaya, Cisco, DTCC, Sage, Salesforce.com, and Venafi 3 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

4. The Evolution Of KCS The KCS journey started in 1992 with a simple premise: To capture, structure, and re-use support knowledge. With 20+ years in development and over $45 million invested, KCS has been successfully implemented by companies like Avaya, HP, Novell, Oracle, PTC, Salesforce.com, and VeriSign. 4 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

5. What is KCS? KCS seeks to:  Create content as a by-product of solving problems  Evolve content based on demand and usage  Develop a KB of our collective experience to-date  Reward learning, collaboration, sharing, and improving 5 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation KCS is a methodology and a set of practices and processes that focuses on knowledge as a key asset of the support organization.

6. Benefits of KCS Solve Cases Faster –50 - 60% improved time to resolution –50% increase in first call resolution Optimize Use of Resources –70% improved time to proficiency –20 - 35% improved employee retention –20 - 40% improvement in employee satisfaction Enable Self-Service Strategy –Improve customer success with self-help on the web –Customer self-service success (25 - 66%) Build Organizational Learning –Actionable information to development about customer issues –Incident reduction due to root cause removal 6 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

7. Key Questions About Knowledge What is the definition of knowledge? How do we gain knowledge? When do we stop learning? How confident are we in what we know? Who reviews our knowledge before we use it? How valuable is our knowledge? 7 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

8. Characteristics of Knowledge Knowledge is information upon which we can act We learn through interaction and experience We never stop learning Our knowledge is never 100% accurate or complete No one reviews our knowledge; we gain confidence by using it And yet, in spite of these dynamics and ambiguity, our knowledge is extremely valuable 8 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

9. KCS is a Risk Management System Can we create a knowledge base… That capitalizes on our collective experience and interactions… And minimizes the risk, knowing knowledge is: –Not 100% accurate –Not complete –Not static, constantly changing –Validated through use 9 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

10. Content is King! KCS seeks to create content that is good enough to be findable, and usable by a target audience We call the collection of information an “article” An article is more than just the answer or fix –Problem/question (in the customer context) –Environment –Fix/answer –Cause (optional) –Information/meta data Articles have a life cycle –They go through different states 10 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

11. Content Continuum: the Scope of KCS Conversations Instant Messenger Diagnostic Guides Cases/SRs Email Field Notes Support Knowledge (Articles) Product Manuals Configuration Guides Informal Dynamic Formal Static Input KCS Improvements in Products & Services Input 11 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

12. KCS Articles A Simple Structure Incident/call record Customer called about a problem installing a NIC. Cannot get the system to recognize the NIC after reboot. Did not order the card from us, it is a 3Com NIC. Reviewed network settings and could not find anything wrong. Customer has meeting and would like a call back tomorrow am. Talked to Bob about NIC card problem, he is running Win 7 on a HP and he needs the latest driver for Win 7. Bob asked to leave the call open until he downloads driver. Article Title: 3com network card on Windows 7 not recognized Problem: Network card not recognized Environment: Installed new network card 3Com network card, model 300X Windows 7 HP Pavilion Fix: 1. Download latest driver for Network Card 300X from 3Com www.3com.com/drvrs/NIC 2. Follow the installation instruction on the 3Com site. 12 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

13. B Double Loop Process? B: Evolve Loop Organization level processes across many events High value content A A A A A: Solve Loop The event level Answering questions JIT content 13 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

14. KCS Double Loop Processes 14 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

15. Key Questions About Knowledge Management How do we get executive buy in? How do we manage quality? How do we assess people’s contribution? How do you engage/motivate the Support Agents to share their knowledge? 15 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

16. Executive Buy In The benefits are compelling –Increase capacity –Change the ratio of support costs to revenue –Enable web based self-help The tough parts are: –Mind set shift about the value support creates –Executive commitment and follow through to: Invest in the infrastructure to support KCS Update the performance measures and reward system for managers and the support agents Communicate the purpose, strategy and the “what’s in it for me” 16 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

17. Quality Management is Inherent in the Processes 1.Content standard –Defines “good enough” for each audience –With examples 2.Proficiency-based licensing model 3.Article Quality Index (AQI) –Sampling the KB –Based on content standard –Feedback to users 4.Broad-based performance assessment 5.Just-in-time article quality –Flag it or fix it… –Culture change, collective ownership 17 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

18. Assessing Contribution (Who is Creating Value? ) Distinguish between activities (leading indicators) and outcomes (results) –Do not put goals on activities (it will corrupt the knowledge base) –Have clear goals or targets for the outcomes Assessing the creation of value requires a comprehensive view - triangulation –Trends in leading indicators –Results in key outcome areas –Article quality index/score –Build a value footprint When addressing performance issues, focus on the behavior and process - not the numbers! 18 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

19. Individual Radar Chart “A Value Footprint” 19 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

20. Individual Radar Chart “A Value Footprint” 20 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

21. Engaging and Motivating the Support Agents KCS attracts the interest of the Support Agents because it: –Creates a sense of accomplishment –Reduces redundant work: time spent on known problems –Acknowledges agents for what they value and enjoy about the job – solving new problems –Allows them to work on new problems more often and on a broader set of issues (growth) –Exposes the “cherry pickers” or “free loaders” (those who only work on known issues) –Enables collaboration independent of space and time (fewer call-outs in the middle of the night) 21 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

22. You Know You Are “Doing KCS” When Percentage of problems handled as known doubles Overall time to resolve drops by 30-50% (until known issues are available on the web) New people become productive in 25% of the time it used to take Support Agents have confidence in handling a broader set of issues Support Agent morale is at an all time high –Turnover rate is at an all time low –Analysts don’t tolerate their peers messing up the KB We can give development substantiated and actionable recommendations for improvements based on the customer experience 22 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

23. KCS Resources KCS Practices Guide KCS Adoption Guide Measurement Matters Case studies and additional resourcesresources www.thekcsacademy.net/kcs All of the above are free to download (right to use with attribution) The KCS Academy: the certification body for KCS –People –Tools and services 23 © 2015 Consortium for Service Innovation

24. KCS is not something we do in addition to solving problems… KCS becomes the way we solve problems.