Why Wikis Don’t Cut it Anymore


Challenges of KCS


Part of the reason is process. It’s hard to get agents to stick to the KCS workflow.

Another issue is motivation. Suppose you’re one of the few who has been able to successfully implement KCS. The highest possible return you can expect is a 10% deflection rate. With the industry average being $15 per ticket, that’s a good amount of savings, but it’s not exciting. Implementing KCS is a lot of work, and 10% isn’t enough to convince support organizations to completely redesign their workflows.

KCS Today

With the help of modern technology, KCS is finally realistic. In regard to the process compliance issue, many parts of the KCS workflow can now be automated. You no longer have to rely on people to capture, structure, reuse, and improve knowledge because machine learning can do it for them.

Enterprise technology designers have finally gotten the message about user experience. Employees don’t want to use archaic software that’s hard to use–and the growing millennial workforce especially won’t settle for it. By prioritizing user experience, self-service is now something that people want. The previous ceiling of a 10% deflection rate has been raised to 30%–more than enough to get support organizations excited.

Kaleo Software is the leader for this new generation of KCS. But how do they do it? They use an approach called Answer Management. It deals with the issues of both process automation, and user experience.

User Experience

When an employee enters your self-service portal they’re comparing it to Google. You’ve already lost. Kaleo gets 30% ticket deflection because it makes your self-service experience as close to Google’s as possible. They do this by changing the way knowledge is presented, improving search, and creating intuitive access points.

  • The Presentation of Knowledge: People don’t like reading anymore. If an article is longer than 111 words, employees will only read 20% before giving up. People shouldn’t have to work hard to get the information they need. Kaleo deals with this by presenting knowledge in bite-sized answers.
  • Improving Search: Every answer in Kaleo is linked to a question. Employees can ask a question and get a simple answer, just like Google.
  • Intuitive Access Points: Portals are a thing of the past. Kaleo imbeds a search bar into any application and let’s people ask questions in the context of their work.

Process Automation

Populating Kaleo with answers follows the KCS methodology and uses automation to ensure compliance. The process is as follows:

Step 1: Capture Knowledge

Kaleo makes sure you hit the ground running with self-service. During their onboarding process, they use machine learning to ingest your existing knowledge and convert it into questions and answers. Moving forward, Kaleo front-ends the opening of a ticket. When an employee asks a question, Kaleo automatically gives them an answer if one is available. If not, it opens a ticket. Kaleo integrates with ITSM platforms so that when an agent resolves the issue, an answer is created, verified, then published for future deflections. As an enterprise solution, Kaleo realizes that not all questions are IT related. Questions can also be routed to Sales, HR, and Operations for the creation of an answer base.

Step 2: Structure Knowledge

It can be hard to regulate how agents structure knowledge because it takes time. Kaleo uses automation to enforce standards for a uniform and simple answer base.

Step 3/4: Reuse and Improve Knowledge 

Customers have the ability to flag and comment on answers to ensure that they are always up to date. Additionally, Kaleo’s machine learning algorithms are always listening. If an answer isn’t causing deflections, it’ll ask you to fix them. Sometimes the types of questions being asked can provide insight into areas of the business that are struggling. When that happens, Kaleo will inform you so you can prioritize your resources accordingly.

Step 5: Content Health

Kaleo gives you live insight into the performance of your self-service. It provides analytics for overall engagement, and let’s you know how many tickets you are deflecting so you always know your ROI.

Next Steps

Kaleo implements in weeks, and is extremely affordable given the ROI. If you’re interested in their approach to KCS, request a demonstration here. Demos are highly customized to your service environment, so a representative will reach out with a few questions.

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Mark Gonzales

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