The PhaseWare Files: Articles, Observations, and Ideas about Customer Support

Three Types of Knowledge: One in an Occasional Series about Knowledge Management and Social Media

I apologize for the lateness of this post. The end of year craziness seems to have created a hole in the space/time continuum and I skipped right to this date (it seems like).

Now to an article that is the first in an occasional series of blog posts about various aspects of knowledge management and social media as it pertains to small business. I shall attempt to make practical suggestions based on white papers, journal articles, other blogs...wherever I find information that I think could be useful to you.

This first post about the three levels of knowledge is based on part of an article called  "Making Knowledge Workers More Creative" from the Research-Technology Management journal. Authors:  David H. Henard and M. Ann McFadyen.

They have offered a heirarchy of knowledge types and stated how each type contributes to the competitive differentiation of your business. While much of the research into knowledge qualities came from examples of large corporations, there is no reason the same ideas cannot be put into practice in the small to medium business realm. Plus, if you do, you will be exhibiting at least one  of these levels of knowledge. 

The first level of knowledge has been labeled "Acquired Knowledge". This can be thought of as knowledge accrued from previous experiences, training, learning, even conversations with others. This can also be thought of as a variety of common knowledge. Most people in the same area, such as a particular industry, have the same knowledge or they can easily access it. Not much competitive advantage in that, is there? If everyone knows "X" then "X" won't differentiate anything. This level of knowledge also tends to keep organizations doing things the way they have always been done. And really squelching creativity.

The second level of knowledge offers a better chance of differentiation. It is called "Unique Knowledge". This is knowledge that comes about from spotting connections between pieces of information or seeing something that fits into a previous line of acquired knowledge that makes the knowledge worker view the knowledge in a new way. To coin a phrase "they are thinking out of the box". It is new knowledge that is integrated into the base knowledge. Now some areas of differentiation become apparent. Unfortunately, it is possible for others to make the same connections you just did. So we need a type of knowledge that is extremely hard to copy.

The third level of knowledge is "Creative Knowledge". This is where someone takes their acquired knowledge and unique knowledge bases and uses them, not to think outside the box, but to think inspirationally. This is the type of knowledge found when a breakthrough idea, process or product is formed. This type of knowledge requires not just using what you already know or improving on it by discovering new links. It requires you to use those two types of knowledge to take new experiences and information, no matter where they are from, and see possibilities in them that someone who only uses their acquired or unique knowledge would not "get".  Creative knowledge skills open the way for these ah-ha moments.

This last is the type of knowledge that will offer ongoing differentiation and advantage to your business because the dual nature of creative knowledge cannot be imitated by your competitors. Creative knowledge comes about through individual thought that is interwoven with the culture and information of your company. Your competitor could try to hire away your creative knowledge worker, but it won't be the same.

The take-away here is mostly that there are different levels of knowledge and that the skills for unique and creative knowledge can and should be enhanced and encouraged. To do so pays off in finding ways to beat the pants off your competitors. Especially if they don't have your newly found Unique Knowledge. (Which I hope you have because the ideas in this blog post have caused you to make new connections between pieces of information to improve your business.)

If you would like to expand on this topic by giving us your thoughts or relating your experience in using or honing your knowledge skills, please share. The rest of us would like to "acquire" some knowledge to help us on the road to creativity.

Announcing an Occasional Series About Social Media and Knowledge Management

Over the next few weeks I will be posting articles about Social Media and Knowledge Management as they pertain to business use, especially small to medium businesses. There is a wealth of information out there; numerous articles have been written; studies have been made.

My goal is to try to put it all into perspective for you, maybe translate some of the $50 dollar words academics are so fond of, and consolidate some of this information so that it can be useful to you.

If anybody has a particular topic in mind vis a vis these subjects, let me know and I will do my best to address it. And please do participate. I would love to hear what you have to say about these Web 2.0 capabilities and what they mean to your business.

So stay tuned. The first installment will arrive here this week.

5 Gifts for Your Customer Support Staff

Tis the season and all that, when thoughts turn to: "How can I keep my staff morale up yet cover the holidays?"

I offer you 5 capabilities to keep the staff clicking merrily along:

1. Customer information management with ALL customer information in one place and easily found and edited.
2. Incident/Issue management that follows a ticket from inception to resolution.
3. Automated alert system to increase SLA compliance.
4. Knowledge management with universal natural language search to find solutions and other information gleaned from a comprehensive knowledge base, FAQs, forums, notices, and downloads.
5. Self Service for savvy customers who prefer to look it up themselves rather than hold the phone.

PhaseWare offers a customer support and help desk solution that does all of this and more. Travel on over to the main  PhaseWare website to get the full story.

As for covering the holidays....well, I'll leave it up to you. With these kinds of tools that job just got a lot easier.

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Real Time Service Management: Using the Dashboard

Using a dashboard is a handy way to see how business is going moment to moment. While other reports can break out "who has how many?" and the peak traffic times to the service and support desk, a dashboard offers information in real time, as things happen. PhaseWare's Tracker contains a dashboard capability to help manage SLA compliance and incident status.

For instance, you can view open incidents by agent over a four hour block of time.  As the incidents are opened and closed, the bar for each agent will move up or down.The agents included in the chart are listed on screen. Selecting an agent name will show the incidents assigned to that agent on the incident manager screen.

Another example: the SLA Success gauge can be set to display SLA response success or resolution success. The success rate is shown as a percentage and thresholds can be applied to view changes in the success rate. It can even be set to show a single priority.

A dashboard gives a visual of how things are going in real time so management can act as promptly as possible to various situations. Much better than seeing a report once a month showing how many SLAs were missed and which department had the most open incidents.

The Holidays Are Coming! The Holidays Are Coming!

Well, here we are again, on the downward slide towards what are collectively known as "The Holidays".

Are you ready for a more relaxing holiday than last year?

Have you invested in a self service center module so that customers can look up their own answers instead of waiting for the person with the beeper this holiday to call back? If so, have you gotten your knowledge base up to date? Are your forums clicking right along with members helping members?

Did you remember to put an announcement on the notice board about any changes in hours for the holidays? Maybe check to make sure all the downloads anyone would need are available?

No?

Well, you have at least 2 weeks to get all that done. In fact, with PhaseWare's Self Service Center, you definitely won't need the whole 2 weeks. You can be ready for that big feast in short order because updating the Self Service Center only takes a moment. And since it is available through a web portal, you can even check in yourself. If you really want to. Once you sleep off all that tryptophan from the turkey.

Don't let the holidays catch you short. Be ready and then enjoy yourself.

PhaseWare Article Posted on Business-Software.com: CRM Buzz blog

The CRM Buzz Blog recently posted the article in our previous post. These are the the actions a software company considers when tough times come calling.

Read it here: http://www.business-software.com/crm/crmbuzz/thriving-in-uncertain-economic-times/

Will Your Software Vendor Make it Through the Economic Storm?

It is times like these that try the small business owner's sanity. "Will my vendor remain in business or will I be left without software support?"  Not an easy one to find the answer to.

Software companies must be built with a healthy balance between business and product development. One side of the business cannot overtake the other without drastic consequences. Hard economic times test the fortitude of a software company; customers and prospects need to watch how companies behave in these times of stress.

On the business side, a company must continue to give exceptional customer service in order to retain current customers and attract new ones. Current customers will need flexibility when possible, great customer service, and continued innovation so they do not fall behind the technological bandwagon as the economy recovers. They will need solutions that help them decrease their costs.

New customers are out there who are still in the market for what is being sold.  Business can still grow at times like these, especially those with products designed to lower costs and increase efficiency. New customers can take the place of any lost through economic attrition and create a broader base for the eventual upturn.

On the development side, a company must continue to refine its products and develop new ones, even though times are hard. If development is shut down to save costs, the company may find itself hopelessly behind the curve as the financial world rights itself and customers go to another vendor that has kept their product line fresh and relevant.

To determine the stability of a provider of any kind, a prospect should look to  how long they have been in business and whether their long term customers are staying with them. Customers should find out what is being said online about the company and speak to those who use the products if possible.

The longer a company has been in business, the more likely it is to have the financial wherewithal to survive and have a substantial customer base unlike a newer company just starting out.  If a company begins to sink, it may become evident by the presence of negative commentary in the forums and blogs. A careful second look is warranted before signing.

Knowledge Management: Some thoughts on Folksonomy versus Taxonomy

One of the biggest challenges in the management of knowledge and content, be it papers, books, or electronically from a database perhaps, has been to create a method to organize and mark the information in such a way that it can be found again when the need arises. This goes all the way back to the libraries of Alexandria. So the fundamental knowledge management issue that companies face is not new. For centuries people have searched for ways to organize and share information easily.

Most recently the practice of tagging and the building of folksonomies are being used as a way to allow any content creator or content user to organize and label knowledge in a way that makes sense to them.Over time a group of users/creators may build a type of taxonomy that is intuitive to them and easy to apply. There are few to no hierarchical relationships to deal with, no attempting to match a predetermined term to a piece of information that may not quite fit. Folksonomies are a joint venture that is extremely immediate and responsive to a user base.

On the other hand, tagging without a common base of understanding can quickly become unworkable. There is a lot of ambiguity inherent in this type of system since the same word or tag may not mean the same to each member of a group. If a new member joins a group that has a stable tagging system, that member may be expected to tag in ways similar or the same as the rest of the group. Eventually the folksonomy starts to resemble and be treated as a taxonomy with the rules of usage that tagging and folksonomies tend to avoid.

So what is the answer? I think that no matter how information is organized there will always be a learning curve in finding information in any system, whether it is a controlled vocabulary with a formal hierarchical taxonomy or a flat form tagging effort. An easy way to meet in the middle for both users and creators of content has yet to be found. But we must persevere. With the volume of information available today and the creation of more, companies must be able to find sense in the blizzard of data that is being produced so it can be used to grow the business and find and retain customers.

This post rambles a little but I hope to hear your thoughts on the organization of knowledge. And I expect to post more on the subject in the coming weeks because knowledge management is here to stay and is sorely needed.

Invest in Customer Service. It will never decrease in value.

With bad news coming on top of more bad news, it is a challenge to keep things running. One of the best investments for small to medium businesses (SMBs) is a customer service and support solution. Setting up this type of system will streamline many of the steps in providing customer service and automate some steps to keep things on track while keeping headcount steady.

For example, PhaseWare Tracker is the main component of the PhaseWare customer service and support solution. With Tracker customer information, incident information, SLA information, as well as a knowledge base and solutions database plus more is right at your fingertips. Event Engine automates many functions that may currently be handled on a piece meal basis with some of the pieces falling through the cracks. Self Service Center offers your customers support 24/7/365. This is where they can find answers to their questions, research problems, hob knob with other customers through forums, subscribe to content, and more.

All of these highly sophisticated solutions are available to smaller businesses at a reasonable cost. Look through PhaseWare's website to see what is available.