Knowledge Management in practice: Domestic & General
Last week the post in our series about effective knowledge management for customer service shared five top tips for successfully deploying and reaping the benefits of knowledge management in your organisation.
Here we complete the series with a best practice example from Domestic & General, the UK’s leading warranty specialist. The company has transformed its customer service operation by deploying a centralised knowledge management system from Eptica. This enables 1,400 agents across the company’s UK contact centres to deliver faster, more consistent information to customers as well as saving in excess of £158,000 every year in support and training.
With 6 million customers in the UK, Domestic & General has a strong focus on delivering high levels of customer satisfaction. It needs to ensure front line agents can provide excellent, efficient service, with access to consistent, comprehensive information when responding to callers.
Previously, the information was stored in a paper based system meaning staff had to search physical folders to find answers to customer questions. The pace of service was hindered, reducing consistency and lowering First Contact Resolution rates.
The company implemented Eptica’s self-learning knowledge management software, part of its enterprise suite. The web-based solution allows agents to access up to the minute, accurate answers by typing questions in plain English and delivering consistent and fast responses to every enquiry.
Getting agents on board
Ensuring agents used the knowledgebase was vital if customers were to benefit. Domestic & General gave the new system a high internal profile by branding the project as Fido and assigned a full time project team to work on the implementation. The easy to remember name comes from the Latin ‘fidel’, meaning faithful. And like man’s best friend, Fido aims to be the agents’ best friend when it comes to getting the answers they need.
The agent feedback is essential to ensure, that Fido is always meeting both customer and agent needs. Knowledgebase content is reviewed every day with agents encouraged to provide comments and ratings on specific articles. The feedback is used to improve and create new knowledgebase articles based on a fast workflow process that involves subject experts reviewing and approving them quickly. This enables agents to use them within hours.
Reaping the benefits
Thanks to the combination of careful planning and Eptica’s technology, Fido has delivered key advantages. Customer call times have been reduced by nearly a quarter (22%) and annual support and training costs have been lowered by £158,000. First Contact Resolution rates have increased, hold times halved and the time taken to train new agents has decreased by 20%. And, while the knowledgebase contains over 700 documents, the whole system is run by just two knowledge managers.
This is an excellent example of how knowledge management can help capture and manage information within customer service teams and make it available to drive consistent, efficient service, providing fast high quality answers while reducing operational costs. A full case study can be downloaded here.
And don’t forget to read our other articles in the knowledge management series covering:
- How to get started with knowledge management within customer service operations
- Building a business case for a knowledge management project
- Successfully deploying knowledge management
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