Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS)
-
KM with KCS is the Foundation for Successful AI
TL;DR: Effective knowledge management using KCS is what makes AI work best. Start with the content, then let GenAI turbocharge its delivery. “We have a lot of Generative AI initiatives going on here. But ours is moving faster than the others because our KCS program had already created content that the AI model could…
-
What Does the KCS Council Do?
A few clients recently asked us for more details on the roles and responsibilities of the KCS Council. There is good general guidance in the KCS v6 Practices Guide and the KCS v6 Adoption Guide, but it’s not especially specific. So, with input from Ryan Mathews, Jacob Watts, Monique Cadena, and Jennifer Crippen, I thought…
-
KCS v6 in Five Minutes
We’ve updated KCS in Five Minutes for KCS v6! In 2010, I learned about Pecha Kucha. Pecha Kucha is a Japanese storytelling approach that displays 20 slides, each for exactly 20 seconds, for a total length of 5:40. Given that my typical tempo for explaining KCS is a three-day workshop, I thought it would be…
Case Studies
-
Leading the KCS Transformation: Clio Does It Right
in Case StudiesWhen Marc Dyer arrived at Clio, he faced a challenge. As the new VP of Customer Success, he led an organization with lots of knowledge—unfortunately, that knowledge was scattered throughout five different repositories and in every employee’s head. With a customer base founded in billable hours, it’s essential for Clio’s support agents to be able…
-
KCS Success By the Book: Extreme Networks Does It Right
The Consortium for Service Innovation just published a new KCS case study we wrote highlighting the success of Extreme Networks in implementing KM, self-service, and communities. I encourage you to read it—there are good lessons for any KCS practitioner. In this blog, I’d like to complement the case study with my perspective as their consultant. …
-
KCS in the Real World
Some of my favorite emails from customers are forwards of emails from team members reflecting on KCS. Here’s a great example, with grateful thanks to the Customer Who Shall Remain Nameless who shared it.
Self-Service
-
The Care and Feeding of Taxonomies, Part 1: Why Should I Care?
This is the first in a series of four blog posts about taxonomies. In this one, it’s my job to explain why what sounds like an incredibly dry topic really makes a difference. In succeeding posts, I’ll describe what makes a good taxonomy, provide a step-by-step approach to creating yours, and lay out some common…
-
Metrics Myth 10: Contact Deflection = Clickthroughs Times the X-Factor
Industry surveys ask. Colleagues ask. IT asks. Executives ask, incessantly. “What’s your contact deflection rate?” Let’s leave aside for the moment that contact deflection isn’t the primary reason to expose your knowledgebase to your customers. Let’s also leave aside the fact that it’s both practically and philosophically difficult to count things that didn’t happen. …
-
How Self-Service Fails
in Self ServiceOften, the first step in making something work really well is to figure out how it can fail…and then making sure it doesn’t. In the case of self-service, most studies show that customers are successful less than half of the time (sometimes far less.) So clearly, there’s plenty of failure to eliminate! Here are some ways…
Program Management
-
What Does the KCS Council Do?
A few clients recently asked us for more details on the roles and responsibilities of the KCS Council. There is good general guidance in the KCS v6 Practices Guide and the KCS v6 Adoption Guide, but it’s not especially specific. So, with input from Ryan Mathews, Jacob Watts, Monique Cadena, and Jennifer Crippen, I thought…
-
You Need a Dedicated KCS Program Manager
If you don’t have a plan for having dedicated KCS℠ program management, we won’t lead a KCS Design Workshop for you. (With regret.) You’ll be wasting your money and our time. Our fourteen years of doing this have taught us a few things about what works and what doesn’t. A dedicated KCS Program Manager works;…
-
Unreasonable Overcommunication
Several times over the past six months, I’ve been sitting with KCS program managers who are discouraged and frustrated… really frustrated. They feel like they’ve been doing everything they can reasonably do to communicate, and people still aren’t getting it. Managers act surprised when they see project plans that were emailed to them weeks ago,…