“My laptop isn’t working,” “What are the sales targets?” “What is our leave policy?”. These are a few of the many questions that internal support teams are met with on a regular basis. While they know the answers and probably even have some systems or apps in place to make query resolution easy, why doesn’t it aid problem solving?
What is knowledge management and what do common methods lack?
Knowledge management is the process of effectively capturing, storing, distributing, and using available types of knowledge. An effective knowledge sharing system that makes information or institutional knowledge accessible and searchable can be a huge asset to your community of practice and business. It improves employee satisfaction, supports internal decision making, and increases productivity by letting other employees in the IT, HR, or Operations domains avoid being interrupted by questions.
Knowledge management is the process of effectively capturing, storing, distributing, and using available types of knowledge.
One common, although often ineffective, knowledge management initiative is the “wiki” like Google Drive. It’s chaotic to build and is a time-consuming process, but is made with the hope of encouraging self-service among employees. But it often proves to be a broken system — employees still majorly rely on Slack or Microsoft Teams messages or emails for help with their issues. Below are some of the major challenges within a knowledge management strategy.
1. Lack of access
Even a source of knowledge with more than the basic functionalities is at the risk of being forgotten if it is not easily accessible to employees. They’re probably already in the habit of reaching out to support teams on an internal collaboration tool like Slack or sending in queries via email or just finding the existing knowledge management process difficult to navigate.
2. Chaotic search functionality
Dated search functionality can be a massive knowledge management challenge. While the right knowledge is present, it is difficult to find the correct answer to each query. For example, a search for “How to print” might route to an answer that lists the available printers. This would discourage employees from using the knowledge base and resort to asking the support staff instead, adding burden in spite of an existing KB workflow.
As information infrastructure, organizational knowledge, and content become obsolete, employee confidence in utilizing the KB system dips.
3. Lack of feedback loops
Without a method to access information about popular requests and search patterns, it is difficult to make better decisions, informed revisions, and updates to your knowledge base without specifically talking to employees. As information infrastructure, organizational knowledge, and content become obsolete, employee confidence in utilizing the KB system dips and leads to an increase in their working on silos.
How Assist AI solves these problems
The key to accessible, approachable, and functional knowledge management systems is the ease of interaction and getting answers in real-time. An added benefit is the ability to constantly improve internal and business processes with regular feedback. With conversational AI solutions like HappyFox’s Assist AI, responses are automatically triaged and responded. In the case that the bot cannot answer the query, the request is immediately escalated to a human agent.
1. Eliminates context shifting
For a team that already uses Slack or Microsoft Teams to communicate and resolve issues, they can continue to use Assist AI on these platforms without the need for human intervention or using an external portal to access KB articles. Relevant answers will be provided on demand, avoiding information overload and encouraging employees to approach Assist AI, and letting people from your IT and HR teams focus on more important tasks.
2. Leverage smart technology
An AI-driven solution like Assist AI has the potential to take your knowledge base management and adoption strategies to the next level. In addition to artificial intelligence (AI), it leverages machine learning (ML), improving your ability to assess, anticipate, and answer FAQs instantly without increasing your team size. It also stimulates incentive for usage amongst employees due to gamification, ease of use, and searchability.
3. Track search patterns and feedback
After every resolution attempt, there is scope to get feedback from the employee on if their query has been sufficiently answered. This will help you revise or edit the content of your knowledge base based on predefined metrics or KPIs and also will help the KB solution learn how to answer better over time. The feedback will also help you gauge search patterns for and add new knowledge reactively.
Provide a Functional, Accessible, and Actionable Knowledge Search Experience
HappyFox Assist AI provides a holistic solution, right from increasing internal awareness about the product and allowing context-driven solutions to conversational AI feedback loops. Assist AI offers free plans and also premium plans for enterprise customers. To know more about the benefits of knowledge management and gain a competitive advantage with new technology and intellectual capital, schedule a one-on-one call with our product specialists.
