In the context of customer care, knowledge management refers to how companies organize and convey information about themselves to those who visit their websites.
But knowledge management, or, more specifically, knowledge bases that companies rely on to categorize information about themselves, require one additional component to be effective. That component is workflow.
The meaning of workflow varies depending on whether you're referring to the process of refining your knowledge base, or resolving a customer's request. For instance, companies typically create workflows that define who has the responsibility to draft, approve, publish and update items in a knowledge base; these types of workflows also indicate timeframes for completing each of these steps.
More generally, workflows outline which tasks are necessary to complete a customer's request for assistance, as well as who is responsible for performing these tasks and within what period of time. Some workflows, like prescription refills, can be entirely automated.
Mountain View, CA-based eGain's eGain 7.6 is an example of a knowledge management suite that incorporates a number of recent enhancements to the way it handles workflow.
Let's look at some of these modules. One module of eGain 7.6, eGain Notify, enables you to inform customers about the status of an ongoing process, like the end of a lease, or a new circumstance, like the introduction of a new product.
An additional module, eGain AutoClassify, automatically categorizes e-mail messages from customers based on the types of inquiries you typically receive. In conjunction with another module, eGain AutoWorkflow, you define which kinds of inquiries from customers you automatically acknowledge, as well as questions to which you present automated answers that include information from your knowledge base.
eGain AutoWorkflow also allows you to use other tools from eGain that glean data about customers from third-party customer relationship management (CRM) systems, so that, for example, you can remind members of a prescription plan when it's time to refill their medications. A specialized type of automated workflow module, eGain Survey, enables you to conduct and track results of online surveys.
One of the newer applications of knowledge management is offering recommendations to call center agents about types of products or services they ought to up-sell or cross-sell to customers. eGain Adviser lets you indicate circumstances when your company considers it appropriate to cross- or up-sell customers, and which products agents should suggest alongside products that customers are already asking about.
To allow you to check on the status of customers' requests, including those that you document using third-party CRM and trouble ticketing systems, eGain offers a module, eGain CallTrack, that you view through a Web browser. eGain also provides a module, eGain MessageCenter, that lets customers view e-mail correspondence with your company from a secure website.
