Managing Knowledge with Customers
- Dr. Moria Levy
- Nov 1, 2009
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 28, 2024
For years, we've been trying to manage knowledge within the organization: sharing knowledge between employees in the same unit but scattered in different locations; developing professional expertise with the help of staff and field workers belonging to the same unit; preserving knowledge in the organization before employees leave; and the list goes on.
We are so busy with the challenge of sharing knowledge within the organization (which is not trivial at all) that we don't realize that today, in the 21st century, there is another target audience we need to invest in sharing knowledge with—our customers.
Knowledge management in the context of customers is essential for every organization and can be performed on three levels:
Knowledge management for customers: Providing knowledge management tools for service representatives facing customers to give them a better, faster, more professional, and more uniform picture in response to their questions and problems. A knowledge base is an example of a knowledge management solution focused on customer benefit.
Knowledge management about customers: Providing knowledge management tools for various organizational personnel regarding customer preferences, cataloging, and future purchase potential. In recent years, it has become common for organizations to manage CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems where they manage knowledge about customers. These systems allow for managing knowledge about an individual customer, analyzing customer clusters, and learning about trends and needs comprehensively. Many organizations still use the systems to record customer inquiries and their initial details. Still, these are robust systems with potential that can, with proper thinking, be significantly aided in managing knowledge about the customer.
Knowledge management with customers: Managing knowledge together and collaborating with the customer. Emphasis on receiving knowledge from them and sharing internal knowledge beyond the need to know. Focus on joint thinking.
Knowledge management with customers has existed to some extent since always, for example, through focus groups on behalf of marketing or service. However, today, with technological advancement, with the advancement of information and knowledge that customers have, and with our understanding as organizations that perhaps the customer knows what they want more than we do, the issue of knowledge management with the customer takes on an even greater dimension and significance. There are several channels for managing knowledge with the customer, and their implementation varies according to the size of the company and the nature of its customers (few customers with extensive relationships with each customer versus numerous customers and superficial relationships managed with the customer).
These channels include:
Strengthening feedback
Today, much of customer contact takes place through Internet computing systems. Feedback should be placed in a central and accessible location from every page while conveying a message to the customer that we are indeed interested in this feedback and that it's not just a side button that may not even be active. Feedback takes various forms; talkback is a modern example of the same idea.
More knowledge for the customer
It is important to provide more knowledge to the customer and information about purchases. Next to each product on the site, it's now possible to offer, at no cost, in-depth and accompanying professional information that was not customary to publish in the past. It has been proven that adding knowledge (smartly, without flooding it) is a business advantage for companies seeking to sell their wares.
More knowledge for the customer also includes providing knowledge to the customer about the company's conduct. An external blog written by the company's managers and senior officials is a central example of such knowledge sharing. From experience, customers' curiosity about what's happening with their suppliers is not just idle gossip. Customers are interested in knowing and understanding who stands behind the service provided, what the activity managers think, and on what basis professional responses are offered. Writing the blog is not easy (it's also exposing, requires writing skills, and requires persistence), but its reward is at its side and significantly strengthens knowledge sharing with the customer.
Providing knowledge systems to the customer
Over the years, knowledge bases that allow the service representative to provide an appropriate and professional response to the customer have been strengthened. We can go one step further. Alongside the bases serving the service representatives, similar systems can be set up on external sites, allowing customers to clarify issues independently at a convenient pace and time. In recent years, self-service systems enabling customers to perform actions have increased, while externalized bases are still lagging. Providing an infrastructure of an external base (adapted in its content and writing style for customers) is an added value for any organization providing service.
Social networks
Social networks have been a powerful tool in serving people as individuals in recent years. Through the internet, they manage relationship systems, which we call "weak ties," with various other people, from friends through family members to people they met randomly, and add them, almost casually, to the social network. Social networks bring people closer. They allow for the exchange of opinions and exposure of each one's knowledge about what's happening with their fellow. Maintaining social networks jointly with customers does not weaken us but rather strengthens us and the informal connection with our customers. It creates a sense of trust and allows sharing at an additional level beyond what we know. I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to maintain these relationships in dedicated professional social networks or, conversely, whether to mix them within personal networks, which also include many other contents and other people, but apparently, there is no unequivocal answer to this issue, and perhaps if we are patient, over time we will discover the correct answer.
In 1990, Kevin Costner directed the movie: "Dances with Wolves". Managing knowledge with customers is like dancing with wolves (and dear customers, we certainly don't think you are wolves); it's a new challenge. This challenge requires investment from us; this challenge requires us to believe. This challenge requires us to expose ourselves. However, there is no doubt that its success potential is like the success of the movie, and the profit is even more significant: we will gain our customers' trust in another way, but no less than that, we will learn a lot from them and improve. It's worth it.
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