Beyond Search: Customer Information Access. Innovative Tools Are Required to Mine the Expanding Knowledge Ecosystem

Transcription

1 EXECUTIVE INSIGHT INSIGHT SUPPORT SERVICES Beyond Search: Customer Access Innovative Tools Are Required to Mine the Expanding Knowledge Ecosystem March 1, 2010 A Joint White Paper from TSIA and Coveo

2 Beyond Search: Customer Access TSIA-EI Table of Contents Executive Summary... 3 Table 1: Service Levels Decline despite High Knowledgebase Adoption... 4 Emergence of the Knowledge Ecosystem... 5 Figure 1: Multiple Data Sources Common for Assisted Support and Self-Service... 5 Figure 2: Typical Knowledge Ecosystem for Technology Support... 6 Mining the Knowledge Ecosystem: Customer Access... 7 Single Search Tool... 7 Unified Search Results... 8 Conversational Search... 8 Social Search... 9 Security... 9 Imbedded Analytics Dashboarding TSIA Recommends Coveo Customer Access Solutions Enable the Knowledge Ecosystem Coveo Implementation Methodology Figure 3: Economic and Business Impact (EBIC) of Customer Access Solutions ENDNOTES Contact Coveo 2800 St Jean Baptiste Ave. Suite 212 Québec, QC G2E 6J5 Phone: Fax: Technology Services Industry Association Camino San Bernardo Suite 200 San Diego, CA U.S.A. Tel.: Fax: info@tsia.com TSIA Page 2

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The knowledgebase is no longer the center of the universe. Today s technology support organizations rely on a diverse array of content to solve customer problems, with data sources inside and outside the firewall, in both structured and unstructured formats. In fact, TSIA members report that an average of 12 different applications or systems are accessed routinely to provide assisted support to customers. This expanding knowledge ecosystem carries significant incremental costs for customer service, as searching and navigating multiple systems hinders first-contact resolution, extends resolution time, and thwarts self-service success. According to TSIA research, today s service and support organizations require a single tool allowing them to not only search any number of content repositories in real time, but to filter, sort, and interact with the information to identify a single critical piece of knowledge amid the noise. Companies should evaluate their current knowledge ecosystem, and instead of wasting effort to consolidate knowledge into a single repository, look at how innovative customer information access technology can analyze information wherever it is stored, making it easy to embrace and leverage new content sources within your enterprise and across the World Wide Web. FIRST-GENERATION KNOWLEDGE TOOLS NOT KEEPING UP When knowledgebases for customer service were first introduced in the 1990s, support processes changed forever. No longer would new support techs have to memorize recovery procedures or have a photographic memory of dozens of product manuals; everything they needed was is one place a searchable knowledgebase. Once established, this knowledgebase could also be made available to customers attempting self-service, deflecting assisted support interactions. Over the last decade, there has been unprecedented spending on knowledgebase tools for support. Today, over 90% of TSIA member companies have a knowledgebase in place, and planned spending remains strong 1. However, during that same time period, the average performance for critical support metrics has decreased. As seen in Table 1, first-contact resolution, issues resolved within 24 hours, and successful visits to self-service all metrics impacted by knowledge management have dropped TSIA Page 3

4 Table 1: Service Levels Decline despite High Knowledgebase Adoption Metric Resolved on first interaction Phone 54% 46% 46% Resolved on first interaction 52% 40% 34% Percent of issues resolved within 24 hours Phone 63% 58% 57% Percent of issues resolved within 24 hours 59% 50% 47% Successful visits to self-service site 48% 44% 40% Source: TSIA Benchmark With increased product complexity making each issue harder to resolve, clearly the first generation of knowledge tools are not keeping up. The traditional knowledgebase and search approach has proven inadequate for several reasons, including: Content is increasingly distributed. Not only do support technicians and customers attempting self-service have an ever-expanding array of internal content sources available, but the Web 2.0 revolution has created valuable technical information across the Internet from product experts, consultants, professional services engineers, analysts, and the media. Single repository approach has failed. Consolidating all problem/resolution content into a single knowledgebase has proven an unworkable solution. With so many emerging content sources, attempting to migrate everything into one repository creates duplicate content that quickly becomes outdated as the original source content evolves. Search is not enough. With this much information available, the old paradigm of search, which returns thousands if not hundreds of thousands of possible matches, is no longer effective. consumers need tools to filter, sort, and interact with the data in order to identify a single critical piece of information, rather than scroll through pages of possible matches hunting for something relevant. In the sections that follow, the expanding knowledge ecosystem will be discussed, as well as an overview of a new breed of technology known as customer information access, which allows enterprises to successfully manage, search, and analyze content wherever it is stored TSIA Page 4

5 EMERGENCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE ECOSYSTEM Knowledgebases continue to serve a purpose for support organizations, capturing new problem resolution scenarios for reuse. But according to the TSIA benchmark database and member polls, the knowledgebase is only one of many data sources used by support techs and customers. A 2009 member poll found that an average of 12 separate data repositories or applications are routinely accessed to resolve assisted support transactions, meaning the single most common keystroke in today s technical support operation is Alt-Tab, moving from one application to another, with separate user names and logins required for each system. 2 Figure 1: Multiple Data Sources Common for Assisted Support and Self-Service Top Sources Assisted Support Sources Self Service Sources Knowledgebase 3.8 Knowledgebase 2.7 Customer log files 3.6 Download library 2.3 Product Docs 3.3 Software updates 2.2 Remote capture 3.2 Case status 2.1 Call tracking 3.2 Product Docs 1.9 Bug database 3 Forum 1.5 Product diagnostics 2.9 Online training 1.3 Customer config info 1.9 Support programs = Most Useful/Most Accessed Source: TSIA Benchmark Survey, January 2010 As seen in Figure 1, while knowledgebases remain popular, other data sources are widely used to resolve customer issues, including log files, product documentation, download libraries, bug databases, and call tracking history. The number of data sources continues to grow, particularly Internetaccessible content outside the corporate firewall. According to multiple TSIA members, after spending hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars on knowledgebase and search tools, support techs today commonly use a Web search engine to begin most diagnostic sessions, ignoring internal tools and content entirely TSIA Page 5

6 Today s fragmented knowledge strategy has multiple business impacts, including: Impacts to assisted service. Agents have to know where to look for each type of content, and searching multiple systems, each with its own user ID and log-on, increases average handling time for assisted support interactions, and can also reduce first-contact resolution. Impacts to self-service. Having a large number of content sources may be confusing for employees, but for external customers trying to find an answer, it makes effective self-service challenging if not impossible. As the number of content sources has risen over the last decade, self-service success rates fell from 48% in 2003 to 39% today. Impacts to customer satisfaction. Employees who have yet to master the complex matrix of content may give wrong or outdated information to customers, impacting customer satisfaction and quality of service as resolution times stretch and multiple interactions with support are required to resolve each issue. Instead of concentrating on a single repository strategy, innovative TSIA members are embracing the concept of a knowledge ecosystem (Figure 2), enabling access to all content that may be useful to help solve customer problems, regardless of where the information is located and in what format it is stored. Figure 2: Typical Knowledge Ecosystem for Technology Support Typical Knowledge Ecosystem Product Diagnostic Customer Training Community Web Product Manuals Knowledgebase Account (CRM) Product Training Modules Peer to Peer Support Third Party KBs Installation Guides Bug Database Incident History Integration /SDKs Forum Questions/ Answers External Forums Release Notes Product Diagnostics Warranties/ SLAs Video Tutorials Expert Blog Posts Industry Blogs Upgrade Procedures Customer Log Files Multi channel history Administrator Guides Developer Access Tech Sites, Online Research 2010 TSIA Page 6

7 MINING THE KNOWLEDGE ECOSYSTEM: CUSTOMER INFORMATION ACCESS Embracing the knowledge ecosystem requires support organizations to rethink previous approaches to capturing, maintaining, and searching for information. With information housed in so many locations, new processes and technologies are required to successfully mine enterprise content as well as Web information sources. The following sections provide insight on the capabilities needed to streamline customer information access for the expanding knowledge ecosystem. Single Search Tool The starting point for a customer information access initiative is offering a single search tool for users to access any content, allowing both support technicians and customers to mine all available information without having to know which repository to search. This single search tool should be able to search: Existing knowledgebases. Large TSIA members have multiple knowledgebases, including product- and region-specific content stores. Nearly a quarter of TSIA members are using the knowledgebase that came for free with their CRM system notoriously difficult information to search and maintain. 4 Online communities. According to the 2009 Member Technology Survey, 57% of member companies now offer an online discussion forum for customers. Although powerful libraries of useful information are being created, few companies have indexed community content that is accessible when customers search the self-service knowledgebase. Structured and unstructured content. Traditional knowledge search tools could access structured knowledgebases, but accessing unstructured content has largely been impossible. Companies today need the ability to search content stored in application databases, eliminating the need for employees to log on to separate applications to find information. Real-time data. For some questions, searching a knowledgebase isn t enough. When a customer wants to know an account balance, if an item is in stock, or when a shipment should arrive, the search engine must access information in real time, not retrieve a day old or month old version of the data. Internal and external content. With the proliferation of online communities and social media channels, support techs must be able to easily access approved external sources to find information, not just rely on internal sources. A new breed of search engine is required to be equally effective searching inside and outside the corporate firewall. CA Success Story CA, the world's leading independent IT management software company, helps customers optimize IT for better business results. CA entered into its partnership with Coveo in 2006, and today uses Coveo to power its call center information access as well as its self-service customer information Web site. The goals and benefits of providing a unified information index layer from multiple repositories to speed customer issue resolution include: Significant reduction in dedicated support resources and avoidance of upgrade costs for the legacy system which was replaced. 10% increase in selfservice customer satisfaction since 2006, due to the Coveo implementation and other initiatives. Now receiving 50,000 queries per day on average; average response time = 0.2 seconds TSIA Page 7

8 Unified Search Results For effective customer information access, not only must the search engine be able to retrieve content from multiple repositories and in various formats, but the search results displayed must consolidate the various data sources into a single view. Effective search results should include: Unified view. Regardless of how many separate systems or content stores are searched, the search results should be displayed in a unified view, eliminating the need for multiple searches or multiple displays of search matches. Source attribution. The source of each search result should be clearly designated, so users understand whether this is internally authored and approved content, or perhaps customerauthored content from a forum or blog that may need additional verification. Consumable content. All retrieved content must be displayed in an easily consumable way, meaning information retrieved from unstructured sources, such as application databases, must be formatted so the information has context for the user. Conversational Search For true customer information access, merely retrieving search results is not enough. Ideally, users should be able to interact with the data to find exactly what they need not scroll through thousands of possible matches looking for the one right answer. Elements of conversational search include: Sorting and filtering options. Users should be able to sort and filter search results by content source, date, content ratings, etc. Dynamically created facets. By retrieving not only content, but also metadata or descriptors about the content, users can sort and filter search results based on facets or attributes specific to each data source. For example, data retrieved from a CRM system may be sorted by CRM application fields, such as account or contact name, product serial number, or region/geography. Tagging. In addition to retrieving metadata about content from the content source, sophisticated customer information access solutions allow additional tagging or metadata to be added to an existing source to make the content more easily searchable or allow more granular access TSIA Page 8

9 Social Search An emerging area within enterprise search today is social search. Adding social aspects to search algorithms can not only increase accuracy, but by enabling customer input into the search process, more transparency is possible and customer collaboration is encouraged. Social search means automatically filtering search results based on social elements such as: User ratings. Most knowledgebase products allow users to rate each article, and these ratings should be factored into search results. In addition, online communities offer multiple ways for users to rate or recommend content sometimes as simple as a thumbs up click. This also should be considered when displaying results, so users are always presented with the top-rated information. Reputation mining. One of the most compelling elements of online communities is the ability for users to progress through reputation levels, usually beginning with a newbie status, and moving upward to intermediate and, ultimately, expert status as their participation, reputation, and expertise grows. Content authored by recognized community experts may be more detailed or accurate than information authored by newbies, and factoring in author reputation ratings can help deliver more actionable and accurate search results. Consumption metrics. Another emerging element of online communities is the concept of the voice of the crowd: what content do most users access, read, or mark as useful? On the assisted support side, a comparable metric is identifying which content articles are linked to the highest number of resolved support incidents. Not only can consumption metrics help define search results, but the information can also be used to generate dynamic lists of frequently asked questions (FAQs), a helpful tool in boosting self-service success. Security Indexing the content of an entire enterprise for search and allowing information embedded in applications to be easily accessed certainly introduces concerns about security. It is critical that any customer information access initiative address security concerns such as: Internal/external content. Companies always have some information that is not appropriate for external users. A good example would be a knowledgebase article that includes destructive diagnostics, such as reformatting a disk. It is critical that content, regardless of source, can be designated as internal only, or acceptable for an external audience, and that any search tool include this check before displaying content. Access rights. For optimal performance, a user s access to content should be checked via early binding security. With early binding security, access to content is controlled at the user level and the document level, so results are pre-filtered to exclude information to which a specific employee or customer may not have access rights TSIA Page 9

10 Compliance. In certain environments, access to content is tightly controlled according to compliance legislation, such as privacy laws governing financial services companies and patient privacy rules within the healthcare industry mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). In these situations, it is crucial to select a customer information access solution that is compliant with any applicable industry rules or government legislation. Imbedded Analytics One of the top complaints from service executives is that they are collecting oceans of information, but have no way to analyze the data to glean business intelligence. 5 Identifying an analytics tool has become even more difficult, as the majority of niche providers have been acquired by enterprise application vendors, making it difficult to find a tool that can analyze data in multiple repositories. Imbedding analytics into a customer information access platform resolves these issues: Equal access to all information. Analytics can be performed on any information, even unstructured content retrieved from application databases. The customer information access platform must offer a robust set of application program interfaces (APIs) to enable deep integration to enterprise content using Web Services,.NET, etc. Applying business logic to results. Companies should be able to create business rules that analyze content across any number of repositories and create a single set of findings or results. Real-time analytics and alerting. While traditionally companies look at analytics as pull technology, meaning they must run a report to access results, a true customer information access platform should also include push technology, creating real-time alerts for users automatically when predefined situations occur. This capability is essential for service organizations to move from reactive to proactive. Dashboarding Ultimately, successful customer information access comes down to the display of content. How can information be represented in the most consumable way? With rich options for mining content and manipulating it with analytics and business rules, fully customizable dashboards allow each user to create the view of data they need to best leverage content to impact operations. Mashups. A mashup is a Web page or application that combines data or functionality from multiple sources in real-time to provide a unique view of information or analytic results. A customer information access solution should provide user interface components that facilitate mashup creation, including predefined connectors for common data sources and applications 2010 TSIA Page 10

11 as well as make available a rich programming interface for integration with customer-specific data sources. Customizable display. When it comes to consuming information, there is no one-size-fits-all display. Today s users want configuration options so they can customize the display to fit their own preferences, easily change the display for a different view of data, or appease a different audience. Predefined reports. Not only should a robust customer information access platform include predefined reports based on industry best practices, but companies should be able to create their own set of standard reports to roll out to global users, so each user doesn t have to define their own reports as a starting point. TSIA RECOMMENDS As this report has shown, the traditional approach by service organizations to create a single knowledgebase is no longer delivering results with today s more complex technology and everexpanding knowledge ecosystem. When considering a customer information access strategy, observe these recommendations: Stop duplicating content. While knowledgebases will continue to serve a purpose capturing new problem/resolution scenarios, recreating existing content in a knowledgebase to make it easier to find is a worst practice. Duplicated content quickly becomes out of synch with the source data, and the risk of offering incorrect or outdated information to customers grows each day. Build the business case. When considering a customer information access initiative, build the business case up front by calculating how much time is wasted due to multiple repositories and search tools. On the low side, you can calculate that 20% of agent time goes to finding information that s the average of general knowledge workers, according to studies conducted by IDC and Gartner. In a customer service environment that average is likely far higher. For a casual approach, survey support techs about how often they use various data sources to solve customer problems. For a more formal approach, use quality monitoring software to capture how agents navigate their desktops and consume information. Think social. The world of knowledge management is becoming much more transparent to customers, and today s social media-savvy customers want their voices heard. Create a strategy to incorporate user ratings of content and author reputations into search results. Importantly, be sure to include your customer community as one of the repositories included in the customer service ecosystem to be indexed, so you can capture the wisdom of crowds along with your own company s data. You may be able to access other company communities, as does Progress Software, for example, which uses Coveo to leverage the information created within its developer community TSIA Page 11

12 COVEO CUSTOMER INFORMATION ACCESS SOLUTIONS ENABLE THE KNOWLEDGE ECOSYSTEM Access for Customer Service, Customer Self-Service, and Customer 360 Views Customer information access solutions help converge disparate customer information and enable comprehensive and just-in-time access to relevant information required to respond to and solve customer issues. The goal is to provide this information to call center agents, to field service staff, to customers directly via self-service so as to fuel call deflection and increase customer satisfaction, and finally to serve executives through advanced analytics that monitor service metrics. Such customer knowledge mashups are typically assembled from information spread across multiple content sources, including customer log files, knowledgebase, product diagnostics, technical documentation, contract and billing databases, CRM and sales data, support incident history, and even external, cloud-based, unmanaged information within blogs and customer forums related to a given product. At Coveo, customer information access is our core business. Coveo s core business is focused on Customer Access Solutions which serve three areas of the end-to-end customer service process: Customer service information for call centers. Unified indexing platform that integrates customer information from disparate sources, server-based, cloud-based, Internet-based, and unmanaged, offline, structured, or unstructured. Customer self-service. Conversational search and guided navigation for self-service customer support. Customer 360. Comprehensive customer information mashups for sales and service executives. Coveo Customer Access Solutions provide composite, and yet dynamic views of customer, product, and case information located throughout your customer knowledge ecosystem all within a single interface to reduce call center costs while increasing customer loyalty. Call center agents log on to one interface rather than remembering 12 to 15 different systems and log-ons, helping them get to the right answer faster. CSRs resolve issues more quickly and accurately 2010 TSIA Page 12

13 by leveraging unified views of information, rather than piecing together details from multiple systems and interfaces. This results in: Increased first-contact resolution (FCR). Reduced average call handling time (ACHT). Reduced agent training time and increased agent retention. Improved customer engagement and increased satisfaction and loyalty. Customers increase their usage of Web site self-service, reducing call center costs substantially while empowering customers to solve issues quickly and easily. Results include: Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty. Lowered support costs by reducing agent-assisted resolutions. Increased customer engagement by leveraging customer communities in addition to internal information. Managers, LOB owners and executives leverage dynamic information mashups, including analytics and performance overviews that allow them to dig into details or view top-level information. Results include: Optimized customer service and call center operations. Improved decision making and business processes with actionable information. Protected customer relationships with 360-degree customer views, ensuring customer satisfaction and maximized upsell/cross-sell opportunities. Social search features provide relevant results based on user ranking, expertise, and usage data. Both agents and customers can rank information and benefit from the rankings of others as well as understand how often specific answers are used, helping the right answer to appear at the top of each query TSIA Page 13

14 Coveo Implementation Methodology In addition to its technology and solutions, Coveo provides professional services and knowledge in the areas of customer service processes, technology implementations, and advanced enterprise search platforms applied to customer information, intranets, and self-service customer interaction. Throughout more than 700 successful implementations, Coveo has developed a unique implementation methodology to guarantee the success of your initiative, which includes the following phases: Economic and Business Impact of Coveo (EBIC) Customer Access Solutions Value Assessment: To determine the financial opportunities, KPIs, and objectives (see below). Design: To define the specifications of the information access solution, the audiences and user interface requirements for call center agents, customers of executives and managers. Implementation: Iterative deployment cycles for optimum and quick value realization, including testing, integration and configuration, monitoring, training and measurement. Operation and Maintenance: Performance and usage monitoring through analytics for continuous operational improvements Coveo implementations are shorter, less costly, and eliminate risk. Two critical attributes of our methodology and solutions are the speed of deployment and the non-intrusive nature with which Coveo implements a customer information access solution, often within a few weeks, to reach CSRs and customers with comprehensive, relevant, and just-in-time customer service information. Coveo Value Methodology Coveo s mutual goal with its customers is customer service ROI, not just technology deployment. One of the key facets of Coveo s methodology is the Economic and Business Impact of Coveo (EBIC) Customer Access Solutions. EBIC is a simple framework that looks at all aspects of a Customer Access implementation, with the objective to evolve customer service from a cost center to a driving element of the corporate revenue strategy. EBIC looks at the holistic equation of customer service IT. The Coveo initiative should reduce IT costs, reduce the customer service unit operating costs, enhance loyalty-creating customer experiences, and augment revenue and margins TSIA Page 14

15 Figure 3: Economic and Business Impact (EBIC) of Customer Access Solutions Tangible benefits Intangible benefits Costs Risks Future potential value Cost reduction (FCR, ACHT) CSR productivity gains Decrease escalations Revenue gains Infrastructure maintenance costs reduction Customer experience Customer loyalty & lifetime value Reputational capital CSR turnover Planning, implementation & training External & in-house costs Lost productivity costs if applicable Ongoing maintenance Technical risks Losing current capabilities Internal user adoption Customer adoption Unified indexing infrastructure future options value, e.g., sales & marketing, international, investigations, collaboration, etc TSIA Page 15

16 ENDNOTES 1 According to the 2009 TSIA Member Technology Survey, 89% of member companies were using a knowledgebase in February 2009, with an additional 10% planning to make new or additional knowledgebase purchases in The number of applications and/or data sources used to service customers is taken from a member poll during the 2009 TSIA webcast, Streamline Support Processes with Integration. 3 In a 2007 survey of TSIA member support channel preferences, 16% of Generation Y respondents, those aged 18 29, said they begin each diagnostic session by searching the Internet. This age group represents the majority of Tier 1 customer service and technical support employees. 4 According to the 2009 TSIA Member Technology Survey, 24% of members are using the knowledgebase that came for free with Siebel, Oracle CRM, Salesforce, or a legacy CRM system (Clarify, Vantive, Scopus, etc.). 5 When TSIA surveyed service executives about technology needs, the top concern was inability to mine existing data sources for business intelligence. See the SSPA Accelerator, Analytics' Role in Value-Added Support: Leveraging Technology to Unlock Business Intelligence TSIA Page 16