Introduction The KCS Adoption Guide is the accumulation of twenty years of adoption experiences by the staff of the Consortium for Service Innovation. This guide will provide a approach for planning a KCS adoption. Our aim is to share what we have learned about what makes for a successful KCS adoption and hopefully help you avoid some of the common mistakes. This Adoption Guide is meant to complement the KCS Practices Guide and the “Measurement Matters” paper. An understanding of the KCS principles and practices is necessary before this guide will make sense. Readers should especially familiar with the KCS Practices, which are documented in detail in the KCS Practices Guide. The Practices Guide, the Measurement Matters paper, and other important KCS reference material are available for free from the Consortium and can be downloaded from the web site at . It is our intent to minimize the duplication of information; as a result there are numerous references to details included in both the guide and the paper. However, some level of duplication is unavoidable. Terminology Vocabulary is a challenge as different organizations and industries use different terminology for the same or similar things. For example, there are numerous terms used for the support event including: incident, case, trouble ticket, call, or service request. In this guide we will use the term “incident.” We will also use “Support Analyst” to identify the folks in the support organization who solve customer issues. These people are sometimes called support agents, support engineers, or customer support reps (CSR). Support Analysts who are working with a KCS Coach (who are also Support Analysts) on getting licensed as a KCS Contributor or KCS Publisher are referred to as Knowledge Developers. For a complete glossary of terms please see the “Appendix B: Glossary” in the KCS Practices Guide. KCS Scope Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) is a robust set of principles and practices for creating, maintaining and leveraging knowledge in an interactive environment. KCS
Phase 1 Exit Criteria Benefits Readiness Evidence Organization commitment Clear vision of goals Budget approval Executive sponsor buy-in Staff Management team buy-in Budget approval KCS Adoption Team resources made available Communication sent from executive about plan and goals Strategic Framework complete Defined expectations for customer, employee, and organization Separate customer, employee, and business views with related benefits and anticipated results Content Standard assessable Consistent Article content Content Standard is understandable and easily accessible Process in place to update Content Standard Article Quality Index available High quality Articles AQI can be captured in an easy to use tool and assessable to all coaches Workflow Process tested Problems solved faster Workflow has been simulated and documented Performance Assessment Model defined Learning and development Draft metrics developed and defined Baseline metrics established Measure of progress All draft metrics have a baseline measure from within the organization Communication Framework in place Benefits for each stakeholder Commitment to project Written communication plan with project owner Review and signoff of plan by Executive Sponsor Process for testing communications effectiveness Process for feedback and improvement Phase 1 Exit Criteria Benefits Readiness Evidence
percentage of revenue decreased dropped by 25‐50%, and the volume of customer issues resolved is up at least 100% (web success combined with incidents closed) Customer satisfaction and loyalty increased Increase customer success Increase from the baseline Employee satisfaction and loyalty increased Increase profit Increase from the baseline Important Lessons Learned The concepts behind KCS are really quite simple. The Solve Loop: Integrating the creation and maintenance of knowledge into the problem solving process Making the knowledge “sufficient to solve” The idea of letting demand drive our focus for what knowledge to create and what knowledge to improve The Evolve Loop: Leveraging knowledge for self-service Identifying high value content based on Article reuse Identifying high impact opportunities to improve the products or services based on the customer experience (patterns and trends in the knowledge base) These concepts are well established in academic work and research. Many of the concepts in KCS align with the quality concepts of Dr. Deming (see Deming’s 14 Principles of Quality on Wikipedia). Nonaka and Takahachi ‘s book The Knowledge Creating Company was a constant reference during the formative years of KCS. Why then do organizations struggle with KCS adoption? It is because a successful adoption of KCS requires that we rethink traditional support processes, structures, measures, and management practices. That’s a hard thing to do!