A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
Doug Batts
Director of World Wide Technical Support
WW eMarketing
Semiconductor Division
Texas Instruments, Inc
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
• What We Did?
• Why We Did It?
• How We Did It?
• What Results Are We Seeing?
• What Lessons Have We Learned?
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
• What
We Did?
Developed and successfully implemented a
Web-enabled Technical Support
KnowledgeBase
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
What is it?
Robust Tech Support Database
“Ask Jeeves like” search
engine capability
• Consists of FAQs, Buglists, links to App
Notes, User guides, and other relevant • Natural Language search
SC product content
• Key word search
• Customer self-service enabler via Web
• Decision Tree search (Future)
• Leverages created knowledge for
efficient and immediate re-use
• CBR (case based reasoning)
• Gathers customer/user feedback and
provides case escalation
• Efficient Technical Design In
Support navigation
• 8 second or less response times
KNOWLEDGE BASE WORKFLOW PROCESS OVERVIEW
• Author
Skill Requirement
– Customer
insight
– Technical
knowledge
• Reviewer
End Users
• Administrator
KBase
– Subject matter
expert
– Strong
technical writer
Tasks
– Review authored
– Generate new
content for
content based on
accuracy, clarity
customer inquiries
& completeness
(reactive)
– Ensure proper
– Generate new
structural fit into
content based on
database
anticipated
questions(proactive) – Publish content
– Knowledge champion
with product breadth
and depth
– Strong communication
skills
– Management abilities
– Champion knowledge
effort Monitor usage and
effectiveness metrics
– Maintain data integrity
– Build and update data
structure & segmentation
(e.g., decision trees)
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
• Why
We Did It?
To Fix chronic Knowledge sharing and
knowledge management deficits
CURRENT TECHNICAL SUPPORT ORGANIZATION CREATES
KNOWLEDGE BUILDING/SHARING IMPEDIMENTS
•
•
Questions
from
customer
Formal technical
support channels
Stand alone technical
support channel
Distributor
FAE
Frontend PIC
Web
Back-end
PIC (Product
Specialists)
DSP
hotline
SDS
(support)
Answers to
customers
•
Shortcomings of current process
– No hardwired process
– Organizational complexity
– Poor solutions capture/minimal sharing of answer
– Manual exchanges
LBE
(product
groups)
Sales
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
Delivering technical support through a
variety of channels
• Customer questions
• Technical
support
knowledge
• Routine
–
–
–
–
Literature
Price/availability
Samples
Inquiry status
check
– Design
assistance
– Follow up on
unsatisfactory
resolution
through formal
process
• Complex
Web
– Vantive
– MAD
E-mail
– PIC agent
knowledge
Technical support center (PIC)
Distributor, sales, product group
– Product
group
knowledge
– Other
CUSTOMERS INDICATE A STRONG PREFERENCE FOR
WEB-BASED SELF-SERVICE
•
Did customers attempt
self-service on ti.com
before calling PIC?
No 41
Yes
59
•
Would
customers
prefer selfservice through
ti.com if answer
was available?
No
•
No
16
27
84
73
Yes
Was
information
available, but
not found, on
ti.com?
Yes
– 50% of customers are calling the PIC after being unable
to locate information that is available on TI.com
– 93% of customers would use the web site if they were
confident that they could find their answer on TI.com
Source: PIC administered survey of ~400 callers
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
• How
We Did It?
Built a strong financial case to support the
cause
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
Technology levers drive cost, revenue, and customer satisfaction
• Improvement lever
– Migration to self-service web
channel
– Identify and address root causes
of calls
– Differentiate service through call
and email routing
– Implement e-service technologies
to support self-service channel
(e.g., interactive chat, VOIP)
– Improved integration with sales
lead management for call and
web-based leads
• Potential financial impact
– Many companies have reduced overall support
costs by 50%
– A wireless service provider improved the customer
quality index by 23% through identification and
tracking of root causes of long calls
– A telecommunications provider achieved a 35%
revenue increase through improved skill-based
routing and agents’ compensation changes
– Dell charges a 10% price premium for web-based
configuration
– A wireless service provider increased customer
retention rates by 30%
– Golfdiscount.com earned a 20% increase in
revenue through the use of VoIP
– Companies have been able to raise the lead
conversion ratio by up to 25% using web-based
interactive technologies
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
Recommended Investment must be economically justified
• Investment
- Initial Costs
- Recurring Costs
• Software purchase costs
• Systems Implementation
• Recurring costs - Software
licensing
• Application Systems
support
• Additional headcount
• Return
- Cost savings
- Increase in Revenue
• 15-20% reduction in PIC calls
• Sales force effectiveness
• Lower cost channel for
inquiries
• Elimination of waste mailing
• More efficient CRM process
• Required 1-year revenue
increase
– Increased
self-service
ability
– Reduced
demand on
agents
MANY FUNCTIONALITIES ARE AVAILABLE
TO IMPROVE THE CUSTOMER’S
– Increased selfEXPERIENCE
service ability
–
–
– Faster problem
resolution
– More efficient
access to
appropriate
agent
–
–
–
–
–
– More user–
friendly web
–
site
– More interactive
–
service
– More efficient
access
– Reduced
Web *
demand on
agents
Self-service search tools: various search tools
(natural language, keyword, decision tree, etc.) to – Faster
resolutions
access knowledge base through expert system
E-mail
Auto suggest: sends suggested response to agent
along with question
• Technical
Autoanswer: sends automatic response to customer
support
Inquiry escalation: forwards unresolved self-service knowledge
inquiry to agent
functionality
Routing and tracking: routes requests to agents
based on predefined rules
• Knowledge
Technical support center (PIC)
management
system:
Call back: schedule future call through web
Environment sharing: real-time “screen sharing”
searchable
between customer and agent
database of all
Interactive text chat: real-time web-based
technical
Routing and tracking: distributes requests to agents
product and
based on predefined rules
VoIP: live voice conversation over web
problem
knowledge
Distributor, sales, product group
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
What Results Are We Seeing?
• Improved PIC Agent Productivity
• Improved Customer Satisfaction
• Reduced Case Resolution Times
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
•
•
Questions from
customer
Formal
technical
support
channels
Web
Frontend PIC
Back-end PIC
(Product
Specialists)
Stand alone
technical
support
channel
DSP
hotline
SDS
Technical Support KnowledgeBase
• Advantages of new KnowledgeBase process
– New process promotes customer self service support
– Excellent solutions capture vehicle for re-use
– Common technical support platform pools knowledge
Distributor
FAE
LBE
(product
groups)
Sales
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
100000
90000
80000
70000
60000
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
0
August
September
October
Server
Access
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
Customer Feedback
“TI has one of the best and easiest to use web sites of any
semiconductor mfg. I've seen. The literature in the analog
section of the Technical Knowledge Base is exactly what I
was looking for. Keep up the good work!”
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
E-Mail
Integration
9/01/00
WW E-Mail
Integration
11/15/00
Web Inquiry
Statusing
KnowledgeBase
Phase I
K-Base Pilot
SDS/DSP
6/27/00
Phase II
K-Base Deployment
SDS/DSP/Power
Mngmt
8/14/00
Environment Sharing
Web Collaboration
7/15/00
2Q00
3Q00
Phase III
K-Base
Enhancements
Add Rest of SC
(SLL, etc.)
12/5/00
VOIP
Text
Chat
4Q00
Phase IV
K-Base
Enhancements
TBD
1Q01
2Q01
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
What Lessons Have We Learned?
• Anticipate the unexpected!
• Customers search patterns differ
• Customers prefer key word searches over
natural language
• Having a dedicated Knowledge Team is a must
• Do it. It’s probably worth the investment
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
DEMO
A Case Study: Building a KnowledgeBase
• Questions?