š This week, Iām looking into the world of knowledge management systems in the contact center and its emerging role today. My guest on Episode #116 of the @my curious colleague podcast is my colleague, @Vicki Brackett, Chief Knowledge Officer at @Knowledgely. We also touch on how AI and modern frameworks are reshaping knowledge bases and making customer support more efficient & more effective for all.Ā
Podcast link here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-curious-colleague-cpg-cx/id1565590157
Highlights:Ā
š¹ From binders & sticky notes to sophisticated AI-powered systems ā the evolution of knowledge management and how it impacts agent performanceĀ
š¹ The three pillars of knowledge management ā ensuring agents, customers, and integrated systems have access to the right information at the right timeĀ
š¹ The Biggest Misconceptions About AI ā Why itās not just plug-and-play and how organizations must structure it for success.
Tune in to hear Vickiās insights on the future of knowledge managementā¦!Ā
For more information and to connect with Knowledgely and Vicki go to hello@knowledgely.com
#knowledgebase #customerservice #contactcenter #aiintegration #knowledgemanagement
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
denise venneri (00:00):
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast
with me, Denise Venneri. I am atwenty year practitioner in the
consumer engagement space,having worked for two large CPG
organizations. My intent here isreally to share best practices
with particular focus around thespecialist and analyst roles and
(00:21):
to give back to this greatcommunity because CPGCX rocks.
Hello, my curious colleagues.This week, I'm curious about
knowledge management in thecontact center and its emerging
role today. And to help me dojust that is my colleague, Vicki
(00:43):
Brackett, chief knowledgeofficer at Knowledgely. Hi,
Vicki. Welcome to the podcast.
vicki brackett (00:50):
Thanks for having me, Denise. I appreciate
it.
denise venneri (00:54):
Oh, my honor. My honor. You know, as I often say,
people follow the podcast or myLinkedIn, I am a worker band. So
I have been, you know, my myview of knowledge management and
knowledge knowledge bases, wecall them KB, specifically has
come a long way from my vantagepoint, you know, from and maybe
(01:17):
yours too, from, you know,binders and binders of
information and post it notes,you know, up in the agents
cubicle to databases with a fewhundreds, maybe thousands of
articles for the agents toaccess. And ultimately, today,
some of these things I'm hearingabout some very sophisticated
(01:38):
knowledge bases out there.
And hence, that's why I have youhere because this is not my
wheelhouse. So let's startthough with you at a high level.
How did you get to this point inyour career?
vicki brackett (01:52):
Well, very interesting. I got into the
industry sort of like everybodyelse does by accident. My mother
actually answered an ad and putup put my resume together using
plaques on her wall for my salesand leadership awards through
the years. Long story short, Iwas hired by a BPO to change the
culture in the contact centerfrom customer service to sales.
(02:14):
They wanted to be more salesfocused.
I didn't even know what acontact center was, but I love
people. I love serving them, andI just got hooked. And my
passion is to take organizationsthat are struggling and help
them build their efficienciesand their processes and
mentoring programs. And so I'vebeen spending the last twenty
years turning around strugglingsales organizations, customer
(02:35):
service, technical supportcontact centers. And I've
developed a set of tools, andwrote a book and I've worked, I
would say 65% of my career inBPOs, 35% in internal.
I've worked for small, medium,large companies, fortune 500
companies like Apple in avariety of different industries.
And then three years ago, a CEOapproached me about and he
(02:57):
wanted to show me a software,and it was a knowledge
management system. So everycompany has a knowledge base.
Most people have what they callis a document management. It's
it's sort of like a SharePoint.
Everything's sort of in there.It's it's, categorized or by
topics or you have a search barat the top. IT builds it for
you. But when I saw thissoftware, Denise, I had never
seen anything like it. It was avery holistic system with key
(03:20):
components that would give theinformation at conversational
speed.
So no more putting the thecaller on hold. And the same
systems have can be integratedwith all different types of
softwares, but they've gotfeedback loops for the agents.
They've got AI. A lot of themare powered by AI now. They've
got reporting or or businessanalytics.
(03:44):
It has different components,decision trees, talk tracks. So
really it's a a system to helpthe whole operation with
knowledge, and it's a livebreathing system. It's
constantly changing becausethat's what happens in a contact
center.
denise venneri (04:00):
So you're hooked after seeing the software, then
what happened?
vicki brackett (04:05):
So I sold software for about a year, and
then I went to work forKnowledgely. And today I'm head
of CXN, the chief knowledgeofficer here. And, you know, we
work in the contact center spaceexclusively in the knowledge
space for them, helpingorganizations with their
framework. And we have someother services.
denise venneri (04:24):
Yeah. Yeah. Again, from my vantage point on
the brand side, like, knowledgebase was always that really, you
know, it was a strong piece ofprocess on the back end. Right?
A lot of people didn't talkabout it back in the day again,
and consumers, like, they knewthat there was a script going
on.
But anyway, I love the the wayyou articulated this role of
(04:45):
this little quiet process enginein the back, the engine that
could. I love seeing where itit's it's going today. But I'm
gonna take let's take us backjust a second and let's level
set everybody because youmentioned knowledge management.
And I always actually, I neverlooked at it that way. Again,
that's why you're the expert.
(05:05):
Why don't you just love us witheverybody with your view of
knowledge management and this,this three management pillars
that you talk about?
vicki brackett (05:15):
Okay. Well, what I didn't know, and obviously now
I do, is that knowledgemanagement sits behind three
what we call elements orpillars. And one of them is
giving knowledge to the agent inany of the the, channels. So
email, chat, text, social media.Right?
Phone, video chat. The secondpillar or element would be the
(05:38):
customer self serve. So thecompany app or the chatbot or
the the website that customersgo to, those frequently asked
questions. A knowledgemanagement system sits behind
that. And the third is all theintegrations.
So integrating with your CRM,your learning management system,
the IVR, the agent assist,quality, all of the pieces of
(06:02):
software that we use, itactually can can integrate with
those. And that's that thirdpillar is the integration. So
picture like three intersectingcircles. And in the center is
the knowledge management systempowered by AI.
denise venneri (06:18):
Speaking of AI, where do you see the future of
AI as it portends, excuse me,pertains to knowledge
management? And it sounds like Iknow the answer, but where's the
future of AI?
vicki brackett (06:30):
It's here, Denise. And it's it's moving
very, very quickly. And a lot ofthese companies that that have
these knowledge managementsystems that sell this software,
they're constantly improving andutilizing more and more
functions for AI. It's it'sabsolutely fabulous and
fascinating really what'shappening in the space. And
(06:53):
usually when someone purchasessoftware, as their contact
center, as there's upgrades,those those usually come with
it.
So that's great. You'll get thelatest and greatest, whatever
system that someone purchases.
denise venneri (07:06):
Right. Because there's a lot out there. For the
future of AI is here, we'vewe've definitely determined
that. Can you get back into someof the examples specifically of
AI in this space? And then I'mgonna have you also add on some
misconceptions, about AI.
But first, let's do someexamples.
vicki brackett (07:25):
Okay. So AI is used in different places based
on the software that the contactcenter or customer service
organization purchases. So forexample, a client may choose a
piece of software that helpspull everything together using
generative AI. So it'll pullfrom a SharePoint. It'll pull
(07:46):
from, you know, a proprietary,knowledge base.
It'll pull from all this fromthe website and put it into the
user interface for the agent. Sothat's one way that happens. Now
one of the challenges, ofcourse, is if it's not written
correctly, then there's so muchfor the agent they have to read
through. But some softwarecompanies are taking it one step
(08:06):
further. They're actually havingthe contact center pick out what
we call templates.
So they use icons and colors andpositioning on the screen. And
now the AI can pull in and andactually put it into that
template. So that's another waythat AI can be used. Wow. The
third way with processes is thatthey will literally you can
(08:29):
literally go through a processon the computer like an agent
would, and it's recorded.
And then the software will putit into the process, into the
user interface, and actually dothe screenshots and and tell you
what to do first, second, third.So that's how AI is used in a
(08:51):
lot of different types ofsoftwares. Again, what are you
what are you trying toaccomplish? Some even go as far
as taking the conversation thatthey hear on the AI hears on the
phone and the knowledge that wasused by the agent and can put
together an email. Some can useagent assist.
So you can literally pop theknowledge while the agent is on
(09:13):
the phone because AI islistening to the phone call or
reading the email or the chat orthe text. So AI is used all
through knowledge managementsystems. It just really depends
on which one you purchase andwhich one is best for your
particular contact center.
denise venneri (09:30):
Okay. Okay. What are some of the misconceptions
about AI? I'm hearing so manybenefits for sure. I'm loving
everything I'm hearing.
I'm kind of blown blown away.What are some of those
misconceptions of the VA of AI
vicki brackett (09:48):
that It's got it out there. It's plug and play.
Oh, you just plug it in. Youpush your button and
miraculously it happens.Remember, think about it.
Think about inside of a contactcenter. How many times has a
return policy been written andchanged and changed and changed?
If someone's not managing that,then all of that information is
(10:11):
gonna be pulled into thetemplate or pulled into the user
interface. And so there's gonnabe a lot to weed through. So
it's sort of like we say in thespace, garbage in, garbage out.
That has to the knowledge has tobe gone through by a human being
to see what's valid and what'snot valid, what's current and
not current. So this idea ofjust hitting a button and it all
(10:33):
just sort of comes together,it'll do that. But is it even
usable? Because you could havefive return policies or 10
return policies inside what AIpulls together. Does that make
sense?
denise venneri (10:47):
Anything you say makes sense to me because it's
very knowledgeable. Yeah.Because you're very
knowledgeable. Misconception.Yeah.
Okay. I think I maybe can guessat some of them, but what are
some of the outcomes that maybeyou've seen or read about,
specifically?
vicki brackett (11:06):
Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously, our clients'
average handle time is reduced.That's that's a huge that's a
huge outcome because you don'thave to put your caller on hold.
For example, my husband recentlyretired. And so I called a cell
company and asked a questionthat probably nobody has ever
asked.
Do you have a senior citizendiscount? And the agent put me
on hold for eight minutes whilehe looked, and then he was super
(11:28):
nice, came back, and he said,could I put you on hold just a
few more minutes? I said, sure.Yeah. And twelve minutes later,
he came back, and he said, no,that they didn't, and we came up
with plan b.
But what was interesting is Iasked him, what when when you
put me on hold the first time,were you looking in your in your
knowledge base? And he said,yes. And when I said, when when
you put me on hold the secondtime, what were you doing? And
(11:49):
he said, oh, I was in on holdwith the support desk. So now
we're on we're on hold or we'retalking to the support desk for
twelve minutes plus the originaleight.
So just reduction in labor costsbecause of the reduced reduction
in average annual time.
denise venneri (12:03):
Average year of time. Okay. So that's one
outcome.
vicki brackett (12:07):
Another outcome, this was a financial services
company that had twelve weeks ofnew hire training. Because the
training methodology changeswhen you truly have a knowledge
management system, because youdon't have to teach agents how
to memorize. So this particularfinancial institution cut their
training from twelve weeks tothree weeks because you were
(12:28):
just training them on where togo look. And so think about
this. Think about training.
When you're you could actuallypipe in very I mean, live calls.
And the new agents and new hiretraining could actually be
following along and going to theknowledge management system. So
it helps them know where to goquickly without all these tests
(12:49):
and quizzes of memorization. Soyou can and the speedy
competency is another outcome.So not only can you reduce
average handle time, reducetraining time, the speed of
competency is huge, and the andthe agents feel more successful
faster.
Because think about it. Where'sthe biggest attrition? When you
when between training and thefloor, there's attrition in most
(13:11):
organizations because agents areoverwhelmed because there's so
much information they have tomemorize. That goes away. And
then there's mitigating risk,and that's huge.
So think about if you're with aCPG company, right, and someone
ingest something, and all of asudden, the customer's calling
into the contact center. Youhave to make sure everybody's on
(13:33):
the same page immediately. Youdon't have time to pull people
off the phone and give themtraining. You need to be able to
put it in the same place. And ifthey know where adverse
reactions are because they'vebeen trained to go there, it
doesn't matter if it's the legitches or someone is gonna be
their body's reacting in adifferent way because they know
where to go.
And that's the key. Somitigating risk, when you get
(13:54):
into court, you could literallythe legal department loves
knowledge management systemsbecause everything has an audit
trail. So they know exactly whenthe knowledge hit and when the
when the actual agent used thatpiece of knowledge. So it really
helps the legal department aswell and compliance as well,
being able to go back and knowwhen knowledge has been changed.
(14:16):
So these are huge outcomes fororganizations.
denise venneri (14:19):
Yeah. Does it take long to let's say you have
a a knowledge base you've beenusing for years and you're made
aware of what's out there. Youwant to upgrade a bit or lay in
AI is the integration time to dothat two months, three weeks? Or
(14:42):
does it depend?
vicki brackett (14:44):
It depends, and it depends on a number of
factors. Like, right now, wehave a client that has over
20,000 pieces of knowledge, andthey go back decades. So what
you really wanna do at bestpractices is the eighty twenty
rule. What are your key calldrivers or customer interaction
drivers? That's where you start.
(15:04):
And then you add the other 20 or30%. So you can stand these up
in weeks. You can stand them upin a few months. And sometimes
the software company will do animplementation. Knowledgely can
help with that, of course.
It really just depends on on howmuch knowledge you have and what
your key drivers are. It's it'sa pretty easy stand up if you've
(15:26):
got the team to do that. Andwhat I would also like to say is
one of the biggest challengethat CX and customer service
leaders have is that they go gettry to get a req to get to FTE
for their knowledge team becausemost contact centers don't have
a knowledge team. It usually ishoused with supervisors or in
the training and developmentarena. You're already you're
(15:50):
already have a support desk withSMEs.
You've already got yoursupervisors helping. You already
have the labors in there. Youjust gotta massage your
organizational structure, yourlabor dollars. There's no reason
to go get more FTE. And thisactually holds customer service
leaders back because they'retrying to get a new rack pushed
through for to FTE.
(16:10):
And there's just no reason to dothat.
denise venneri (16:13):
It makes more sense in your in your,
estimation to try to upgradeyour technology versus increase
your labor because that's moreof
vicki brackett (16:25):
a Absolutely. And the systems with AI now make
it so much easier to do and lessheavy lifting. And and really
what it's about governance. It'sabout hierarchy. It's about best
practice.
How do you author? Whichtemplates do you use? The
standard operating procedures.Right? Those are the key parts
of laying the foundation.
Authoring the knowledge is it'slike an assembly line. Once you
(16:49):
know what to do and and whatthat hierarchy and those
permissions and the SOPs looklike, then then it's a
relatively then it's justputting labor in it into it. And
your agents can help. You don'thave to go out and get expensive
labor.
denise venneri (17:05):
Interesting. Hey. Let's get let's get into a
little bit about, top line ofwhat your company knowledge. Ly,
can do for their clients and howwould people contact you if they
want to learn more?
vicki brackett (17:18):
Okay. I appreciate the opportunity
again, Denise. I love thissubject. I I was a CX leader for
over twenty years. Right?
So I I can see where this canbenefit, and that's what that's
what gets me up every day andgets me excited. So Knowledgely
has three different types ofservices, and it depends on what
you need. The first one is we doknowledge framework assessment.
(17:39):
So what are those workaroundscosting? For example, I have a
client in Texas, nine hundredagents.
They have 85 SMEs, four teamleaders, three supervisors, and
ops manager to a tune of over$4,000,000 a year to support
those 900 agents because theagents can't find the answers in
their SharePoint. So, you know,we come in and we do a framework
(18:02):
and say, you know, what is theseworkarounds costing you? Where
are the gaps? And so that's thefirst thing we do. And some
people just know they need asystem, and we can help them,
actually go through an RFP andand put together the business
requirements once we do thatthat that framework.
The second service is we havefractional knowledge managers.
So we meet a client wherethey're at. So you need someone
(18:23):
part time, full time, no longterm commitment to get your team
up and going, or elevate whatyou currently have, we can send
in one of our fractionalknowledge managers. And the
third, we have enterpriseknowledge teams where we just
come in and we do it for theclient. Those are the three
things that we do.
So anything knowledge inside ofa contact center, we're the
knowledge experts.
denise venneri (18:44):
Hence the name, knowledgely. What's the name?
It's a little hard to pronouncefor me. But I I think am I
saying it right? Knowledgely.
vicki brackett (18:53):
Knowledgely. Yeah. Just knowledgely at the
end of it. Knowledgely.com.Hello at knowledgely.com will
will will get us out onLinkedIn.
And by the way, we are postingknowledge nuggets a few times a
week, very, very small post thatyou can read in less than a
minute to give you a nuggetabout knowledge because it's a
complicated subject if you'renot used to thinking of it in in
(19:16):
the new way, the best practiceway. And so we're trying to
educate people in the space byputting out these knowledge
nuggets.
denise venneri (19:23):
I've seen those, Vicky. I think they're great,
and I love short and sweet. Ithink that's the way to go
sometimes. Alright. Well, sadly,we've come to the end.
Just wanted to say thank you somuch for your time. I appreciate
it.
vicki brackett (19:37):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. A
lot of fun.
doug venneri (19:39):
You have been listening to the My Curious Pali
podcast with Denise Vanier.Thank you for your time.
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast
with me, Denise Venneri. I am atwenty year practitioner in the
consumer engagement space,having worked for two large CPG
organizations. My intent here isreally to share best practices
with particular focus around thespecialist and analyst roles and
(00:21):
to give back to this greatcommunity because CPGCX rocks.
Hello, my curious colleagues.This week, I'm curious about
knowledge management in thecontact center and its emerging
role today. And to help me dojust that is my colleague, Vicki
(00:43):
Brackett, chief knowledgeofficer at Knowledgely. Hi,
Vicki. Welcome to the podcast.
vicki brackett (00:50):
Thanks for having me, Denise. I appreciate
it.
denise venneri (00:54):
Oh, my honor. My honor. You know, as I often say,
people follow the podcast or myLinkedIn, I am a worker band. So
I have been, you know, my myview of knowledge management and
knowledge knowledge bases, wecall them KB, specifically has
come a long way from my vantagepoint, you know, from and maybe
(01:17):
yours too, from, you know,binders and binders of
information and post it notes,you know, up in the agents
cubicle to databases with a fewhundreds, maybe thousands of
articles for the agents toaccess. And ultimately, today,
some of these things I'm hearingabout some very sophisticated
(01:38):
knowledge bases out there.
And hence, that's why I have youhere because this is not my
wheelhouse. So let's startthough with you at a high level.
How did you get to this point inyour career?
vicki brackett (01:52):
Well, very interesting. I got into the
industry sort of like everybodyelse does by accident. My mother
actually answered an ad and putup put my resume together using
plaques on her wall for my salesand leadership awards through
the years. Long story short, Iwas hired by a BPO to change the
culture in the contact centerfrom customer service to sales.
(02:14):
They wanted to be more salesfocused.
I didn't even know what acontact center was, but I love
people. I love serving them, andI just got hooked. And my
passion is to take organizationsthat are struggling and help
them build their efficienciesand their processes and
mentoring programs. And so I'vebeen spending the last twenty
years turning around strugglingsales organizations, customer
(02:35):
service, technical supportcontact centers. And I've
developed a set of tools, andwrote a book and I've worked, I
would say 65% of my career inBPOs, 35% in internal.
I've worked for small, medium,large companies, fortune 500
companies like Apple in avariety of different industries.
And then three years ago, a CEOapproached me about and he
(02:57):
wanted to show me a software,and it was a knowledge
management system. So everycompany has a knowledge base.
Most people have what they callis a document management. It's
it's sort of like a SharePoint.
Everything's sort of in there.It's it's, categorized or by
topics or you have a search barat the top. IT builds it for
you. But when I saw thissoftware, Denise, I had never
seen anything like it. It was avery holistic system with key
(03:20):
components that would give theinformation at conversational
speed.
So no more putting the thecaller on hold. And the same
systems have can be integratedwith all different types of
softwares, but they've gotfeedback loops for the agents.
They've got AI. A lot of themare powered by AI now. They've
got reporting or or businessanalytics.
(03:44):
It has different components,decision trees, talk tracks. So
really it's a a system to helpthe whole operation with
knowledge, and it's a livebreathing system. It's
constantly changing becausethat's what happens in a contact
center.
denise venneri (04:00):
So you're hooked after seeing the software, then
what happened?
vicki brackett (04:05):
So I sold software for about a year, and
then I went to work forKnowledgely. And today I'm head
of CXN, the chief knowledgeofficer here. And, you know, we
work in the contact center spaceexclusively in the knowledge
space for them, helpingorganizations with their
framework. And we have someother services.
denise venneri (04:24):
Yeah. Yeah. Again, from my vantage point on
the brand side, like, knowledgebase was always that really, you
know, it was a strong piece ofprocess on the back end. Right?
A lot of people didn't talkabout it back in the day again,
and consumers, like, they knewthat there was a script going
on.
But anyway, I love the the wayyou articulated this role of
(04:45):
this little quiet process enginein the back, the engine that
could. I love seeing where itit's it's going today. But I'm
gonna take let's take us backjust a second and let's level
set everybody because youmentioned knowledge management.
And I always actually, I neverlooked at it that way. Again,
that's why you're the expert.
(05:05):
Why don't you just love us witheverybody with your view of
knowledge management and this,this three management pillars
that you talk about?
vicki brackett (05:15):
Okay. Well, what I didn't know, and obviously now
I do, is that knowledgemanagement sits behind three
what we call elements orpillars. And one of them is
giving knowledge to the agent inany of the the, channels. So
email, chat, text, social media.Right?
Phone, video chat. The secondpillar or element would be the
(05:38):
customer self serve. So thecompany app or the chatbot or
the the website that customersgo to, those frequently asked
questions. A knowledgemanagement system sits behind
that. And the third is all theintegrations.
So integrating with your CRM,your learning management system,
the IVR, the agent assist,quality, all of the pieces of
(06:02):
software that we use, itactually can can integrate with
those. And that's that thirdpillar is the integration. So
picture like three intersectingcircles. And in the center is
the knowledge management systempowered by AI.
denise venneri (06:18):
Speaking of AI, where do you see the future of
AI as it portends, excuse me,pertains to knowledge
management? And it sounds like Iknow the answer, but where's the
future of AI?
vicki brackett (06:30):
It's here, Denise. And it's it's moving
very, very quickly. And a lot ofthese companies that that have
these knowledge managementsystems that sell this software,
they're constantly improving andutilizing more and more
functions for AI. It's it'sabsolutely fabulous and
fascinating really what'shappening in the space. And
(06:53):
usually when someone purchasessoftware, as their contact
center, as there's upgrades,those those usually come with
it.
So that's great. You'll get thelatest and greatest, whatever
system that someone purchases.
denise venneri (07:06):
Right. Because there's a lot out there. For the
future of AI is here, we'vewe've definitely determined
that. Can you get back into someof the examples specifically of
AI in this space? And then I'mgonna have you also add on some
misconceptions, about AI.
But first, let's do someexamples.
vicki brackett (07:25):
Okay. So AI is used in different places based
on the software that the contactcenter or customer service
organization purchases. So forexample, a client may choose a
piece of software that helpspull everything together using
generative AI. So it'll pullfrom a SharePoint. It'll pull
(07:46):
from, you know, a proprietary,knowledge base.
It'll pull from all this fromthe website and put it into the
user interface for the agent. Sothat's one way that happens. Now
one of the challenges, ofcourse, is if it's not written
correctly, then there's so muchfor the agent they have to read
through. But some softwarecompanies are taking it one step
(08:06):
further. They're actually havingthe contact center pick out what
we call templates.
So they use icons and colors andpositioning on the screen. And
now the AI can pull in and andactually put it into that
template. So that's another waythat AI can be used. Wow. The
third way with processes is thatthey will literally you can
(08:29):
literally go through a processon the computer like an agent
would, and it's recorded.
And then the software will putit into the process, into the
user interface, and actually dothe screenshots and and tell you
what to do first, second, third.So that's how AI is used in a
(08:51):
lot of different types ofsoftwares. Again, what are you
what are you trying toaccomplish? Some even go as far
as taking the conversation thatthey hear on the AI hears on the
phone and the knowledge that wasused by the agent and can put
together an email. Some can useagent assist.
So you can literally pop theknowledge while the agent is on
(09:13):
the phone because AI islistening to the phone call or
reading the email or the chat orthe text. So AI is used all
through knowledge managementsystems. It just really depends
on which one you purchase andwhich one is best for your
particular contact center.
denise venneri (09:30):
Okay. Okay. What are some of the misconceptions
about AI? I'm hearing so manybenefits for sure. I'm loving
everything I'm hearing.
I'm kind of blown blown away.What are some of those
misconceptions of the VA of AI
vicki brackett (09:48):
that It's got it out there. It's plug and play.
Oh, you just plug it in. Youpush your button and
miraculously it happens.Remember, think about it.
Think about inside of a contactcenter. How many times has a
return policy been written andchanged and changed and changed?
If someone's not managing that,then all of that information is
(10:11):
gonna be pulled into thetemplate or pulled into the user
interface. And so there's gonnabe a lot to weed through. So
it's sort of like we say in thespace, garbage in, garbage out.
That has to the knowledge has tobe gone through by a human being
to see what's valid and what'snot valid, what's current and
not current. So this idea ofjust hitting a button and it all
(10:33):
just sort of comes together,it'll do that. But is it even
usable? Because you could havefive return policies or 10
return policies inside what AIpulls together. Does that make
sense?
denise venneri (10:47):
Anything you say makes sense to me because it's
very knowledgeable. Yeah.Because you're very
knowledgeable. Misconception.Yeah.
Okay. I think I maybe can guessat some of them, but what are
some of the outcomes that maybeyou've seen or read about,
specifically?
vicki brackett (11:06):
Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously, our clients'
average handle time is reduced.That's that's a huge that's a
huge outcome because you don'thave to put your caller on hold.
For example, my husband recentlyretired. And so I called a cell
company and asked a questionthat probably nobody has ever
asked.
Do you have a senior citizendiscount? And the agent put me
on hold for eight minutes whilehe looked, and then he was super
(11:28):
nice, came back, and he said,could I put you on hold just a
few more minutes? I said, sure.Yeah. And twelve minutes later,
he came back, and he said, no,that they didn't, and we came up
with plan b.
But what was interesting is Iasked him, what when when you
put me on hold the first time,were you looking in your in your
knowledge base? And he said,yes. And when I said, when when
you put me on hold the secondtime, what were you doing? And
(11:49):
he said, oh, I was in on holdwith the support desk. So now
we're on we're on hold or we'retalking to the support desk for
twelve minutes plus the originaleight.
So just reduction in labor costsbecause of the reduced reduction
in average annual time.
denise venneri (12:03):
Average year of time. Okay. So that's one
outcome.
vicki brackett (12:07):
Another outcome, this was a financial services
company that had twelve weeks ofnew hire training. Because the
training methodology changeswhen you truly have a knowledge
management system, because youdon't have to teach agents how
to memorize. So this particularfinancial institution cut their
training from twelve weeks tothree weeks because you were
(12:28):
just training them on where togo look. And so think about
this. Think about training.
When you're you could actuallypipe in very I mean, live calls.
And the new agents and new hiretraining could actually be
following along and going to theknowledge management system. So
it helps them know where to goquickly without all these tests
(12:49):
and quizzes of memorization. Soyou can and the speedy
competency is another outcome.So not only can you reduce
average handle time, reducetraining time, the speed of
competency is huge, and the andthe agents feel more successful
faster.
Because think about it. Where'sthe biggest attrition? When you
when between training and thefloor, there's attrition in most
(13:11):
organizations because agents areoverwhelmed because there's so
much information they have tomemorize. That goes away. And
then there's mitigating risk,and that's huge.
So think about if you're with aCPG company, right, and someone
ingest something, and all of asudden, the customer's calling
into the contact center. Youhave to make sure everybody's on
(13:33):
the same page immediately. Youdon't have time to pull people
off the phone and give themtraining. You need to be able to
put it in the same place. And ifthey know where adverse
reactions are because they'vebeen trained to go there, it
doesn't matter if it's the legitches or someone is gonna be
their body's reacting in adifferent way because they know
where to go.
And that's the key. Somitigating risk, when you get
(13:54):
into court, you could literallythe legal department loves
knowledge management systemsbecause everything has an audit
trail. So they know exactly whenthe knowledge hit and when the
when the actual agent used thatpiece of knowledge. So it really
helps the legal department aswell and compliance as well,
being able to go back and knowwhen knowledge has been changed.
(14:16):
So these are huge outcomes fororganizations.
denise venneri (14:19):
Yeah. Does it take long to let's say you have
a a knowledge base you've beenusing for years and you're made
aware of what's out there. Youwant to upgrade a bit or lay in
AI is the integration time to dothat two months, three weeks? Or
(14:42):
does it depend?
vicki brackett (14:44):
It depends, and it depends on a number of
factors. Like, right now, wehave a client that has over
20,000 pieces of knowledge, andthey go back decades. So what
you really wanna do at bestpractices is the eighty twenty
rule. What are your key calldrivers or customer interaction
drivers? That's where you start.
(15:04):
And then you add the other 20 or30%. So you can stand these up
in weeks. You can stand them upin a few months. And sometimes
the software company will do animplementation. Knowledgely can
help with that, of course.
It really just depends on on howmuch knowledge you have and what
your key drivers are. It's it'sa pretty easy stand up if you've
(15:26):
got the team to do that. Andwhat I would also like to say is
one of the biggest challengethat CX and customer service
leaders have is that they go gettry to get a req to get to FTE
for their knowledge team becausemost contact centers don't have
a knowledge team. It usually ishoused with supervisors or in
the training and developmentarena. You're already you're
(15:50):
already have a support desk withSMEs.
You've already got yoursupervisors helping. You already
have the labors in there. Youjust gotta massage your
organizational structure, yourlabor dollars. There's no reason
to go get more FTE. And thisactually holds customer service
leaders back because they'retrying to get a new rack pushed
through for to FTE.
(16:10):
And there's just no reason to dothat.
denise venneri (16:13):
It makes more sense in your in your,
estimation to try to upgradeyour technology versus increase
your labor because that's moreof
vicki brackett (16:25):
a Absolutely. And the systems with AI now make
it so much easier to do and lessheavy lifting. And and really
what it's about governance. It'sabout hierarchy. It's about best
practice.
How do you author? Whichtemplates do you use? The
standard operating procedures.Right? Those are the key parts
of laying the foundation.
Authoring the knowledge is it'slike an assembly line. Once you
(16:49):
know what to do and and whatthat hierarchy and those
permissions and the SOPs looklike, then then it's a
relatively then it's justputting labor in it into it. And
your agents can help. You don'thave to go out and get expensive
labor.
denise venneri (17:05):
Interesting. Hey. Let's get let's get into a
little bit about, top line ofwhat your company knowledge. Ly,
can do for their clients and howwould people contact you if they
want to learn more?
vicki brackett (17:18):
Okay. I appreciate the opportunity
again, Denise. I love thissubject. I I was a CX leader for
over twenty years. Right?
So I I can see where this canbenefit, and that's what that's
what gets me up every day andgets me excited. So Knowledgely
has three different types ofservices, and it depends on what
you need. The first one is we doknowledge framework assessment.
(17:39):
So what are those workaroundscosting? For example, I have a
client in Texas, nine hundredagents.
They have 85 SMEs, four teamleaders, three supervisors, and
ops manager to a tune of over$4,000,000 a year to support
those 900 agents because theagents can't find the answers in
their SharePoint. So, you know,we come in and we do a framework
(18:02):
and say, you know, what is theseworkarounds costing you? Where
are the gaps? And so that's thefirst thing we do. And some
people just know they need asystem, and we can help them,
actually go through an RFP andand put together the business
requirements once we do thatthat that framework.
The second service is we havefractional knowledge managers.
So we meet a client wherethey're at. So you need someone
(18:23):
part time, full time, no longterm commitment to get your team
up and going, or elevate whatyou currently have, we can send
in one of our fractionalknowledge managers. And the
third, we have enterpriseknowledge teams where we just
come in and we do it for theclient. Those are the three
things that we do.
So anything knowledge inside ofa contact center, we're the
knowledge experts.
denise venneri (18:44):
Hence the name, knowledgely. What's the name?
It's a little hard to pronouncefor me. But I I think am I
saying it right? Knowledgely.
vicki brackett (18:53):
Knowledgely. Yeah. Just knowledgely at the
end of it. Knowledgely.com.Hello at knowledgely.com will
will will get us out onLinkedIn.
And by the way, we are postingknowledge nuggets a few times a
week, very, very small post thatyou can read in less than a
minute to give you a nuggetabout knowledge because it's a
complicated subject if you'renot used to thinking of it in in
(19:16):
the new way, the best practiceway. And so we're trying to
educate people in the space byputting out these knowledge
nuggets.
denise venneri (19:23):
I've seen those, Vicky. I think they're great,
and I love short and sweet. Ithink that's the way to go
sometimes. Alright. Well, sadly,we've come to the end.
Just wanted to say thank you somuch for your time. I appreciate
it.
vicki brackett (19:37):
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. A
lot of fun.
doug venneri (19:39):
You have been listening to the My Curious Pali
podcast with Denise Vanier.Thank you for your time.
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