Organisational culture & Knowledge Management

Organisational culture

What are the embedded rules, beliefs and values in the organisation? For empowerment to take place, the organisational climate has to promote:

  • information sharing;
  • strategic conversation at all levels;
  • learning both hard and soft skills;
  • tolerance of first-time mistakes; and
  • recognition and encouragement
  • This means that the CEO has to empower her or his managers to cascade the empowerment process and stay with it. You can’t introduce it, pull back at the first difficulty, and then expect to re-introduce it with credibility. It’s an all or nothing thing. The good news is that bosses and workers canchange culture, perhaps even more easily than they can change themselves.
  • Pope Leo 13thoriginated the idea of subsidiary, which is closely linked to empowerment. He regarded it as an injustice, a disturbance of right order, a grave evil, for a higher level to usurp functions that could be performed efficiently at a lower level. Subsidiary means giving away power, building another’s confidence and capacity. It means supporting and nurturing. Failure to do so undermine prevents learning and is disempowering.

 

Empowerment relationship table

 

Knowledge Management

Contact centre support agents rarely have the knowledge (nor the time to collect the required knowledge) in order to resolve every customer’s request or query. This can cause serious problems for the contact centre as it strains to cope with workloads, and resultant customer service problems if:

  • the support agent guesses and makes a wrong on the spot decision or judgement
  • the agent has to apply a general rule or by-rote answer even if the specific customer’s case is an exception
  • too many calls have to be transferred to back-office specialists
  • too many calls are escalated
  • the support agent feels insufficiently competent and becomes de-motivated in the process

 

One very good way in which the sharing of relevant information can take place automatically and assist support agents to provide professional service to customers is the introduction of a Knowledge Management system. As explained by Michael Cusack [Online Customer Care. ASQ, Wisconsin. 1998), “Knowledge management is defined as the process that facilitates the support agent’s ability to quickly internalise, understand and act upon information that is relevant to a particular situation.

 

In other words, the system contains knowledge about problems, decisions, products, processes, specifications, that the support agent may access and use while interacting with the customer. It is a data base of answers to requests and queries.

 

For those handling customer interactions, the empowerment process begins in the training facility, and is usually augmented by on-the-job training and a continuation training curriculum. On a day-to-day operational basis, this process may rely on technology (in the form of off-the-shelf knowledge management systems and/or shared online information, such as Intranets and other systematic resources) to convey knowledge.

 

In the absence of an adequate technological solution, associates may rely solely on paper references, such as training materials, job aids, reference guides and cheat sheets, as well as on peers and designated subject matter experts. And herein we may find opportunities for significant service improvement: overall, there is little doubt that a knowledge management system should be far superior to using paper documentation in the customer service environment.

 

Yet suffice to say that many support agents find it easier to use an assortment of cheat sheets, job aids, reference manuals, brochures, and marketing fliers scattered around their desks, than to try to find the answer to a customer inquiry or complaint using the information available on the computer – if the system is hard to access, or if the information on it is unclear.

 

The proliferation of yellow “stick-it” sheets on the periphery of a support agent’s monitor are metaphorical tombstones which testify to the failure of an knowledge management system. There is no doubt that carefully designed, implemented and maintained systems result in a response rate which surpasses any hard copy reference material. It also ensures that every support agent has access to the same information.

 

The success of these systems, however, is directly proportional to the significance and credibility which management affords them, and subsequently the commitment and expertise of those who maintain them.”

 

Written Communication within an Organisation 

Written communication can sometimes have a greater business impact than verbal communication. Many people still put in writing what they consider to be only the most serious matters, so that they have an accurate record of what information they have offered to others.

 

As an agent you may handle various forms of written communication when you:

  • create and reply to external and internal e-mails;
  • create a historical report of details in the note-logging facility;
  • create regular mandatory and ad hoc reports for your team leader; and
  • create and receive memo instructions from your manager

 

It is helpful for you to become aware of the organisational context of your communications because they influence how you write and interpret messages. Communication in the organisation works in three ways, namely:

  • downward: managers communicate instructions down the line to the workforce, for example, to transmit organisational strategies and feedback of performance reviews;
  • sideways: agents communicate with each other in note-log transactions and inter-departmental communications to speed up a process or share ideas; and
  • upward: subordinates communicate ‘upward’ to the management group, for example, when they provide reports on performance, suggestions and feedback

 

According to Fielding, a communications consultant, the role of effective written communication is to have all people within the organisation create a supportive climate and keep each other informed.

 

Consider these critical implications when you write:

  • People working together create meaning. Words do not create meaning. Talk face to face whenever possible. Written communication can create distance.
  • Our message andthe way in which we phrase our messages give power to the communication. We should care enough to pay great attention to how we say things. This is as important as what we say.
  • Cultural diversity needs to be considered. An acceptable phase or expression in one culture may not be understood by another. The secret is to keep it simple and clear.

 

Tips on Communicating well within the Contact Centre

  • As a general rule, communicate what is essential for someone else to know; what isn’t essential but which they should know, and avoid sending irrelevant information or junk mail.

 

  • Choose the most appropriate communication means. E-mail is popular when workers spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Letters are better for conveying confidential information, and face-to-face communication must be the medium for discussing personal, sensitive issues. Written communications should never be used as a mechanism to escape from uncomfortable face-to-face meetings.

 

  • In contact centres, a customer’s history is available for anyone to read, but there are occasions when important log notes should be drawn to the attention of colleagues, for example, a serious complaint from a very valuable customer, or a series of complaints that point to a fault in a business process or product.
  • Only record pertinent information in the history transaction log. Your colleagues should not have to read through loads of waffle to extract the key facts. Invariably they will read this information while the customer is on line, so:
    • use short sentences to briefly record the facts;
    • describe the action that you have taken;
    • note the results achieved, including the customer’s reaction; and
    • clearly state further actions required from the next agent.

 

Remember that information from customers that you record may have to be retrieved by someone else (say on the next shift) in order to follow up with the customer and complete a transaction. You should adhere to the basic requirements of any information retrieval system – manual or computerised:

  • Accessibility (how long to retrieve, how easy?)
  • Integrate it with other knowledge (is this problem happening with other customers as well?)
  • Relevance (don’t include extraneous information – focus clearly on what needs to be recorded)
  • Clarity (easy to read and understand)
  • Accuracy (only the facts where possible, opinions and judgements only when appropriate)
  • Completeness (tell the full story, concisely)

 

Use Kipling’s five questions to obtain information from customers and to help you understand and therefore produce clear, complete messages for others:

I keep six honest serving men,

They taught me all I knew:

Their names are What and Why and When

And Where and How and Who.’

 

What do I want to achieve? Is it to inform, persuade, or record?

Why is it necessary to write? Do not just write for the sake of writing.

When will the message be read and when will the action take place?

Where will the information be read, internally or externally?

How will the reader react? Consider your tone and try to be courteous.

Who will be reading the information (personality type, authority level). Consider what they already know and what they still need to find out.

 

Your written communication and log history notes are written for a wide variety of people. Any one of the group could be picking up where you left off with the customer and therefore you need to cater for the group in your writing style.

 

The example below will hopefully bring home to you the importance of clarity:

 

What he wrote: One sentence = 56 words

‘This report is to provide a comprehensive review of the work in order to point out the importance of quality control, as it pertains to the movement of the product through a factory, and to outline the different stages of growth through which the means of coping with the problem have progressed during the last ten years’.

 

What he said: Three sentences = 36 words

‘This report has two aims: Firstly, it shows the importance of quality control of a product as it moves through the factory. Secondly, it outlines the growth stages of quality control during the last ten years’

 

According to Michael Fielding in his book Effective Communication in Organisations, three factors govern the note layout. It should be:

  • informative and stress the facts;
  • investigative, give results and recommend action; and
  • feasible, examine whether something can or can’t be done

 

Remember that by assisting your colleagues, you are assisting the customer. Here is a list of common phrases to assist you in keeping your writing simple and concise.

Use Instead of
Show Demonstrate
Stop Discontinue
Of or about In respect of
Can Is in the position of
Event Occurrence
Go Proceed
Please Would be grateful if you would
Avoid jargon and clichés Rather consider
A large portion of Many
Concerning About
Currently Now
Despite the fact that Although
In conjunction with With
In the course of During
On account of the fact that Because

 

NOTES – 1

customer phoned in to say that when he received his delivery it was after 2 and he they could not except this because the company close at two and in order to accept the load they have to have a person on overtime to wait there till the delivery is finished, the company is not prepare to do this, so the load was returned. Phoned yuppie at the depot, he was not informed about this and that he’s under the impression that the company closes at 4pm he will speak on the depot manager to arrange a drop for tomorrow.

NOTES – 2

bob the fm called to say that this customer was running dry and that the order was placed last we, contact Philip the was there on Friday to deliver but it was to big so the driver said that he will come later with a smaller truck. He forgot to inform the depot Philip has received a call and he will follow this up.

NOTES – 3

customers to find out why he did not take his last nights drop someone from the call centre had called him about 3 weeks ago and ask if he can take one drop per week there was an agreement that he will take on Thursdays only but it must be increased done.

NOTES – 4

Called depot the customers received product yesterday … checked system here as well delivery confirmed left message for rep on voice-mail.