Overview

Customer support is about knowledge. Diagnosing problems with knowledge from customers and solving them with knowledge from you the vendor.

Knowledge can be as simple as hearing "the computer won't boot up" and as simple as asking: "Did you plug it in?" Or knowledge can be as complex as determining that "the OS crashed" and replying, in the appropriate and apologetic tone (understanding that the customer has pulled out enough hairs to mimic Kelsey Grammar): "We've consulted with the OS vendor and we're going to write and upload a new application to fix it."

Customer support centers deliver the knowledge: from the customer to you, and from you to the customer. Therefore, 'knowledge delivery' is arguably a better term than "knowledge management" because you can't truly manage knowledge. But we also use the term "knowledge management" as it is still the currently commonly accepted terminology.

Knowledge is learning what is, what has worked and how to apply solutions. But knowledge also happens. Knowledge is that 'By Jove I think I got it!' mixture of hard work and/or insight. Knowledge is the rep or the customer realizing that the old solution doesn't apply in this case. Knowledge delivery, therefore, is acting on and applying what has been learned.

Here are the knowledge methods and the issues that impact their delivery.

The Knowledge Triangle

There are three legs to knowledge delivery: knowledge about the customer, knowledge about the product/service they have and knowledge to diagnose and solve the problem. Here's...