Experience Exchange: Knowledge management can turn disorder into direction

In a world overflowing with data, many organizations find themselves stumbling over the simplest truth: they don't really know their customers. 

Despite heavy investments in analytics, essential insights buried within unstructured data — including ones that fuel genuine connections — often get lost in the noise. This gap can lead to missed opportunities, frustrating customer experiences, and ultimately, lost revenue.

If poor data quality is the silent killer of customer experience (CX), then knowledge management deserves recognition as the silent driver of its success.

The critical role of knowledge management

During the latest Experience Exchange on LinkedIn, Tom Lewis, SVP of Consulting at TTEC Digital, and Colin Kennedy, founder of Shelf, discussed how effective knowledge management is no longer just a back-office function; it’s a key driver of customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. 

“I've been in the CX consulting space for a very long time, and knowledge management always ended up at the back of the bus — out of date, unorganized, siloed,” says Tom. “But what I keep hearing lately is: [Knowledge management] is actually the key to the castle when it comes to leveraging unstructured data to improve the customer and agent experience.”

When organizations prioritize understanding their customers — not just their buying habits but their needs, desires, and pain points — they empower their teams to make informed decisions that enhance customer interactions.

Diving below the surface 

Too many businesses rely on surface-level data like purchase history, email open rates, and demographics to inform their customer experience (CX) strategies. While this information provides a snapshot of customer behavior, it lacks the depth needed to truly understand customer motivations or predict future needs. Surface-level data can show you what a customer did, but it doesn’t explain why they did it or how they felt during the interaction.

What businesses often overlook is the rich, unstructured data that holds the key to deeper insights. Data from customer service interactions, open-ended survey responses, social media posts, and even voice recordings can reveal valuable information about customer preferences, frustrations, and desires. This unstructured data offers context — helping companies understand not just what their customers are doing, but why they’re doing it, what they care about, and how to improve their experiences moving forward.

For example, a company may see from surface-level data that a customer frequently abandons their shopping cart. But without diving into unstructured data — like customer service chat logs or feedback from exit surveys — the company might miss crucial details about the customer’s pain points, such as confusing navigation or unclear pricing information.

By analyzing these richer data sources, companies can identify patterns and trends in customer behavior, anticipate their needs, and address pain points more effectively. This enables organizations to go beyond generic marketing messages and deliver personalized experiences that resonate with customers more deeply. As a result, businesses not only enhance customer satisfaction but also foster long-term loyalty and differentiation in the market.

As Colin highlighted, “Getting knowledge right is one of the few things that can actually lift multiple tides. If you find the way to deliver the right information at the right time to the right person, then you have a happier customer and a more empowered agent.”

Tackling information atrophy

As Colin pointed out, “It's this natural condition that exists in our world that things tend to degrade over time.” Data, he adds, is no exception. 

Over time, knowledge — whether in the form of documents, guidelines, or training materials — naturally becomes outdated or irrelevant. This degradation, often called “information atrophy,” occurs when information isn’t regularly reviewed and updated. As a result, knowledge systems can become cluttered with obsolete or inaccurate content, rendering them less useful for both agents and customers.

For many companies, information atrophy is a major challenge, especially as they manage large volumes of unstructured data. Kennedy highlighted that maintaining and continuously auditing these vast knowledge systems is often difficult because of the sheer amount of information involved. He explained, “There’s never been a magic bullet for this... but generative AI brought this problem to the surface and is now helping to solve it.”

Generative AI has become a game-changer in addressing information atrophy by automating the process of auditing and updating knowledge systems. Instead of relying on manual updates, AI can scan and flag outdated or inconsistent information in real time, ensuring agents always have access to accurate and relevant content. This is crucial for maintaining effective customer interactions because up-to-date information allows agents to resolve issues faster and provide more precise responses — key factors in boosting customer satisfaction. 

But it’s not just about technology — listening also plays a critical role in tackling information atrophy. Colin emphasized, “We can take analytics and diagnostics and combine that with the Voice of the Agent to continually set a flywheel of improvement around the content.” 

By integrating both employee and customer feedback into knowledge management efforts, organizations can create a continuous loop of refinement. This process not only enhances customer experience but also improves the agent experience. Agents who know their feedback leads to meaningful updates become more engaged, improving their productivity and customer relationships.

Building a competitive advantage 

Organizations that invest in knowledge management gain a significant competitive edge by not only understanding their customers better but also anticipating their needs and addressing problems before they escalate. Kennedy emphasized this, noting, “When you do knowledge management right, you’re not just improving one area — you’re empowering agents, enhancing customer interactions, and driving key business outcomes.”

Effective knowledge management equips agents with the right information at the right time, allowing them to handle customer queries more efficiently and accurately. This proactive approach helps businesses go beyond just resolving issues — it enables them to provide personalized, frictionless experiences that can build customer loyalty and improve overall satisfaction.

Colin shared one instance involving a Fortune 500 company that was struggling to meet its service level agreements (SLAs), even after trying multiple traditional solutions. Despite implementing agent training programs, optimizing call queues, and refining workforce management, the company still couldn’t meet its targets for first-contact resolution.

The breakthrough came when they overhauled their knowledge management strategy. By ensuring agents had easy access to up-to-date and relevant information, the company saw a significant improvement in first-contact resolution rates and overall SLA performance. This shift didn’t just resolve the immediate issues — it transformed how agents worked, leading to more efficient operations, better customer experiences, and a stronger bottom line.

Embracing change

As customer preferences change quickly, knowledge management can’t just be a one-time fix. It requires ongoing updates and a commitment to listening to customer feedback. 

Colin pointed out that when GPT-3.5 was first released, many thought knowledge management was becoming irrelevant. However, it soon became clear that organizations needed to understand and manage the information stored in their knowledge bases. He emphasized, "You need to be able to govern this, get a handle on what we have, and figure out what we can use." In this context, he noted that traditional methods and technologies are often insufficient, stating, “You need to have a proactive posture if you're actually going to advance these initiatives."

This proactive approach is essential for organizations that want to succeed in a competitive market. Companies need to create a flexible knowledge management strategy that adapts to the changing needs of their customers. This means using advanced technologies like generative AI to automate tasks and gain deeper insights from customer interactions. As Colin highlighted, “Generative AI has brought this problem to the surface and is now helping solve it.” 

With AI automating the auditing of knowledge systems, businesses can ensure their data stays accurate and usable. This gives agents the confidence to resolve issues faster and deliver stronger customer interactions.

Advancing your knowledge management strategy

To understand the health of your current knowledge management effort, you should ask yourself:

• How well do you know your customers’ needs?
• Are you using their feedback to improve your knowledge base?
• Are your agents equipped with the right tools to build loyalty?

The answers to these questions will reveal whether your knowledge management strategy is empowering your teams to deliver exceptional customer experiences — or leaving them to navigate in the dark. 

To succeed in this field, you must prioritize continuous updates, leverage AI to keep knowledge fresh, and, perhaps most crucially, tap into unstructured data that holds the key to deeper customer insights. 

When you do this, your customers will feel genuinely understood — a sentiment that can transform ordinary interactions into lasting relationships. Plus, organizations that embrace this approach to knowledge management don’t just remain competitive; they set the standard — becoming the benchmark that others aspire to reach.