been a technology consultant, banker and business strategist for the last
Search, But Do They Find? 18 years. At KNOVA,
he’s responsible for constructing tailored service resolution management By Nitin Badjatia, Enterprise Solutions Architect, KNOVA solutions for KNOVA Nitin Badjatia customers. Badjatia joined KNOVA in 2004 through a merger with ServiceWare Technologies. Read more from him at his weblog, “Thought Stream”, www.nitinbadjatia.com. O ftentimes when customers come to your website, they are there to find an answer to technology must be robust enough to inter- pret the keywords and present results that an issue—a resolution to a problem. Many contain similar terms or concepts. Such companies seem to think that attaching a ro- contextualized results reflect a knowledge reduces the result set and improves the bust search engine to a content source is management approach to enterprise search. speed to resolution. enough to do the trick. By returning results that have concepts that But companies that consider customer are common to the query, your customer’s Successful Search Depends on self-service a strategic asset see that chances of a speedy resolution increase inbound customer exception in a different Robust Content substantially. light. They realize that customers don’t want That search box must also understand Even the most dynamic search technol- to search for the best result; rather they want that many queries are best answered by ogy is dependent on a robust set of content to find a resolution, and find it quickly. It invoking a process, not just returning search sources. Your customers can’t find content may state the obvious, but it is important to results. For example a customer may initi- that isn’t reachable. Often overlooked when note that, while issue resolution must incor- ate a request that asks for “password reset.” considering search technology, content porate a robust search technology, that tech- ultimately makes the search experience nology must also be intelligent enough to dynamic and productive for your customers. interpret the underlying meaning of the cus- Simply exposing product manuals, techni- tomer query. Furthermore, a holistic view of “Customers cal notes and formally authored content to issue resolution also considers the nature of a search engine is not sufficient. Dynamic the content that customers are presented, content management involves an ongoing and empowers your organization to proac- don’t want to analysis of customer queries to better under- tively monitor and perfect the resolutions stand where content gaps exist and aligning presented to customers. content management processes to help close That simple text entry box, which usu- search for the best those gaps. ally is prominently displayed on every page By enabling a true knowledge manage- of your website, has a daunting task. When ment-driven search process, customer sup- a customer enters a search term, typically result; rather they port administrators should be empowered to no more than two to three words, that box analyze search query data and proactively must launch a query into available content focus on developing new content, or improv- sources to find the right answer as quickly want to find a ing existing content, to increase the number and efficiently as possible. On a typical of successful resolutions for customers. website, the underlying enterprise search The goal for your customers is finding engine scours your content sources, and resolution, and find the right answer. The goal for your organi- presents the best possible documents that zation should be providing that right answer reflect the queried terms. This is not much in a fast, accurate and consistent manner different than popular Web search tools. it quickly.” through a dynamic knowledge management Customers are left to fend for themselves process. By integrating a robust enterprise and interpret which query result actually search with a proactive content creation and provides the best possible resolution to their Instead of returning a set of results, the maintenance process, you’ll be able to request. In today’s competitive environ- search box should understand the purpose deliver on the customer’s expectation of ment, leaving customers to fend for them- of that query, and spawn the password reset finding the right answers quickly. selves is not enough. process, or resolution wizard. As with con- KNOVA, a Consona CRM solution, maximizes the value textualized search, speed to resolution is the of every interaction throughout the customer lifecycle. Understanding the real key to success. Built on an adaptive search and knowledge management When the query submitted into the platform, KNOVA’s suite of applications integrates with Customer’s Query CRM implementations to help companies increase rev- search box is considered too broad, which For leading customer-service organiza- is often the case with single-word queries, enues, reduce service costs and improve customer satis- tions, that text entry box needs to be smart the underlying technology can improve faction. Industry leaders including AOL, Ford, HP, Novell, McAfee and H&R Block rely on KNOVA’s award-winning enough to interpret the purpose of the cus- speed to resolution by not only providing service resolution management applications to power an tomer query. In some instances, query the best possible content, but also by topi- intelligent customer experience on their websites and terms are not exact matches to terms within cal categorization of relevant content. Con- within their contact centers. For more information, visit your content. In these cases, the underlying tent that is clustered, acting as a filter, www.knova.com.