The key to the success of any company is the possession of knowledge. It is centered not only around their own goal and methodology of achieving it but, more importantly, knowledge about their customers' demands. This is especially true for a service-based company. The way that a company's customer service executives deliver solutions to their customers' queries depends upon their understanding of the system they work with. This has led to uncountable companies opting for the knowledge-centered support methodology, also known as Knowledge-Centered  Service (KCS).

KCS explained

The motto of KCS is to regard knowledge as a business asset rather than just a trait that employees possess. KCS is a methodology wherein customer service agents and support teams offer solutions to their customers, employees, and existing systems. Parallelly, they organize and collate the said data to maintain a database and improve their service.  With a tangible existence of already encountered hassles, the job of future agents is simplified.

For instance, if an agent runs into a conflict with a customer, he/she can first check the database to see if such a problem has been dealt with before. If yes, the same solution can be resorted to resolve the issue. If not, new strategies can be used to troubleshoot the issue and thereby document this event for further reference.

The same example applies to problem management. When a problem is faced, the team consults with the existing documentation and uses reliable processes to resolve it.

To summarize, KCS is a means to consolidate and elucidate the problem-solving skills and practices of experienced teams and use them as a textbook to refer to by new employees to improve upon customer relations. This was brought into action after realizing that relying solely on memory and personal problem-solving skills had become obsolete and more time-consuming. Presently, all major companies utilize this scheme to smoothen their functioning.

Key traits of KCS

There are four textbook traits of KCS which allow it to be used as a tool for demonstrating knowledge:

• Abundance: This maintains that the more people that create and document their strategies by solving problems, the more enriched the company's knowledge base will be.
• Value creation: KCS methodologies ensure that workers do not entirely get drawn into the task at hand as an independent function. Rather, they should think of the company's ideals while doing so to serve a greater purpose.
• Demand-driven: The knowledge database that is created always pertains to existing and plausible problems that may arise within or towards the company. The goal is to have an answer ready for any question that may pop up during the company's functioning.
• Trust: The KCS model empowers those who can come up with good strategies consistently and who have an understanding of the content standard and workflow model. This shows the trust that has been placed in the hands of those employees.

How to implement KCS?

1.   Gather knowledge: The basis of KCS is formed from customer interactions. The more clarity an agent is able to allude to a customer's issue, the more detailed and informative articles he/she will be able to write. A series of questions and feedback must be incorporated in order to understand the problem deeply and aim to resolve it as well as document it.

2.   Structure knowledge: The article should be categorized into different sections which would answer different aspects of an issue. A specific template may be used comprising sections such as problem, underlying cause, solution, prevention, FAQs, and additional manuals.

3.   Refer to knowledge: A problem is bound to resurface and demand the attention of agents. The existing documents should be easily accessible so the agents can refer to them and not waste time manually solving each problem. When a library of solutions exists, it assists customers and agents simultaneously and eases the latter's job.

4.  Enhance knowledge: The knowledge database is ever-growing, with it being continuously updated by more input from employees working on the same problem that was once encountered. There is also a sense of teamwork that stems from this strategy as the solutions are an amalgamation of different individuals and thought processes and hence, are quite diverse.

Benefits of KCS

The implementation of KCS brings about an overall improvement in the functioning of a company by strengthening certain elements. 

1. Better resolution times: With an existing account of a technical/non-technical complication, customer care agents would be able to offer solutions in a shorter amount of time by resorting to the relevant document.
2. Reduction in training period: Tremendous amount of resources and time goes behind training new employees to execute a particular function. With KCS in force, the training process of employees could be shortened and less rigorous, as they would have an easier way of learning about their function. This could result in profits for the company overall in the long run.  
3. Better operational efficiency: As a combined impact of the aforementioned benefits, the company's operational efficiency involuntarily follows an upward curve. As more knowledge is incorporated into practical work plans, efficiency follows suit. The art of reviving and reusing older knowledge and adding to it helps maximize the company's benefits.
4. Enhanced employee performance: The reliance on a set of pre-established manuals eases the workload on employees, resulting in better performance and enhanced necessary skills. This process also leads to higher employee satisfaction and, thus, better retention rates, which always reflects wonderfully on a company.   
5. Improved customer relationships: The KCS model aims to help those in need, when in need, swiftly. When prior incidents are documented, the scope of self-service is enabled. This foregoes the necessity to look for an individual who is specialized in a particular field of work to deal with the situation. Customers thus find solutions to their predicament right away while the agents are able to focus their time and effort on more novel difficulties.
6. Organizational development: Ultimately, because of all the benefits that arise out of KCS implementation, there is often an increase in the revenue generated by the company. This is due to the trends that are observed as a result of the usage of KCS, which allows the experts to assess the problems underlying the company at a root level and take necessary measures. This leads to a surge in productivity and success of individual employees as well as the company.

Expanding on the knowledge vault can prove to be beneficial for any organization, and KCS is the key to that vault. If someone is still wondering to themselves as to what the importance of KCS is, it can be simply summed up as 'happy customers, satisfied employees, and a successful company.