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5 core KCS principles that have guided xFind’s product development

gpt-3 based customer support agent
Knowledge Centered Service, or KCS, methodology is all about helping businesses to better leverage the goldmine of information and customer insights that they already possess. xFind was founded for the same reason, and in fact KCS’s core principles have guided the development of xFind. In honor of recently becoming KCS v6 Aligned, we’d like to share the five core KCS principles that have inspired our product roadmap at xFind...
gpt-3 based customer support agent

Knowledge Centered Service, or KCS, methodology is all about helping businesses to better leverage the goldmine of information and customer insights that they already possess. xFind was founded for the same reason, and in fact KCS’s core principles have guided the development of xFind. In honor of recently becoming KCS v6 Aligned, we’d like to share the five core KCS principles that have inspired our product roadmap at xFind:

Abundance

When people share knowledge generously and widely in a knowledge-led organization, the entire organization becomes more productive and efficient. 

This requires there to be an ample knowledge base, for the items within there to be relevant and helpful, and for people to be able to find them quickly in the moment of need. If the knowledge can’t be located at the right time, it may as well not exist. 

xFind is a crucial enabler of this principle: the solution pushes the right knowledge to the right person at the right time, so they can use and share knowledge more precisely, efficiently, and in greater volume.

xFind is KCS Aligned

Creating value

The KCS principle of creating value is linked to being part of a larger organization, and acknowledging that when employees solve cases, the knowledge of those cases can be useful for others who are dealing with similar issues.

xFind builds on this principle by simplifying the process of connecting items to cases, so it takes just a click to attach a knowledge item to a case for someone else to use in the future, or to flag knowledge items because they require an improvement or update to become a fully useful resource. These simplified actions, as well as manager facing dashboards with data on knowledge item use, helps knowledge users and producers to know which knowledge is creating value, and to create additional knowledge that has more value for the entire organization.

Users linking solution items to the case

Responding to demand

Although knowledge creation is a vital part of knowledge management, it’s important for enterprises to focus on producing knowledge that is actually needed. This means avoiding duplicating items that already exist (which happens around 20% of the time), as well as ensuring that new content items address topics that are truly pertinent to customers’ and agents’ concerns. 

xFind’s automated search capabilities help knowledge teams gain a more accurate understanding of the knowledge that already exists, and makes sure that the knowledge that does exist is put into use. The xFind platform also makes it possible for agents to flag incomplete items or the need for new ones in real time, based on the case they are serving, so that knowledge gaps are filled as quickly as possible. 

In addition, xFind’s trend analytics give managers a wider, deeper, and more granular view of the trends in incoming customer issues without relying on inaccurate tagging of cases. This enables managers to detect knowledge gaps in the trends, and which issues require new or updated customer facing knowledge. Managers can also use xFind to track when certain knowledge items are accessed, how they are used, and which types of people use which ones, delivering richer insights into user needs. 

xFind results appearing right in time

Engendering trust

Another core KCS principle concerns trusting knowledge workers to make decisions about content creation. Knowledge generation can’t be micromanaged; rather, managers need to trust that their employees understand what knowledge is needed and will create content that delivers value. 

xFind promotes this trust by empowering the support agents with the tools they need in real time to reach and to update knowledge. In addition, xFind improves manager visibility into existing knowledge and gaps, helping managers feel more confident about their employees’ decisions.

As AI-based tools become more ubiquitous over time, another important area of trust that xFind helps develop is in the human-AI interaction. xFind encourages support teams to trust intelligent systems in helping them optimize their work flows and knowledge creation processes. 

Supporting transformation and continuous improvement

Last but not least, xFind responds to the KCS core concept of transformation and continuous improvement. On the simplest level, by providing agents and managers with the tools to detect and act upon gaps in the knowledge base, xFind ensures that teams resolve those gaps ASAP. 

But going deeper, as the platform tracks existing knowledge and interactions, it gains awareness of the enterprise’s needs on an organizational level, producing insights that help the entire organization improve. 

By following the customer interactions, xFind learns to understand the voice of the customer and shares it with the organization allowing customer support taking a proactive approach. It discovers what customers like and dislike in the product, what issues should be fixed and tweaks should be made, so that the company can stay one step ahead of the customer. 

How does xFind advance KCS methodologies?

xFind removes the friction that accompanies traditional search capabilities, which are keyword query and manual tagging focused. Our solution uses unique contextual artificial intelligence (AI) to scan and analyze all the available enterprise information, and automatically surfaces the relevant knowledge, whether it’s located in a blog post, previous customer support ticket, organizational knowledge base, community forum thread, etc. 

Whether a support agent is hunting for answers for a customer, the product team is investigating the biggest pain points to improve in the product, a new hire is seeking instructions for a company process, or a customer is self-serving, xFind understands what they are looking for and pushes it towards them. This saves time and aggravation for employees and customers alike, improving customer experience and employee engagement. 

In this way, xFind helps remove knowledge blind spots and optimizes the knowledge flow, making it easy for teams to integrate KCS methodologies and techniques into their workflows. xFind also streamlines the process of flagging and fixing incomplete content, thereby removing obstacles to a complete and comprehensive knowledge catalog.

Improving knowledge management with xFind and KCS v6

Together, xFind and other tools aligned with KCS v6 methodologies help organizations to optimize their knowledge management practices. KCS helps enterprises to holistically improve experience for employees and customers alike, opening up access to insights and solutions at every touchpoint and cutting friction for interactions with the company. xFind smooths the path for companies looking to adopt KCS best practices into their workflows, lowering the bar to full KCS implementation. 

Come talk KCS with us at the Consortium for Service Innovation Member Summit! We’ll be there, will you?