RE: Does anyone know of any groups that specialize in Customer Service/Agent call center knowledgebase writing?

["Connie Giordano" <connie -at- therightwordz -dot- com>]

I have to agree with John on this one.  Yes know your audience is key, but
the audience needs are extremely different.  Call center/technical support
agents are driven by metrics that emphasize fast access to KB articles,
ability to quickly determine relevance, etc.  Call handle times, first
contact resolution and other customer service metrics drive the structure of
the knowledge base, SEO optimization, categorization/taxonomy of articles,
and article content itself. 

I've worked on several call center projects over the past two years,
including redesigning the agents' knowledge bases, and I've never been able
to find a group that addresses KM and content management specifically, so I
end up relying on a combination of techwr-l, KM groups, and customer service
blogs and such, and then perform the mental mashups necessary to provide
those clients with workable solutions.

John if you find such a group, please let us know, I'd sign up in heartbeat!

Regards,


Connie P. Giordano, MA
The Right Words of NC, LLC
Communications & Information Design
http://www.therightwords.com

704.540.9985
704.957.8450 (m)
connie -at- therightwords -dot- com

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney




-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+connie=therightwordz -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+connie=therightwordz -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of John Posada
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2010 10:23 AM
To: Eric J. Ray
Cc: techwr-l
Subject: Re: Does anyone know of any groups that specialize in Customer
Service/Agent call center knowledgebase writing?

>> This is a specialized type of writing with specialized considerations.
>>
> Interesting. How so? (I'm racking my brain to come up with ways this
> writing differs from standard, know-thy-audience, modular, etc., tech
> writing.)

You're right...those are the considerations.

Let's talk about how to structure a content that is delivered to
external customers and to internal telephone support agents. I'm not
talking about generalities and maxims, but specifics, and after having
done 3 months of studying this, some of the rules would surprise
you..they did me.

How about interpreting the results of Google Analytics, such as bouce
rate as it pertains to those external customers and how to restructure
the article to change the rate favorably?

How about SEO? How about article construction for delivery by Chat?
Automated email? SMS?

So, sure, Eric...know-thy-audience and such are the general
considerations. However, the elements specific to this environment are
different than other types of writing, just like api writing and
software documentation are different from this and from each other.

And yes, there are lists for SEO, as there are for any of the eother
elements. However, a list on Knowledgemanagement for this environment
would have them together.

Don't worry, I'm not going away, I just need access to those who
actualy have the specific answers to this type of writing also.

-- 
John Posada
http://jposada.zenfolio.com/
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