18 Must-Bookmark Resources for Mastering Knowledge Centered Support (KCS)

As a sales or marketing professional, you know how critical it is to provide exceptional customer support. After all, 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service. But consistently delivering fast, effective support is difficult as your business grows and cases become more complex.

Enter Knowledge Centered Support (KCS), a transformative methodology for creating, maintaining, and leveraging organizational knowledge. By implementing KCS best practices, your customer service team can stop reinventing the wheel and start collectively building and reusing knowledge to solve issues faster.

Not sure where to begin with KCS? We‘ve compiled the ultimate list of 18 KCS resources to guide you through everything from the fundamentals to the nitty gritty of implementation and training. Bookmark these sites, guides, and tools to become an expert in all things KCS.

What is Knowledge Centered Support?

Let‘s start with the basics. Knowledge Centered Support, or KCS, is a set of practices for integrating the creation and maintenance of knowledge into the customer support process. Developed by the Consortium for Service Innovation, KCS builds on research finding that 80-90% of support cases are often resolved by knowledge.

The goal of KCS is to systematically capture the collective experience of an organization to create a knowledge base that evolves with the customer‘s needs. Key tenets of the methodology include:

  • Knowledge is a by-product of solving customer issues, not a separate activity
  • The creation and maintenance of knowledge must be fully integrated into the support workflow
  • Knowledge is evolving and should be continuously improved based on demand and usage
  • Knowledge is owned collectively by those who use it, not by a separate team or manager

When knowledge flows efficiently between customers, support agents, and the knowledge base, companies enjoy a range of benefits including improved resolution times, increased employee confidence, and happier customers. In fact, case studies show that support organizations that implement KCS see improved first contact resolution by 25% to 60%.

The KCS Solve Loop and Evolve Loop

At the heart of KCS are two linked process loops that support teams use to create, maintain, and improve knowledge:

KCS Solve Loop and Evolve Loop
Source: Consortium for Service Innovation

The Solve Loop

The Solve Loop is the reactive process that agents go through as they resolve customer issues using the knowledge base. There are four steps in the Solve Loop:

  1. Capture – When a customer issue arises, the agent searches the knowledge base for relevant articles. If none exist, the agent captures the new problem and its context.
  2. Structure – The agent documents the resolution to the issue in a knowledge article, following content guidelines for format, style, and metadata.
  3. Reuse – Once published, the new article can be searched and reused by agents to resolve similar cases more efficiently in the future.
  4. Improve – As the article is reused, agents can flag improvements or add new information based on the experience of using the knowledge.

The Evolve Loop

While the Solve Loop is about "doing" knowledge, the Evolve Loop is about improving the health and maturity of the KCS system itself. It includes:

  1. Content Health – The organization defines standards and processes for assessing and improving the quality of knowledge articles.
  2. Process Integration – KCS workflows and techniques are embedded into the tools and interfaces that support agents use every day.
  3. Performance Assessment – Metrics are put in place to evaluate the creation, use, and effectiveness of knowledge at the individual and team level.
  4. Leadership & Communication – KCS adoption is driven by coaches, champions, and leaders who engage stakeholders and communicate vision and value.

The Evolve Loop isn‘t a one-time event, but an iterative process of assessing the current state of knowledge, making improvements, and evolving based on new learnings.

Implementing KCS: What Research Shows

Adopting KCS involves both philosophical and tactical changes for an organization. But the effort is well worth it based on industry research:

However, implementing KCS is not a quick fix, but a journey. Research from TSIA shows that KCS adoption progresses through 5 phases over the course of 2 to 5 years:

KCS Adoption Phase Description
Phase 1 – Aware The organization is aware of KCS and considering implementation.
Phase 2 – Adopting The organization plans a KCS implementation and begins using some techniques, typically on a limited scope.
Phase 3 – Leveraging The organization optimizes core KCS practices, measures benefits, and expands across teams and functions.
Phase 4 – Optimizing The KCS workflow is automated and integrated with key systems and processes. Self-service is in place.
Phase 5 – Leading KCS is second nature. The organization uses double-loop learning and strategic frameworks to improve knowledge management.

To progress through these maturity phases, companies must have the right mix of strategy, people, process, and technology. Investing in KCS training is one of the most impactful steps you can take to accelerate this evolution.

KCS Training and Certification Options

Training is key to aligning your organization around KCS principles and practices. Formal KCS certification, administered by the KCS Academy, is available for individuals looking to lead KCS initiatives.

Some common training and certification paths include:

KCS v6 Fundamentals

An entry-level certification for individuals who need a basic understanding of KCS to participate in or support an implementation. The exam covers the core concepts and benefits of the methodology. Expect to spend 4-6 hours preparing for this certification.

KCS v6 Practices

A certification for those who will be directly adopting and applying KCS practices, such as support agents, knowledge managers, and KCS program managers. The exam covers the eight KCS practices in depth. Candidates should have 3-6 months of hands-on KCS experience. Preparation takes around 20-30 hours.

KCS v6 Coach

A program for experienced KCS practitioners or managers who want to mentor and support a team in adopting KCS. Coach candidates must have passed the KCS v6 Practices exam and have at least 9 months of KCS experience. Coaches are expected to take a leadership role in driving KCS transformation.

The KCS Academy offers a robust set of educational resources, including self-paced online training, in-person workshops, exams, and simulations. For large support organizations, certifying at least a few individuals is well worth the investment to facilitate a successful rollout.

Putting KCS Into Practice: 6 Tips

As a sales or marketing professional tasked with improving customer support, you may be eager to dive into KCS – and rightfully so given the benefits we‘ve covered! But don‘t go in blind. Here are six tips to keep in mind as you implement KCS:

  1. Get leadership on board. Adopting KCS requires a culture shift, so it‘s critical to have leadership buy-in and sponsorship. Help executives understand the expected ROI of KCS, such as increased customer satisfaction and agent efficiency.

  2. Crawl, walk, run. Implementing KCS is not an overnight change. Start with a pilot group to test out KCS practices, gather feedback, and showcase early wins before expanding to the broader organization.

  3. Integrate KCS with your tools. KCS isn‘t just a process, but a way of working. Embed KCS workflows, templates, and knowledge base search into your CRM, case management, and self-service portals to make knowledge capture and reuse second nature.

  4. Make everyone a knowledge worker. In a KCS environment, knowledge is everyone‘s job. Set the expectation that all support agents should be searching, flagging, and creating knowledge articles as part of their daily work. Use coaching and gamification to foster a knowledge-sharing culture.

  5. Obsess over knowledge health. The success of KCS depends on the quality and findability of your knowledge base. Establish clear article templates and style guides. Use knowledge base analytics to prune or improve underutilized content. And don‘t forget to get customer feedback on your knowledge!

  6. Measure and evolve. Define KCS success metrics upfront, such as reduced resolution times, improved first contact resolution rate, and case deflection via self-service. Track these metrics regularly and look for opportunities to fine-tune your KCS practices based on the data.

One final tip: start small and keep the faith. Shifting to a KCS model can feel like a heavy lift, but stick with it. With the right training, processes, and iteration, you‘ll be amazed at the results you can achieve.

Keep Exploring: 18 Killer KCS Resources

By now, you‘re hopefully pumped to put KCS into action! To support you on your journey, we‘ve rounded up the 18 most helpful and comprehensive KCS resources out there:

KCS Fundamentals:

  1. KCS Principles and Core Concepts: A high-level introduction to the KCS methodology
  2. KCS Adoption Guide: A comprehensive handbook for planning and executing a KCS implementation
  3. KCS Frequently Asked Questions: Common questions and answers about getting started with KCS

KCS Training:
4. KCS Academy: The official source for KCS training and certification resources
5. KCS v6 Practices Guide: An in-depth look at the 8 practices in the Solve and Evolve Loops
6. Getting Leadership Buy-In for KCS: Tips for communicating the value and ROI of KCS to executives

KCS Metrics:
7. KCS Metrics Guide v2: A detailed guide to defining, tracking, and interpreting KCS success metrics
8. Metrics for Success with Knowledge Management: Industry benchmarks for KCS performance
9. The Power of Metrics: 3 Types of Metrics for Your KM Program: An overview of real-time, historical, and predictive KCS metrics

KCS Tools & Templates:
10. KCS Article Quality Checklist: A tool for assessing knowledge article quality and findability
11. The KCS Evolve Loop Health Check Process: A template for performing an Evolve Loop health check
12. KCS Coach Role & Responsibilities Assessment: A guide for defining the KCS Coach role in your organization

KCS Case Studies:
13. Agilent Technologies‘ KCS Journey: How a scientific instruments company decreased case volume by 12% using KCS
14. Nutanix Gets Proactive with Knowledge Centered Service: How a cloud computing company increased self-service success by 400%
15. Infosys‘ KCS Success in Technical Support: How a global IT consulting firm achieved 38% improvement in resolution time using KCS

Industry Research on KCS:
16. The State of Knowledge Management 2019: TSIA‘s annual report on knowledge management practices and trends
17. Gartner‘s Market Guide for Knowledge Management for Customer Service 2021: An analyst perspective on the KM and KCS vendor landscape
18. Collective Wisdom: Transforming Support with Knowledge: A compilation of research and thought leadership on KCS

Bonus: KCS Software Guides

We hope these resources empower you to implement KCS in your customer service organization. Knowledge is power, and by harnessing it, you can create a force multiplier for support efficiency and customer success. Go forth and KCS!

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