What team goals would you recommend for KCS adopters in Support?
What are the recommended team goals for organizations adopting KCS in their support operations? This question is often asked by those who have recently received KCS training.
What KCS states?
While there is a wealth of information and theory available about KCS, many people still need guidance on where to start and how to measure progress.
Let's recap what KCS suggests about setting goals:
Let's recap what KCS suggests about setting goals:
KCS rULE
Set goals for Outcomes, Not Activities!
However, despite this statement, many people still make mistakes when it comes to setting goals. They tend to focus on activity-based Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are easily measurable, such as the number of:
- created articles
- modified articles
- reused articles
- flagged article
- published articles.
While it is important to measure the metrics above at the support management level, they should not be set as goals for individual agents.
Outcome-based goals
Instead, the recommended approach is to set outcome-based goals at both the team and agent levels
1. Standard operational goals
Even if you are starting to implement KCS, you shouldn't forget about the standard operational goals that you need to keep an eye on for both agents and the team level.
- Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Improving CSAT should remain the primary goal for any support organization, regardless of KCS implementation.
- First Contact Resolution (FCR): The availability of good articles in the knowledge base can help resolve more tickets with the first response. Monitoring FCR per article can provide insights into the effectiveness of articles in addressing customer issues.
2. Accuracy and content quality
- Link Accuracy: Assessing how accurately agents link articles to tickets and ensuring relevancy and absence of duplicates is crucial for evaluating the quality of the KCS process.
- Content Health (Article Quality Index - AQI): Measuring the quality of published content helps maintain high standards. While collecting customer feedback (CSAT) is recommended, internal quality checks play a significant role in evaluating content.
Knowledge Base
Content Health Check
Run Content Health Check process in your helpdesk seamlessly
3. KCS process adherence
- Link Rate: While not set as a goal for individual agents, tracking the overall link rate in combination with link accuracy provides insights into how well the KCS process is being followed
If the link rate is low, it's important to identify the agents responsible and discuss their link accuracy. Addressing the low link rate ensures the validity of link accuracy as a goal.
4. Team Capacity
Tracking the team's ability to handle more tickets with the same resources indicates the benefits of KCS. Improving team capacity by at least 20% is a key benefit, but it requires considering
It is always necessary to consider all three components as they have the potential to change in various directions, and there exists an optimal balance among them. This approach is commonly known as the Triangulation approach.
By examining ticket volume, average handle time, and available headcount together, organizations can achieve a comprehensive understanding of their support team's capacity and performance. This holistic perspective allows for a more accurate assessment of resource allocation, workload distribution, and operational efficiency.
Through the Triangulation approach, organizations can identify the appropriate staffing levels, optimize workload management, and ensure that resources are effectively utilized to meet customer demands. This method facilitates a balanced and efficient support environment that enhances customer satisfaction, reduces response times, and maximizes the team's productivity.
Taking into account the interplay of these three components enables organizations to make informed decisions, adapt to changing circumstances, and continuously improve their support operations. The Triangulation approach serves as a valuable tool in optimizing team capacity and driving overall performance excellence.
- ticket volume
- average handle time
- available headcount.
It is always necessary to consider all three components as they have the potential to change in various directions, and there exists an optimal balance among them. This approach is commonly known as the Triangulation approach.
By examining ticket volume, average handle time, and available headcount together, organizations can achieve a comprehensive understanding of their support team's capacity and performance. This holistic perspective allows for a more accurate assessment of resource allocation, workload distribution, and operational efficiency.
Through the Triangulation approach, organizations can identify the appropriate staffing levels, optimize workload management, and ensure that resources are effectively utilized to meet customer demands. This method facilitates a balanced and efficient support environment that enhances customer satisfaction, reduces response times, and maximizes the team's productivity.
Taking into account the interplay of these three components enables organizations to make informed decisions, adapt to changing circumstances, and continuously improve their support operations. The Triangulation approach serves as a valuable tool in optimizing team capacity and driving overall performance excellence.
5. Self-Service success
There are a couple of essential Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that should be tracked exclusively at the team level. These KPIs cannot be set individually per agent and should be measured as shared metrics.
- Deflection: Measuring how many potential tickets were resolved by customers using knowledge base solutions indicates the success of self-service.
- Issue Reduction: This KPI reflects the effectiveness of using KCS's automatic taxonomy for product improvements, showing the number or percentage of incidents avoided due to product enhancements.
By focusing on team-level KPIs, organizations promote collaboration, collective accountability, and a unified approach to achieving key objectives. These shared KPIs allow for a comprehensive assessment of team performance and facilitate a holistic view of the support operations.
Tracking team-level KPIs fosters a sense of shared responsibility and encourages teams to work together towards common goals. It promotes knowledge sharing, cross-training, and collective problem-solving, which ultimately leads to improved performance and outcomes.
By measuring these shared KPIs, organizations can gain valuable insights into the overall effectiveness and efficiency of their support teams. It enables them to identify areas for improvement, implement targeted training programs, and drive continuous enhancements in customer satisfaction and operational excellence.
Emphasizing shared KPIs at the team level reinforces the importance of collaboration and ensures that every team member contributes to the collective success of the support organization.
Tracking team-level KPIs fosters a sense of shared responsibility and encourages teams to work together towards common goals. It promotes knowledge sharing, cross-training, and collective problem-solving, which ultimately leads to improved performance and outcomes.
By measuring these shared KPIs, organizations can gain valuable insights into the overall effectiveness and efficiency of their support teams. It enables them to identify areas for improvement, implement targeted training programs, and drive continuous enhancements in customer satisfaction and operational excellence.
Emphasizing shared KPIs at the team level reinforces the importance of collaboration and ensures that every team member contributes to the collective success of the support organization.
Roman Basalyko
Founder @ Swarmica
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