How To Achieve Customer Advocacy Through Strategic Knowledge Management In 2022

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Customer support plays a vital role in building a brand protection and loyalty culture: Connecting with customers and developing an emotional relationship with them is the key to loyalty and the foundation for a long commitment. If your business positively engages with customers, it is more likely to create a culture of brand protection. 

Turning a customer into a brand advocate is Customer Advocacy. It takes time and maturity to attract customers and motivate them organically to talk about your business. Still, there are several ways to promote this behavior actively.

A customer advocacy strategy aims to create a customer experience that motivates people to recommend a company, making it easy for the company to find and increase customer advocates. Developing the mindset that every person you contact is a potential customer advocate is a sure shot way to boost your reputation and improve your bottom line.

Organizations are increasingly leveraging the capabilities of knowledge management systems to enhance customer advocacy. Knowledge Management (KM) provides significant benefits to customers and support agents and AI tools to provide a seamless support experience to users.

How to achieve customer advocacy through KM

Customer advocacy is a way of doing business in which “customers come first.” customer focus is bolstered by practices that improve the customer experience and, in turn, create customer advocates.

At the intersection of customer advocacy and brand advocacy lies an approach called advocacy marketing — turning your most enthusiastic customers to brand advocates.

The key players for any Knowledge management system are:

  • People

People form the core component around which knowledge management functions. Knowledge Sharing among partners must be persuaded without fears of losing information while articulating. Knowledge management which centers around people, be it the internal agents or the customers, directly impacts the customer experience and CSAT scores. 

  • Senior Management

Senior management plays a crucial role in accomplishing a knowledge base. Deciding on the priorities to finalize a strategic plan requires the support and active involvement of the senior leadership. This support lends massive credibility to the knowledge management’s sustainability. 

  • Libraries
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Traditional information centers are being transformed into knowledge management places with constant change and adjustments to the requirements and conditions of an organization.

Strategy for achieving customer advocacy: 

Effective Knowledge Management (KM) is key to any successful customer advocacy strategy. Efficient, easy, and quick customer service is where the trust-building process starts. A KM system Offers your customers multiple ways to interact with a brand while maintaining consistency across all service platforms. 

A customer advocacy strategy revolving around the knowledge base for customer service will produce excellent long-term results in turning potential customers into dedicated brand advocates.

A few things to consider while strategizing for customer advocacy are:

  • Knowledge Management Audit

An audit to identify the present capabilities and shortcomings of the existing knowledge management system must be a priority. The Knowledge base must also be designed considering the potential consumers. 

  • Goals

The target and the objectives must be set before implementing the advocacy plan. The knowledge base can open new pathways and streamline the existing processes. Still, it needs to be built around setting goals and objectives. 

  • Hierarchical Structures

Organisations must pursue alliances in the hierarchical structure to ensure timely approvals. The authorities and upper management must also be persuaded about the value of knowledge management. 

  • Aligning the advocacy plan

The advocacy plan must be developed with the organization’s mindset. Understanding the business, customers, and support agents will give an edge while preparing the strategy.

  • Communication

The advocacy plan must be effectively communicated by highlighting the value of information and knowledge base.  

These are just some vital things to consider while creating a full-proof customer advocacy strategy. A good knowledge base can act as a backbone to customer service and customer advocacy.

Knowledge Management – A driver for CSAT and NPS

Customers are not just a convenience offering businesses knowing they have guaranteed sales opportunities; they can spread broader brand awareness. By protecting your customers’ interests, your brand will be able to optimize the customer journey, build long-term relationships, and, in the process, attract new customers. 

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A knowledge management system can transform a wide range of organizational services:

  1. Self Service
  2. Agent Assistance
  3. Chatbots
  4. Upskilling agents
  5. Agents onboarding
  6. knowledge-centered Service

Beyond helping internal support teams, KM systems can effectively attract, educate, onboard, support, and retain customers. A robust customer knowledge management instantly impacts the customer experience.

It offers new ways for users to engage with the brand and elevates the CSAT scores. It ensures that customers keep engaging and stick through the brand, and advocate in the longer run. A well-designed knowledge base is a key to unlocking the incredible benefits of customer advocacy. 

Conclusion

KM systems can help businesses scale their operations and gain more consumers. It enables companies to offer users a personalized experience and maintain consistency by providing an omnichannel service.

After all, customer advocacy can help a company grow two and a half times faster than its competitors. When people recognize that they are more likely to trust content shared by “normal” people than brands share, it becomes clear that abandoning consumer advocacy could run the risk of stagnation.

Customer advocacy also allows organizations to build loyalty. As we saw earlier, knowledge management could play a crucial role in achieving customer advocacy.

Sowmya J
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