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Article: Increasing Customer Focus by Knowledge Sharing
22 Mar 2006
An article by Alison Saunders, Knowledge Manager, DVLA
| Alison Saunders is Knowledge Manager for the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, an executive agency for the Department for Transport. She describes her view of how effective knowledge management can impact directly on improved service to the customer. |
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Alison Saunders |
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For many years, the private sector in Britain has recognised the value of knowledge-sharing in developing customer-focus and in the potential for increased efficiency, productivity and market share.
The public sector and notably Civil Service organisations are now also beginning to understand the value of this approach, translating it into knowledge-driven, cost-effective processes and policies and increasing their engagement with the variety of customers whom they serve.
Research into best practice, carried out since 2003 suggests that the propensity to embrace a strategic approach to knowledge management (KM) is dependent on how clearly KM's contribution to the delivery of customer service is understood and demonstrated. Greater collaboration in the sharing of knowledge and market intelligence is required between core business functions within, as well as between organisations to deliver more responsive customer service, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and leading to a sustainable reduction in operating and delivery costs in the longer-term.
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Organisations which demonstrate the most effective knowledge sharing tend to display common attributes. These include an ingrained appreciation of the customer, comprehensive and practical processes for solving customer problems and an understanding of the latest KM thinking, tools and techniques.
However, the integration of KM with customer service has been described as a messy and uncomfortable business. This may be due to the perceived internal conflict that it might cause, the competitive threat and other significant challenges faced by the organisation from increasingly discerning customers and their demands for value for money. In order to focus on what matters most to the customer, the organisation should align its processes towards providing consistency between the quality it promises and that which is actually experienced by the customer. Whilst this requires the various functions to communicate and share knowledge routinely, more significantly, it requires them to share a common, fundamental goal: to delight the customer.
Integration of KM into the core business can often be hampered by the organisation's culture. Resistance to change - especially from senior management - can create ineffective dissemination of marketing information throughout the organisation, hampering accurate customer-led corporate strategy and restricting the development of corporate capabilities and brand value, leading potentially to crucial opportunities being lost.
NB. A copy of the full article can be obtained from the Club at Email: admin@bpclub.com
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The DVLA, Swansea | 
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DVLA, Swansea by night
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| Look out for the Case Study "Improving Customer Service through Effective Knowledge Management" at DVLA, Swansea on 7 June 2006 |
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