What is Knowledge Management? The Complete Guide

Knowledge management is the process of capturing, organising, and distributing knowledge within an organisation to improve efficiency, decision making, and overall performance. It is all about making sure the right information is available to the right people at the right time.

Knowledge management involves capturing all relevant knowledge and then structuring and storing it to make it easy to find and use - ideally in a centralised digital library. Knowledge management built into customer service software like Service Cloud helps to improve decision-making and problem-solving. This centralised and organised information, like FAQs, support articles, and past interactions, ensures that reps and customers can quickly find accurate, consistent answers.

The goal of knowledge management is to reduce knowledge gaps, avoid reinventing the wheel, and help teams work smarter, not harder. It’s also essential to have so that you don’t lose important information when your most experienced, high-performing agents and field service technicians leave. Without their knowledge and expertise, you put customer satisfaction at risk. You also need time, money, and resources to recruit replacement talent. There’s a lot at stake for your business! It’s especially valuable in areas like customer service and field service, where fast access to accurate information directly impacts service quality and customer satisfaction.

A knowledge management system is a software platform or framework that lets organisations capture, organise, store, and retrieve knowledge and information. It facilitates knowledge sharing. By creating a robust knowledge management framework, an organisation can foster knowledge sharing, collaboration and decision-making, ultimately improving productivity and efficiency.

Read on to learn more about knowledge management, benefits, best practices and more.

• Why is knowledge management important?
• What does a knowledge manager do?
• Types of knowledge to capture
• Benefits of knowledge management
• Knowledge management use cases and examples
• Knowledge management best practices
• How to get started with knowledge management tools
• Knowledge Management - FAQs

Knowledge management plays a critical role by ensuring that employees have easy access to accurate, up-to-date information when they need it most. For customer service teams, this means being able to quickly respond to inquiries with consistent and correct answers, which enhances the overall customer service experience and builds trust. In field service management, it enables technicians to resolve issues efficiently on-site by referencing technical documentation, service histories, or troubleshooting guides — minimising repeat visits and downtime.

Beyond immediate issue resolution, effective knowledge management supports long-term efficiency and continuous improvement. It reduces training time for new employees by providing a centralised source of information, encourages knowledge sharing across teams, and helps identify trends or recurring problems. By capturing and using organisational knowledge, companies can improve service quality, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce operational costs — ultimately giving them a competitive edge. Resources you create can also be shared in your self-service portal, allowing customers to help themselves and further save on costs.

Bonus: Einstein Search Answers uses knowledge-grounded generative AI to surface answers to commonly asked questions in your self-service portal or agent console.

A knowledge manager ensures that your knowledge base is being used throughout the company correctly. A knowledge manager is responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to capture, organise, and share information within an organisation. They oversee the curation of content, ensuring it is accurate, up-to-date, and easily accessible, often working with subject matter experts to gather and validate information. They also select and implement the right knowledge management tools, such as knowledge bases and collaboration platforms, and provide training and ongoing support to employees to ensure effective use. In addition, they monitor the system's performance through key performance indicators (KPIs) and continuously make improvements to enhance user engagement and content quality. By fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and ensuring compliance with regulations, a knowledge manager helps drive productivity and improve service quality across the organization.

So where do you start with knowledge management?

Before you start documenting your institutional knowledge, you want to be aware of the various types of knowledge agents and field service workers use when helping customers. Here are a few key types of knowledge to consider:

1. Explicit knowledge. This is the straightforward playbook your support team relies on to do their jobs - capturing knowledge that can be structured and communicated clearly. It includes FAQs, guidelines, and documented procedures, like how to handle a service outage.
2. Tacit knowledge. This is experiential insight gained through frontline support, like a veteran support agent’s gut instinct for handling a tricky situation. Or, an experienced field service tech’s ability to just know how to fix any kind of machinery. Although intuitive and gained through experience, tacit knowledge can be passed along through mentoring.
3. Structured vs. unstructured knowledge. In this context, knowledge exists in structured and unstructured forms. While structured knowledge includes neatly categorised resources like databases or FAQs, unstructured knowledge refers to informal sources like emails and Trailblazer Community threads, which often yield rich insights but need to be properly captured. You can use Generative AI to convert both structured and unstructured knowledge into a new knowledge base article.

Documenting institutional knowledge, centralising it, and keeping it continuously updated leads to smoother support operations and a better customer experience. While the importance of knowledge management has been discussed earlier, let us now list down the benefits.

• Improved decision-making: By providing easy access to accurate and up-to-date information, knowledge management helps employees make more informed decisions. This can lead to better problem-solving and strategic planning.
• Enhanced efficiency and productivity: Knowledge management reduces the time agents or field service technicians spend searching for information, allowing them to focus on problem-solving. When employees can quickly find the information they need, they spend more time on productive tasks. This can significantly boost overall efficiency and reduce operational costs.
• Better customer service: Knowledge management ensures that customer service teams have the necessary information at their fingertips, leading to faster and more accurate responses. This can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Innovation and Creativity: By fostering a culture of knowledge sharing, organisations can encourage innovation and creativity. Employees can build on existing knowledge and ideas, leading to new solutions and improvements.
• Risk Mitigation: Effective knowledge management helps identify and address potential risks by ensuring that critical information is documented and accessible. This can prevent errors and reduce the likelihood of knowledge gaps causing issues.
• Knowledge Retention: As employees leave or retire, valuable knowledge can be lost. Knowledge management systems help capture and retain this expertise, ensuring that it remains available for future use.
• More accuracy and consistency in content: When grounded in your company’s knowledge, generative AI can produce accurate and trusted information‌ — helping your team feel confident they’re providing the best help. Proper knowledge management ensures a standardised approach to common customer issues, supporting a cohesive brand experience.
• Cost savings. New agents onboard quickly, reducing training costs. Plus, a great service experience helps you retain customers, saving on the cost of acquiring new ones.

By implementing a robust knowledge management system, organisations can create a more informed, efficient, and resilient workforce, ultimately driving better business outcomes.

Here are a few other examples of what’s possible with knowledge management for both customer service and field service today.

1. Internal knowledge base or wiki: A centralised hub where employees can find FAQs, knowledge base articles, troubleshooting guides, service procedures, and policy updates.

2. Customer-facing help center: A searchable online library with how-to articles, setup instructions, and common issue resolutions so customers can find answers without needing to contact support.

3. AI agents: Agents built with Agentforce use stored knowledge to answer customer questions and resolve issues around the clock. AI customer service agents draw from internal documents to provide consistent, automated support, all while adhering to the trusted guardrails your business has set. If agents encounter a question they can't answer, they can automatically escalate the issue to a human representative.

4. Field service mobile apps: Apps that allow technicians in the field to access equipment manuals, repair histories, and installation instructions in real time — even without internet access.

5. Call scripts and playbooks: Structured guides used by customer service reps to handle different types of calls or service requests. These help ensure consistency and quality during interactions. They also add value to employee training modules. An up-to-date knowledge base is an efficient way to help onboard and train new agents and field service workers, so that they can use it to find answers to common questions as they get deeper into their roles.

6. Post-incident reviews / Lessons learned: After-action reviews where teams document what went right or wrong during a service call or customer issue, and those insights are stored for future reference.

7. Collaborative platforms: Tools like Slack where employees share tips, updates, and best practices, sometimes using pinned posts or shared channels as informal knowledge bases.

Knowledge management isn’t a one-and-done process. It’s an ongoing strategy required for effective customer service operations. We recommend:

1. Regular updates: Be sure your knowledge base articles are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect the latest information. You may want to have veteran agents and field service technicians do this. As part of regular updates, the knowledge base needs to be assessed to determine if there are any missing topics.
2. Cross-department collaboration: Collaboration between customer support and other departments helps enrich the knowledge base with diverse insights.
3. User-friendly interface: Ensure that your knowledge management system is intuitive so that both agents and field service techs can easily navigate through the network. ( And that customers can as well, for customer-facing assets.)
4. Feedback mechanism: Encourage your team to provide feedback on the usefulness and accuracy of knowledge articles. Use surveys or focus groups to capture this feedback and routinely act on it.

Getting started with knowledge management tools involves a few key steps to ensure that the process is smooth and effective:

1. Assess your needs: Identify the specific areas where your organisation could benefit from better knowledge management. This might include customer service, technical support, or internal processes. Understand the types of information that need to be managed and the goals you want to achieve.
2. Choose the right tools: Research and select knowledge management tools that align with your needs. Consider options like knowledge bases, intranets, collaboration platforms, and document management systems. Look for tools that are user-friendly, scalable, and integrate well with your existing systems, like your CRM.
3. Gather and organise content: Collect all relevant information from various sources, such as existing documents, emails, and employee expertise. Organise this content in a logical and accessible manner. Use categories, tags, and search functionalities to make it easy for users to find what they need. With customer service AI features, your knowledge base software can be a fast and user-friendly tool with helpful search functions that helps generate content, including AI-generated first drafts of new knowledge articles.
4. Train your team: Provide comprehensive training to ensure that all team members know how to use the tools effectively. This includes training on how to add, update, and search for information. Consider creating user guides and offering ongoing support. Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, is a great place for your team to get off to a fast start.
5. Implement and test: Roll out the knowledge management tools in a controlled manner. Start with a pilot program to identify any issues and gather feedback. Make adjustments as needed before a full-scale implementation.
6. Monitor and improve: Continuously monitor the effectiveness of your knowledge management system. Collect feedback from users and track key metrics such as response times, customer satisfaction, and employee productivity. Use this data to make ongoing improvements and updates.

By following these steps, you can effectively implement knowledge management tools that enhance productivity, improve service quality, and drive better outcomes for your organisation.

Knowledge management is a fundamental component of successful customer support operations and crucial to successful AI. It provides a structured approach to handling information and is well worth the investment. Knowledge management will improve your team’s customer support capabilities, boost both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency, and help you retain employee knowledge — even if they leave.