Knowledge management as a strategic asset for customer service delivery at a contact centre in South Africa

Renitha Chetty ,Cecile Gerwel Proches ,Nikita Singh

doi:10.34105/j.kmel.2021.13.013

Abstract

Knowledge Management (KM) is often touted as a panacea for organisations aiming to be efficient and competitive. While the world today has undoubtedly entered an information era, how organisations convert information to usable knowledge has become of significant importance. Furthermore, the growing emphasis on managing and utilizing knowledge to improve organisational functioning, efficiency and competitiveness has reintroduced KM as a possible strategic asset for organisations. To explore this idea, empirical work was conducted on a contact centre making use of KM practices as a means to enhance the transmission of knowledge to their employees and in turn, to their clients. Further objectives of this research were to identify how KM was understood in this organisation, the benefits and challenges it presented, how it manifested in relation to the idea of leadership and ultimately, if it could be considered a strategic asset for organisations of this nature.

Highlights

This paper presents a case study conducted in a contact centre which was established in February 2003 in a metropolitan district of Durban in the country of South Africa
Respondents alluded to the fact that the management and staff in the contact centre had a basic understanding of the Knowledge Management (KM) concept and its importance
The respondents shared a common understanding of the KM concept and mentioned that it was very helpful and assisted with providing more efficient service to clients, as described by one respondent: “I think it is important, we’ve got a lot of things that we do here in the contact centre to ensure that we keep the knowledge alive

Summary

Introduction

This paper presents a case study conducted in a contact centre which was established in February 2003 in a metropolitan district of Durban in the country of South Africa. The contact centre has striven to achieve this objective through the use of KM practices. This contact centre has utilised the notion of KM as a strategic asset to assist management and staff with their daily operational needs in order to enhance quality, save cost and improve service delivery. It is used as a mechanism for educating its clients and employees, and in ensuring that the compliance obligations of the institution are met (South African Revenue Service, 2016). Services are designed around the needs and expectations of clients, as resolving queries quickly and efficiently is pivotal to the service delivery aspirations of the organisation

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Conclusion