Knowledge Management for CSM

What it is

Knowledge Management stores the answers that let customers solve issues in the portal and help agents resolve cases faster. Articles live in knowledge bases, move through a lifecycle from draft to retired, and are shown only to the users the knowledge base allows.

Four features matter for CSM: the knowledge base and article lifecycle, the Article Quality Index (AQI), knowledge blocks with search, and bulk translations.

How it works

Knowledge bases and access

A knowledge base groups articles and owns their rules: the publish and retire workflows, the managers, and who can read or write.

Access is set with user criteria on the knowledge base:

A common CSM design keeps an internal knowledge base for agents and a separate external one whose Can read criteria include customer contacts or consumers, so only approved content reaches the portal.

Article lifecycle

Articles move through Draft, Review, Published, Pending retirement and Retired. The workflow chosen on the knowledge base decides whether review is needed:

Article Quality Index (AQI)

AQI scores article quality against a checklist. It needs the Knowledge Management Advanced plugin (com.snc.knowledge_advanced) and an AQI checklist assigned to the knowledge base.

• A knowledge admin writes the true or false questions, such as "Is the title clear?", and gives each a weight.
• Reviewers with knowledge_coach, knowledge_domain_expert, knowledge_admin or admin select Perform AQI on an article.
• The AQI score is the total weight of the questions answered true. A saved but unfinished review waits in My Pending AQI Checklists.
• The author is notified of the result, and the average score appears on the Content Quality tab of the Knowledge Management dashboard.
• The article states that allow AQI are set by the glide.knowman.aqi.article_workflow_states property.

Knowledge blocks

A knowledge block is reusable content placed inside articles. Write it once, use it in many articles, and update it in one place.

Each block has its own Can read and Cannot read user criteria, so one article can show different sections to different readers. Cannot read wins over Can read. A user who sees the article but not a block sees the article without that block. Users with Can contribute on the knowledge base can read all block content.

Knowledge blocks are enabled per knowledge base by a knowledge admin or manager. Activating them also activates Knowledge Management Advanced. Blocks do not support wiki type articles.

Search

• Portal: customers search knowledge before raising a case, and see only articles their user criteria allow.
• Workspace: agents search knowledge from the case and can attach an article to share the answer with the customer.
• Feedback: ratings and flags on articles show knowledge managers which content needs work.

Bulk translations

Bulk translation sends many articles for translation in one request through the Localization Framework. It needs the Knowledge artifact active in the Localization Framework, which it is by default, and translation and workflow preferences for the enabled languages.

A user selects the articles, chooses Request Translations, picks the languages and submits. Up to 200 articles can be requested at a time.

Validation checks that each language is allowed in the knowledge base, blocks in the article are already translated, the article is not retired or outdated, and it is not already a translation. Machine translation needs the Dynamic Translation plugin. Translated articles are stored in kb_knowledge.

How the exam asks about this

• "Customers must see installation steps, but only premium account contacts should see the advanced section." Use a knowledge block for that section with Can read user criteria.
• "Managers want a consistent, weighted score for article quality." Assign an AQI checklist to the knowledge base and have coaches perform AQI.
• "One hundred and fifty articles must be translated into French." Use bulk translations through the Localization Framework, not one request per article.