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The Power of Shared Knowledge
July 2005

Your knowledge base can be as simple as a spreadsheet, or as involved as a dedicated software program.

Here’s a quick gut check: How much do your employees know about the customers your company does business with on a regular basis? Individually, they know quite a bit more than what’s found on a job ticket. Valuable information such as communication preferences, personality types, payment habits, hobbies and interests has likely been collected by someone in your organization.

That’s the problem – while individuals may possess a great deal of knowledge about customers, that information is rarely shared. As an owner or manager, it’s scary to think how little collective knowledge you have about customers – and you aren’t alone. Fast-paced graphic arts companies all have inefficiencies when it comes to putting the right information in the right hands. To take full advantage of this information and create greater value for your customers, you need a system for extracting and disseminating it.

Create a “Knowledge Base”
The barriers to sharing knowledge are everywhere: Piles of Post-It notes filled with customer instructions, demands or other tidbits of valuable information often don’t make it beyond the person who created them. One way to overcome this is to create a central repository for such information. This “knowledge base” can be as simple as a spreadsheet, or as involved as a dedicated software program.

Hint: If your business is in reasonable proximity to a college with a computer science program, give them a call. These programs are ripe with students eager to prove themselves with real-world applications. For an intern’s wages and a summer’s worth of work, you could develop a company-wide knowledge base program that may even tie into your existing scheduling and contact management solutions.

Regardless of the system you develop, a collective knowledge base must be maintained diligently to stay effective. Such a system is only as good as the “freshness” of the information it contains. However, placing the power of this knowledge in the hands of every employee with customer contact will reap the benefits of stronger, more effective communication and happier customers.

What Grow Sales, Inc. Can Do For You
Since 1996, Grow Sales, Inc. has operated as a “talking partner” with our clients, helping them recognize the value that shared knowledge can add to customer relationships. As your full-service marketing, sales support and advisory partner, you can always count on Grow Sales, Inc. to give it to you straight and make suggestions for positive results.

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