Many customer service leaders hit the same slowdown: “We’ll fix our knowledge once we hire a Knowledge Manager.” It sounds practical, but it stalls progress. And while everything waits, the operation keeps absorbing the cost – frustrated customers, overwhelmed agents, and rising labor spend.
Here’s the truth: you don’t have to wait for a new hire. There’s meaningful work you can start now that improves service levels, reduces friction for agents, and rebuilds confidence in your knowledge base long before anyone new walks in the door. You’ll be setting your new Knowledge Manager up for success.
The cost of waiting is higher than you think
While you wait, agents wrestle with outdated or conflicting content – and it shows up fast in your numbers. AHT climbs because agents dig through multiple sources or second-guess what’s current. First call resolution drops as customers come back for corrected answers, meaning the company pays for the same issue multiple times.
Self-service takes a hit too. When customers can’t find answers, they head to channels they didn’t want to use in the first place, driving up volume, wait times, and irritation. That frustration rolls downhill to your agents, who are already searching for the right information. The result? Longer interactions, burnout, quit quitting, absenteeism, and higher attrition.
Before long, both agents and customers lose trust in the knowledge base – and rebuilding that trust costs more than starting the work now.
And when the content finally gets updated…it’s already behind
By the time the content is fixed, many agents are still using outdated answers they saved in notebooks, sticky notes, or chat threads. Incorrect information keeps circulating long after it’s been corrected, driving inconsistent experiences, repeat contacts, and more labor spend. Waiting doesn’t shorten the cleanup – it makes it bigger.
In the meantime…
When knowledge stays messy, agents create workarounds. Frustration grows. Engagement drops. Absenteeism increases. It all shows up in the metrics every single day. And while leaders wait for the “perfect hire,” the operation slowly loses ground.
You don’t need to wait for a new hire to start fixing this
You already have labor inside your operation today that can be redirected to move the work forward. And the best part? You’re already paying for this labor – you’re simply using it to bandage the problem instead of strategically addressing it.
Here are three practical, realistic ways to get started now:
- Use this as a leadership development opportunity
Most contact centers have one or two frontline leaders who could easily take on additional agents. Identify those leaders and temporarily reassign agents from a team that has a strong, high-potential frontline manager.
That frees up that high-potential leader – whose team has been dispersed – to own the early stages of the knowledge clean-up effort. This gives them:
- A meaningful development opportunity
- Hands-on experience collaborating with other departments
- A chance to demonstrate readiness for future promotion
And it gets your knowledge work moving without adding headcount.
- Leverage the people already “band-aiding” the knowledge today
In most organizations, someone is already informally “fixing the knowledge.”
Maybe it’s a senior agent. Maybe it’s a team lead. Maybe it’s someone in training or QA who loves documentation.
Instead of this being an off-the-side-of-the-desk scramble, streamline it:
Give them a defined lane, a clear charter, and support from the right partners.
They’re already doing the work – this simply makes it structured and effective.
- Realign operational labor that’s already in the budget
Many organizations can reassign a portion of existing labor to get the clean-up underway without affecting service levels. Options include:
- Stretch assignments for QA team members
- Temporarily shifting administrative hours from WFM, training, or communications
- Pairing a detail-oriented agent with someone who understands root-cause analysis
This isn’t “new” labor. It’s simply smarter labor alignment.
And don’t forget: governance can be simple and effective
You don’t need a full governance committee on day one.
Start with a slim version of what works:
- Legal (risk mitigation)
- Product (accuracy and clarity)
- Marketing (brand voice)
- Compliance
- QA
- A few top performing, well-informed agents
This smaller structure gives you enough support to move quickly without slowing the momentum.
The real choice: Fix it slowly later, or fix It strategically now
Whether a company acts now or waits six months, the labor hours will be spent either way.
The difference is whether those hours go toward: Proactive progress, measurable improvement, and better customer experience OR reactive damage control, higher frustration, and rising costs.
Starting now doesn’t require a new system, a new budget, or your new Knowledge Manager. It only requires using the resources already inside your operation – smarter.
Small steps today create fast, noticeable improvements in agent productivity, service levels, CSAT, and customer trust. And by the time your new Knowledge Manager arrives, you’ll be handing them a cleaner, more stable foundation to build on – not a fire to put out.
Resources
Tight Budgets, Tough Goals, and a Simple Fix that Works
https://ccng.com/tight-budgets-tough-goals/
3 Signs It’s Time to Revisit Your Knowledge Strategy (Before it Costs You More Than You Think)
https://ccng.com/3-signs-its-time-to-revisit-your-knowledge-strategy-before-it-costs-you-more-than-you-think/
About the Author
Vicki Brackett is a contact center industry veteran, a long time CCNG member and regular contributor in member programs and events. Recognized as a subject-matter expert on virtual/work-at-home environments and leadership development, Vicki helps members in a variety of topic areas including innovative and progressive solutions that impact increasing higher CSATs, first call resolution, new agent speed to competency and higher productivity…all while engaging team members and reversing high absenteeism and attrition.
