What is a knowledge base? Why is it a subject of importance? What’s the difference between knowledge and information? Before we start, let’s answer a few questions.
Is your team having trouble coming up for air because a mountain of support tickets buries them? Or do you and your team consistently receive the same support queries, no matter how many times you respond? If you are (or have been in the past), you’re undoubtedly asking how to expand your customer service to prevent these issues. However, you are surely aware that doing so without lowering the overall quality of your business is difficult. What is the solution? A database of information, aka knowledge base.
Your users may handle their own customer service difficulties using a knowledge base, a customer portal, giving you more time to deal with more serious questions. It can help you save time, money, and your sanity. Here’s how you create a killer knowledge repertoire that solves customer problems and meets their support requirements. We’ve broken down each stage and provided lots of knowledge base examples for you to get ideas from.
Table of Contents
What is the definition of a knowledge base?
To put it simply, a knowledge base is an online repository of information or guidance about a service, topic, product, or department. This library is a self-service customer support center. To acquire actionable solutions to their difficulties, clients only need to search for their question or discover it in the appropriate category.
The data you include in your knowledge base usually comes from a few individuals who are well-versed in the subject (typically support agents who have a flair for writing or technical writers). Articles about your terms and conditions, as well as your products, services, hardware, and software, can be included in your knowledge base. A knowledge base can contain troubleshooting manuals, FAQs, product tutorials, and other important information that your consumers may find valuable.
What are the benefits of having a knowledge base for your company?
A knowledge base is critical for any organization since it helps you provide a better customer experience, reduces support staff workload, and enhances onboarding.
Exceeds client expectations
Customers prefer to tackle problems independently. In fact, 66% of customers prefer to begin their customer service journeys with self-service.
As a result, you must provide your clients with the tools they require to solve problems on their own. The best way to start is to build a knowledge base. Customers will not have to repeat their complaint or be handed around between agents (something they despise) if they use a knowledge base management system.
Customer service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week
Customers’ patience is eroding year after year. 31.2 % of customers expect a response to their customer email within an hour or less in 2020. Some consumers expect rapid assistance at all hours of the day or night, and paying support employees around the clock is costly.
A comprehensive knowledge base is a cost-effective solution that enables your clients to solve their own problems 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
Different learning styles
A solid knowledge base article these days is more than simply text. Step-by-step instructions with screenshots and, in some cases, videos are included. So you can support any learning style, from auditory to visual to kinesthetic, with just one resource (through implementing instructions).
Provides support in a variety of languages
Using a multilingual knowledge base to provide support in multiple languages is a great way to go. You may provide support to consumers worldwide in their own language by translating your knowledge articles.
Despite their poor language skills, support staff might rely on foreign language articles for assistance.
It’s a terrific place to start when it comes to customer onboarding
When new clients sign up, you’re presumably already sending them a welcome email. Within the same emails, why not give them some knowledge base articles on how to get started?
It’s a terrific strategy to reduce unwanted tickets if you make sure your customers understand how to utilize your product from the start. As a result, provide new users with brief explainer films and links to pertinent articles to assist them in getting started.
For example, onboarding messages and emails include straightforward references to pertinent guidelines, templates, and features.
Reduces your agents’ workload and makes their lives simpler
Knowledge bases can also help you scale your customer service efforts by increasing ticket deflection. They can also serve as content repositories for chatbots, providing them with the information they need to answer consumer concerns properly.
An internal knowledge base on the agent side can assist agents in understanding corporate policies and learning work-related technologies and software. It’s the ideal training tool for recruits.
With a robust internal knowledge base, new support staff can manage practically any issue without jeopardizing the customer connection.
But how can you build a knowledge base that provides all of these advantages?
A step-by-step strategy to building a knowledge base
If you want to build a knowledge base that solves problems for your consumers, it must be consistent, searchable, and up-to-date. Create a knowledge base for your consumers and service agents by following the instructions below.
Step 1: Select the appropriate knowledge management software.
When choosing a knowledge base system, don’t just go with the first free solution you come across. You must ensure that the platform provides the functionality required to enable a user-friendly customer portal.
The following are key features to look for in knowledge management software:
- Templates for articles and tutorials
- Options for formatting
- Tags, categorization, and a search function (for easy navigation)
- Multiple language options and version control
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- Integration of a helpdesk and a chatbot
Choose software that includes all of the above functions, a robust text editor, and the flexibility to quickly bring in the attachments you require.
With features like automatic indexing, adding meta-information to improve your content and make it more discoverable is simple. You should be able to quickly control content visibility, making it simple to distinguish between your private and public knowledge bases.
Step 2: Select topics for your knowledge base
It’s not as difficult as it appears to choose topics for your knowledge base. All you have to do is look for patterns in the inquiries you get frequently.
Look through old tickets to see if there are any frequently asked questions.
If your customer service team is getting many of the same queries, try publishing articles in your knowledge base to address them.
Look through historical tickets and keep track of how many people have asked about specific issues. If a big percentage of searches are about a recurring issue, such as resetting a password or using a specific product feature, keep track of those topics and create content that addresses them.
For further information, use analytics. What visitors look for on your site might teach you a lot. You can perform the same thing with Google Analytics:
Select “Behavior” and then “Site Search.” Then, under “Overview,” look at the most prevalent terms people are looking for. You can also compare different time periods and arrange the results by “Absolute Change” to see any rising trends.
Step 3: Create articles for the knowledge base
After you’ve decided on your subjects, you can begin preparing and producing the material. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when you create content:
Incorporate visual aids (screenshots, GIFs, and videos)
The more engaging an exercise is, the better it is for memory and comprehension. A modern-day support approach must incorporate the creation and management of a knowledge base using video.
As a result, it’s always a good idea to incorporate more than simply text in all of your knowledge base articles. To provide customers a visual of what you’re explaining, try using video tutorials, GIFs, photos, and diagrams.
To optimize the agent-side workflow, use custom templates.
Custom templates can help you create new articles faster. Most knowledge base software includes this feature, which allows you to:
- Save and reuse particular content types to improve consistency.
- Fill in the blanks to speed up article creation.
- Include a Table of Contents, as well as links and other elements, to ensure easy navigation.
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Step 4: Organize your knowledge
Your clients won’t discover what they need quickly if you don’t structure your knowledge base documentation (or at all). Most knowledge bases are structured with a basic home page for all of their support-based articles. The most popular knowledge base articles are also frequently featured on the home page.
Here are four easy methods to help you properly organize your knowledge base:
Compile a list of articles on the same subject
The first step is to sort the articles and organize them by topic. Then, sort through your knowledge base’s most popular pieces and place them prominently on your homepage for easy access. Users can also participate in a community program to discuss software tips, techniques, and information.
Include a search box
A visible search box is the next requirement for any knowledge base. Instead of trawling through multiple categories to discover the precise article they’re looking for, and your users will be able to get the information they need with a search box quickly. You should add a search bar at the top of your knowledge base.
Use relevant articles as cross-links
Cross-linking relevant articles is one of the simplest ways to improve the effectiveness of your knowledge base. This will improve the user’s overall experience. This is a straightforward procedure. To interlink other articles within each new one you produce, you don’t need any complicated features.
Use tags to make each content more discoverable
Incorporate keywords and tags in your knowledge base articles, just as you would in blog entries, ensure the content is easily searchable. You should also change the title of your page to reflect the issues that clients are likely to be looking for answers to.
Step 5: Keep your knowledge base up to date
A knowledge base can never be fully developed. To keep the material current, you should do content management regularly.
Articles should be updated as needed
It’s tempting to believe that after you’ve written knowledge base articles about your product or service, you won’t have to maintain them for a long time. However, as your organization, products, and features evolve, a knowledge base must be examined and updated regularly.
Customers will be dissatisfied if they find the article they require, complete all steps, and discover that the material is obsolete. As a result, you should update your support portal with each new product release, procedure modification, or feature.
Keep track of consumer comments and make changes as needed
Make sure your knowledge base is always up to date with the most popular inquiries and tickets. Check-in on a weekly or monthly basis to ensure that you’re keeping up with current events.
For example, if you discovered that you’d had over 100 questions regarding how to renew a contract with your company in the last month, you could write an all-encompassing blog post or article that explains how to do so.
That way, if future consumers have similar questions, they should be able to locate the answer on your website without contacting a live person.
Conclusion
An effective knowledge base is necessary if you want to take your customer service to the next level. We’ve already proven that putting together a solid knowledge base isn’t difficult. Start today to relieve your staff of the daily burden of dealing with support tickets and provide your clients with the peace of mind that comes with self-service assistance.
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