Research shows that more than 71% of consumers like to solve problems through self-service when it comes to product use. Therefore, a high-quality knowledge base should be the cornerstone of enterprise customer service department’s self-service strategy. In this article, we explain what a knowledge base is and how to plan, create, and deliver effective knowledge base content to help organizations improve the customer experience.
The concept and connotation of knowledge base
A knowledge base is a collection of documents published by an enterprise (usually on an enterprise website), including frequently asked questions (FAQs), product operation guides, and troubleshooting instructions. The goal is to make it easy for enterprise users to find solutions to product usage problems without having to seek human services.
The term “knowledge base” usually refers to information stored in a system, but it can also refer to the software used to create and present that information. In this article, we will use “knowledge base” to refer to the content contained in knowledge base software.
A knowledge base can contain many forms of content, including:
- (1) Problems frequently consulted by customers;
- (2) Step-by-step operation guide for enterprise products;
- (3) enterprise or product introduction articles;
- (4) Video demonstration tutorial;
- (5) Glossary and definition list.
A knowledge base is the end product of collecting all the information and organizing it into a useful form through the process of “knowledge management”. Therefore, knowledge management processes can typically be applied to gather information, and knowledge base tools can be used to create, manage, and publish that information as a knowledge base to end users.
The role of Knowledge Base
The knowledge base is not only helpful to customers, but also to internal employees. A well-structured, well-written, and succinctly designed knowledge base can help customers solve problems on their own, act as a learning base for new employees, and even become an important source of machine learning.
Most customer service is about basic information delivery — the goal of customer service is to help customers bridge the knowledge gap that prevents them from fully understanding the goal of the product so they can use the product smoothly.
For example, some common customer questions such as “How do I use this product?” “How do I change my password?” “And” What is the price and functionality of this product? “And so on. This problem can also be solved in a variety of ways, such as simplifying the product and design, labeling or providing detailed instructions on how to use the product, and offering customer service training or answering questions about how to use the product. However, we found that these methods are too expensive to keep up with the volume of customers who come to consult from time to time.
At this point, the knowledge base is clearly a feasible and efficient way to solve customer service problems, reducing the time and effort of customer product consultation and use. A good knowledge base can create and enhance a better customer experience in a number of ways:
1. Self-service requirements are met.
According to the survey, at present 71% of customers prefer the self-service way, hope to solve the problem of using products by themselves through the form of self-service. And the knowledge base can realize the desire of customer self-service.
2. Shorten the waiting time for user consultation.
Faced with a large number of customer visits, enterprise customer service personnel are unable to respond to users in the first time, which increases the time cost for users to solve problems and is not conducive to users’ product experience. The emergence of knowledge base is a good solution to this problem.
3. The display of knowledge base information is rich and varied.
A single knowledge base also supports the presentation of information in multiple styles and types, including text, images, gifs, video, audio, or other multimedia features. These presentation methods can bring customers a pleasant service experience and allow them to quickly absorb the information they need.
4. The knowledge base runs 24/7.
Unlike human customer service, the knowledge base can work 24/7 and endlessly without accidents, and the service scope is wide, even if customers on both sides of the world access, the knowledge base has no pressure.
5. Knowledge base search facilitates customer information search.
Compared with paper product manuals, customers do not need to read the full text from the first page to look up a specified information on the online knowledge base. They only need to conduct a simple keyword search and immediately obtain the information they need.
6. Data feedback is convenient for understanding user needs.
The knowledge base can collect data such as customers’ access content and search frequency, and feed these data information back to the enterprise, so that the enterprise can understand the real needs of users, and improve products and optimize the knowledge base content.
After understanding the connotation and function of knowledge base, let’s look at how to choose the appropriate knowledge base making tools.
How to choose the right knowledge base software
“Which knowledge base software works best? “Which knowledge base builder is cost-effective?” “Is it better to develop your own or use SaaS tools?” These are the kinds of questions that are ubiquitous on search engines.
When it comes to how to choose the most suitable tool for making knowledge base, it is necessary to consider the enterprise nature, the goal and function of knowledge base, and its own investment budget from its own needs. Here are some key questions to consider when choosing knowledge base software to help you narrow down your choices.
- Do you only need one knowledge base, or do you need multiple independent knowledge bases? Does the tool support multiple repository creation?
- How many people can collaborate to create and update content?
- Does it provide one-stop service? Do you support creating independent domain names? Or can you migrate it and publish it on the enterprise website?
- Is the design of the knowledge base page customizable and does it need to match the technical person?
- What about the search function? Is global search supported?
- Does the knowledge base creation tool support getting user feedback?
These questions can help you choose the right knowledge base creation tool for your organization. Next, I would like to recommend a professional knowledge base one-stop building tool Baklib.
Knowledge base building tools are recommended
Baklib focuses on helping enterprises build self-service customer service platforms. It is easy to build with zero code base and can be directly embedded in the official website of enterprises to maintain customer experience at low cost.
The specific advantages of Baklib’s knowledge base are as follows:
**1. Zero code base, easy to build. ** You don’t need any programming foundation to use Baklib, you don’t need to build a database, you just need simple Word skills, you can easily get started to build enterprise help center. Instead of relying on the traditional top toolbar, Baklib uses a blocky editor that allows you to drag and drop all content — text, images, videos, tables, markdowns, etc. — into modules.
**2. Low cost of use and maintenance. **Baklib cost zero to make, free to register and use, no need to pay hardware costs, maintenance costs, cost savings. Baklib also supports a background editing interface to maintain and update the help center.
**3. Easy for users to retrieve and use. **Baklib uses tree-like directories and multi-level columns to manage content hierarchically and categorically, making it easy to find relevant content by searching keywords. The background of the user keywords statistics, a clear understanding of customer needs, timely adjustment to change the content of the help document.
4. Rich plug-ins to meet the personalized needs of enterprises. Baklib provides a number of convenient plug-in tools, such as independent domain names, global search, access rights, user feedback, article guidance, site access statistics, site navigation, and more to meet the needs of enterprises.
**5. Data security. **Baklib adopts advanced and flexible cloud service architecture and SaaS services to ensure the independence and security of customer data from internal editing to external sharing.