If you have a knowledge base or FAQ page on your website, you need to continuously add value to it. The goal of any such self-help medium is to bring instant gratification to users when they need help.
Below are 3 simple tips that would help you improve the value your knowledge base provides. Doing this will improve customer satisfaction and drive down your support costs.
Knowledge base best practices
1.Keep it updated. Consistently.
One of the biggest mistakes you want to avoid is to make building a knowledge base a one-off activity. Typically, no product or service remains the same. Change is constant. Why should your knowledge base not reflect the change? So the answer is simple – keep it updated. Your knowledge base is only as effective as the amount of information it has. Constantly track the issues and common questions customers are facing and include the solutions in the knowledge base. You can use your resolved support tickets, calls, customer feedback, and help desk data to acquire this information.
Reply with knowledge base articles
If you get an email or chatbot message from a customer with a question, don’t just respond with the answer. If you don’t already have an answer in the knowledge base about it, go write a quick one right away and shoot the response to the customer with an effective knowledge base article as part of your message. You probably put a few additional minutes of effort, but this way, you have saved a ton of time for yourself or your team member who might face the same question coming from another customer. And the bonus side-effect: a constantly updated knowledge base.
Review past responses for opportunities
Didn’t reply with a knowledge base article? Don’t fret. It’s never too late. Go to your ticketing system and start looking for opportunities where an existing problem-solution handled could possibly be a new knowledge base article. If you are using HappyFox ticketing system, we recommend using a tag, custom status, or even a custom field that can help you mark such tickets. And at least once a week, review these tickets and turn as many responses into new articles. You will reach a point where you have covered enough frequently asked questions on your knowledge base. As your products and services evolve, you can keep repeating this exercise to ensure your knowledge base content never goes outdated.
These workflows should be promoted within your customer support team. There is a long-term gain not just for your support staff but also for your customers.
2. Search on steroids with Tags.
Don’t have a self-service page without a search function. You are defeating the whole purpose otherwise. Search is probably the #1 tool people go to when they have a question. Nobody likes to navigate across a complex index, topics, or questions for troubleshooting an issue. Search is god-send. But search is not enough. Search that can suggest as users type in their question is the key.
HappyFox provides you the interface that suggests articles as the user types the search keyword or even while the user is creating a ticket. We pull this data based on the title of the article, the body of the article, and the most important attribute – Tags.
Write useful tags that can help people find the right article faster and improve usability. For instance, if you have an article titled ‘How to uninstall’, add related terms such as remove, delete or discontinue in tags. One of the easiest ways to build a set of relevant tags for a question is by simply writing down all possible ways people would describe the problem. Brainstorming article titles would indirectly help you build the tag list. Do it.
On a side note, improving searchability does not end with including a search bar and tags on your knowledge base software. You should optimize your articles with keywords. Think keywords as tags but for the search engine to make sense of what the article is about and display it on search results when a user browses the question. SEO optimization is key for an accessible knowledge base tool.
Read 6 simple tips to make your knowledge base more searchable.
3. Embed Videos.
Are you writing just plain text help articles? Get creative. Embed videos as your article answers. We also recommend you write a brief transcript of the video.
Using video is an important medium to get complex messages sent across in a very easy way. Videos provide better user experiences because they require a short attention span. So, next time you write a knowledge base article, also think about the best medium to get the message across effectively. You can even combine short video tutorials and text to make your knowledge base user-friendly for both types of customers – one who would want to read the article and one who would rather skim through the video. Videos are as valuable for support as for marketing. It’s time you start using them.
Read how to create videos for your knowledge base articles.
Continuous improvement is key
A great knowledge base is one that is constantly improved. Time invested in it is time saved in multiples of it. So keep your knowledge base updated, use tags effectively and consider video as an integral part of your knowledge base initiatives. Your knowledge base is the first line of interaction with your customers and hence an important attribute of the customer experience. Get it done right.
Got another tip? Share it in our comments section.
