Business knowledge is in the heads of the people who work for the company. On the frontlines, that’s the sales staff or the customer services team. However, without making this in-house knowledge available to the customers in the easiest way possible, it’s being underutilized.
Let’s now explore whether creating a knowledge base to make the information more widely available is worth doing.
Why Create a Knowledge Base at All?
A knowledge base solves the dilemma of underutilization by turning that in-house knowledge into something that’s readily accessible on the company’s website.
Not every company is convinced that this is a good thing or indeed, whether it’s worth the time to develop it, which can amount to hundreds of staff hours. However, they should be convinced by the reduction in incoming calls and emails to answer, often with the same questions coming up over and over.
It may be necessary to add new staff to the team, so that the most knowledgeable ones can be diverted into the knowledge base team. This allows them to create the first hundred or so articles to get the knowledge online sooner.
The Knowledge Base Will Complement the Help Desk
Through the use of SysAid’s help desk software, it’s possible to make the customer services team more effective in assigning the appropriate person to each query and processing it sooner.
Their software provides relevant customer information to assist in processing queries faster, but it also helps managers see when the same queries or questions are repeatedly showing up. The knowledge base team can then be assigned the task of completing one or more articles to answer that question.
Also, highlighting the new article on the support page of the company’s website encourages visitors to look at it instead of initiating a live chat or sending a support request.
They’re Good for Sales
Some prospective customers look for companies that provide effective customer services or technical support before they sign up.
A knowledge base demonstrates that the business understands the customers’ needs well and is providing answers to more than just frequently asked questions. When going beyond the FAQ with an advanced knowledge base, it’s obvious that they care to provide better information.
Also, some questions are easier to explain on paper (or the screen) than over the telephone. A knowledge base is an excellent way to proceed with these types of queries too.
Customers Consider Them Part of a Total Customer Service Solution
When the answer is provided in a knowledge base, it’s even better than a live representative doing so. Customers haven’t had to go to the extra step of contacting the company and seeking out the answer they need. They skip the interaction and get right to the correct answer.
Even though this essentially is self-service, it works. Customers consider receiving the answer on the company’s site as good customer service even though the team wasn’t directly involved (although they may have been responsible for the knowledge base).
While it takes additional time to implement and update, the reality is that companies do need a knowledge base. Without them, they’re less efficient in reducing needless queries to a minimum which takes its toll on the busy customer services team.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.