How To Create And Maintain An Effective Knowledge Base

The evolution of technology is followed by the modification of the knowledge base. Today, knowledge is present on an extensive range of disparate platforms. From reaching your mail to asking questions on forums and interacting in the comment section, viewers can now easily find information in a variety of places. 

This is exactly why brands now need to aggregate knowledge in a single, well-crafted system. Introducing customer education, also referred to as a knowledge base. Where it first referred to a collection and storage of knowledge, today, the meaning and importance of a knowledge base have altered drastically. Here we discuss in depth the pros of a good knowledge base and how organizations can craft one:

What is a Knowledge Base?

An in-depth study shows that 53% of US adults are likely to leave their online order if they cannot find answers to their questions by themselves. To help customers, companies need to develop a good knowledge base. 

A knowledge base refers to a self-serve online library with information relevant to certain services, products, topics, or departments. Moreover, the data gathered in your knowledge base may be sourced from a variety of places. Users who are experts in a relevant subject may add valuable information to the knowledge base. 

The content in your knowledge base may be from all aspects of your business. From expanding your legal department inside out to offering an in-depth explanation of a product, knowledge bases are an amalgamation of beneficial FAQs, troubleshooting guides, manuals, how-to articles, and other necessary information.

Why do You Need a Knowledge Base?

Extensive research by Forrester shows that customers prefer a knowledge base over FAQs and discussion forums. The reason is that a substantial number of customers, i.e., 90% want an immediate response to their questions. 

The knowledge base allows management to easily access accurate information and share it across the whole company. Here organizations can curate, share, employ, and manage the required knowledge throughout the industry. At the same time, consumers expect quick and easy access to information. Calling customer service or sending an email may take too long. This is why a proper and rich knowledge base is required. 

The way a brand utilizes a knowledge base largely depends on its services and products. However, knowledge bases provide invaluable information to teams in different ways:

• Knowledge bases help simplify the various aspects of IT. Be it troubleshooting or training; you can count on a well-made knowledge base to offer how-to articles, guides, and support questions.  
• Your HR team can benefit from a knowledge base by easily accessing information relevant to onboarding, paying schedules, distributing company policies, and so on. 
• Finally, your legal documentation team may utilize a knowledge base to craft contracts, policies and wrap up approval processes, trademarks, and registration faster and more efficiently. 

Advantages of Having a Good Knowledge Base

A meticulously crafted, strong knowledge base is the foundation of knowledge management practice. 

With the help of a good knowledge base, organizations can enhance self-service, offer better access to useful articles, quicken their service delivery time, and provide viewers with daily updates via the knowledge management system. Here we discuss in detail why a good knowledge base is indispensable for your business: 

• A good knowledge base allows companies to offer fast replies to customers. In case a customer has queries about a product, you no longer have to put them on hold. In turn, your customers are bound to leave happy and satisfied. 
• People prefer to answer their questions without any assistance. By allowing viewers to access information without any roadblocks, brands can improve customer retention.
• Simultaneously, collecting all the information in one place ensures your company boasts a consistent customer support system. 
• When your company's knowledge base undergoes regular updates, your employees will always be up-to-date with new changes. Ultimately, your office will notice a spike in productivity and efficiency.   
• Your knowledge base is a centralized repository of information that helps different departments in a company connect to each other. Here employees can store information relevant to their area to ensure employees can work independently. 

How to Create a Knowledge Base

Below are the steps to curating the ideal knowledge base:

Start with the Design and Structure 

First and foremost, brands need to define the design and structure for their knowledge base. Typically these look similar to traditional home pages for support-based content. You may divide your information into various subsections like 'Getting Started,' 'Tutorials,' and so on. 

Your main focus when crafting the design and structure of your knowledge base must be ensuring easy discoverability. For this, put your best articles in the spotlight and improve search functions to allow users to easily solve their problems.

Determine Content 

Collating information from your business can be challenging. You'll have to gather data and content from all departments offering services. Be it your HR team, your IT team, or those building trade shows, teams must provide knowledge relevant to their department. Here are a couple of ways you can depict your content:

• Useful frequently asked questions
• Well-crafted how-to-guides and tutorials
• An interactive and welcoming community section
• A valuable and engaging news and daily updates section where all teams contribute day-to-day
• Well-written and beneficial reference documentation containing technical jargon 

Include Attractive Visuals

Now it's time to make your content more interesting by adding captivating visuals. Visual learners will especially appreciate any screenshots and videos you add. 

You may even add enthralling images and videos within your articles or create how-to guide videos/tutorials.   

Analyze and Improve Articles

Your branding, products, services, or company may enhance and expand with time. And so should your knowledge base. Moreover, you need to ensure your knowledge base content is satisfactory and engaging.

To ensure your articles' effectiveness, conduct feedback surveys, ask for feedback via email, phone calls, and so on. After analyzing your customers' responses, determine areas of improvement. Besides this, you may craft brand new stellar articles featuring information updating users about your new products/services. 

Outline Your Technology Plan

Ensure your company boasts adequate and necessary tools for managing your knowledge base. Your knowledge base is bound to expand with your business. Here are a couple of  things to consider when outlining your technology plan:

• Your knowledge base should be scalable to ensure it expands as your company grows. 
• It should be easy to maintain and budget-friendly.
• It should offer an array of useful plans for your company's present and future growth. 
• Your software tools must boast analytics to help companies track the viewers' activity. In turn, you can focus on improving specific areas.   
• Users should be able to edit regardless of whether they have technical and coding education.
• Lastly, companies should be able to white label it as a direct extension.

An Effective Knowledge Base Keeps Everyone in the Know

From customers right down to employees, need and expect easy access to their answers. The knowledge base is a worthwhile investment offering businesses a centralized location possessing all relevant data. 

With the help of a knowledge base, brands can improve customer satisfaction, spike up retention rates, enhance productivity, and so much more!