What is a knowledge base? The essential tool you are missing
A knowledge base is the key to good customer service. It’s also something that many companies don’t have! This guide will teach you everything about what a knowledge base is, and how to get started using one in your business.
What is a knowledge base?
A knowledge base is a collection of articles, FAQs and other information that you can use to provide answers to your customers' questions. It is also sometimes referred to as a knowledge management system (KMS).
A knowledge base can exist in a variety of forms including simple databases, embedded on websites or via specialist knowledge base software (like PULSED’s Guru module!). The one common factor of all knowledge bases is that the content is organised and structured in a way that allows it to be easily searched, accessed and updated.
But why exactly do you need one?…
B2B customers don’t have time to wait!
Providing 24/7 support to a globally spread network of customers is a complex and expensive challenge. Over 90% of B2B customers expect immediate responses to their support requests and, in general, that means within 10 minutes. Trying to deliver this level of support within any sized company is likely to result in burn-out for your service staff and, ultimately failure. But there is a solution!
A knowledge base allows you to provide real-time support to your customers without your staff having to be involved at all. And the best thing? That is often what the customer wants!
When customers have an issue, they want to get their questions answered quickly and efficiently. They don’t want to wait on hold or send multiple emails back and forth with support staff – they just want an answer! But many companies spend too much time trying to solve problems during an active chat or call, which can lead to frustration for both parties if the issue isn’t resolved immediately (or at all).
A knowledge bases can provide real-time support to customers, allowing them to quickly find answers to common questions or troubleshoot problems on their own. This can help to reduce the workload on customer support teams and improve the overall customer experience.
Knowledge bases empower your staff to better serve customers
It is easy to think that a knowledge base is provided for an organisations’s customers to use but flip that thinking around and you now have a powerful support tool for your own service team!
Knowledge bases empower your staff to better serve customers which not only increase customer satisfaction and loyalty but also boost staff motivation and wellness.
By using a knowledge base, your team can save time by finding and providing answers in seconds rather than having to continually provide answers manually to those questions that get asked again and again!
If a customer calls in with a question about a product the service team member could go straight to the knowledge base and look it up without having to call another department or ask anyone else on her team first. This saves everyone time—and keeps customers happier than if they had to wait on hold while someone looked up their information!
Saving time is not just an incredible tool to boost customer experience it also grows the efficiency and effectiveness of your organisation. By empowering service teams to complete tasks that much faster they then have capacity for other tasks. Rather than answering the basic and simple problems that the Knowledge base can support they can concentrate of delivering real value and success to your customers.
How do I get started with a knowledge base?
If you don’t have a knowledge base yet, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Start using our Guru, knowledge base module today, and you’ll soon think you’ve got a new member of staff on the team!
We have designed Guru to not only provide you and your customers with a powerful knowledge base for the future but also in a way that allows you to get it up and running quickly, easily. Key features include:
- Easy search and navigation - to keep things fast!
- Customizable categories and tags - so customers can find what is relevant to them.
- Access control - a great feature to allow you decided who sees what (e.g. public, internal, restricted groups)
- Mobile-friendly - access anywhere, on any device!
- Analytics and reporting - for an invaluable insight into what your customers are thinking.
- Integration - so you can share the information across other customer service platforms you use.
A knowledge base is a powerful tool and therefore it does require a degree of maintenance and continual reviewing from your team. Check out our blog post ‘3 Steps to Create an Outstanding Knowledge Base’ which will support you in starting with a 5-star solution…that will only get better!
Conclusion
A knowledge base is a great tool to differentiate your company and help it stand out from the competition. Improve your customer experience, increase the efficiency of your support staff and grow your business…all without having to recruit more personnel!
If you’re interested in learning more about how knowledge bases can help your business, we encourage you to reach out to us. We have a free trial that lets you try our product with no strings attached—and we’d love to show you what it can do for your company.