Customer Support Software Featured Articles

With today’s tech-savvy customers, offering a lot of methods of “self-service” can go a long way. Not only will customers be able to get the information they want, but it helps alleviate the phone lines and social media channels that can get flooded with questions and problems. One good source is a knowledge base. In general, a knowledge base is a centralized repository for information: a public library, a database of related information about a particular subject, a website of how-to’s and so on. Not all knowledge bases are made available to the public, but here’s why yours should (mostly) be public.

According to the customer support software pros at TeamSupport, while your knowledge base might be the brainchild of several hours of work spread across many employees, perfectly crafted with info, making it entirely public can mean wrong search results for your customers, or customers finding the information they weren’t looking for, leading to frustration. Creating a knowledge base that is mostly public, that only has relevant info that is easy to find and easy to understand can make all the difference for the self-serving customer.

You could create separate sections of the knowledge base that are accessible only to some of your customers or create private documentation for your agents with in-depth technical information. If you support multiple products you can also create product specific knowledge bases. It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing-at-all approach. Catering to specific groups can mean said groups get what they need when they need it.

The knowledge base functionality gives a comprehensive, searchable database of common customer submitted issues and customer support requests and resolutions. Knowledge bases also include frequently asked questions, so while a tech manual might not be necessary or useful, having access to common trouble-shooting issues is. A knowledge base also cuts IT costs without sacrificing customer service quality. It helps IT personnel meet the increasing challenge to stay informed on diverse, changing technologies. You can also reduce long calls and resolution cycles, and eliminate inconsistent or outdated resolutions.

The bottom line is pick and choose what you can have available to the public – your customers. Find what information is often requested and let the customers seek it for themselves.

When customers can easily find topical knowledge base issues, your support team will save time and money.