3 blueprints for a successful company knowledge base
by Robin Singh
Knowledge base software is without any doubt
a very powerful solution that offers an entire palette of benefits for
businesses. Some of them are: enhanced customer support, cut down expenses,
increased productivity and profits. But, the question that remains is how to
implement this tool in a proper way, to be able to reap those benefits.
There are more than several ways to use
knowledge base software. You can, for instance, use it for purely internal
organizational purposes. In order to unlock its fullest potential, you have to
make it external and available through your official web portal. Here are 3
knowledge base blueprints used by some of the major players.
On-Boarding New Customers and Users
Knowledge management tools can be used to
build a very efficient self-service help center. Besides functionality, some of
the tools offered by vendors on the market allow deep customization options.
This way, companies have the opportunity to maintain branding strategy
consistency.
Over time, the company can improve their
services and products in order to make them more functional for customers.
Adding new features can make using these products or services more complicated.
This complexity can be an obstacle some people won’t be able to overcome.
This is when a self-service help center
powered by knowledge base software can be a valuable asset. Let’s take a closer
look at Asana, for instance. Their project management tool has become very
complex during the past years no matter how intuitive their design is. But they
have come up with a brilliant solution. First they divided their services into
several distinctive packages and then published the most comprehensive
help documentation free for all.
Asana’s team has built a knowledge base and
published it on their official website. It has a search bar where users can
look for specific information that interests them. The design of their help
center is immaculate. Right there on the home page, they offer three distinct
categories designed for users with different levels of experience, which proved
to be very beneficial for prospects who are on the lookout for this type of
software. Providing extensive help documentation right on the start, when
people didn’t spend a single dime yet, clearly shows that the company is ready
to provide customer support on a professional level.
Video Tutorials for Complicated Tasks
Knowledge base software has become very
popular because it supports more than just plain text sharing. New knowledge
management tools allow sharing images, such as infographics, that can provide more
information to customers in need. Companies can also use KB software to upload
videos, e-books, and FAQs to their self-service help center, which is
incredibly important when some of the settings are complicated and require some
technical background.
For this purpose, we have chosen Yoast as an
example. Yoast is an online business that sells the most popular and a
must-have WordPress plugin. It is used to optimize a website built in WordPress
for search engines. Recently, they have extended the functionality of their
plugin. Now, users can use the snippet editor, access real-time page analysis,
optimize content, images, meta descriptions, and XML sitemaps.
Because it has become more challenging to use
all the features of their plugin, especially in the premium, paid version, they
have added a new feature to the Yoast SEO
version 3.2 – a self-service help center. In the latest version, 3.3 released
very recently, they added knowledge base search to their help center.
The feedback from the WordPress community was
incredibly positive to this move by Yoast. As an effect, the company recorded
increased sales of the premium version of their plugin. The real-world
circumstances once again proved the value KB software has for online
businesses. And, Yoast has managed to time the implementation perfectly, if we
might add.
Internal Knowledge Sharing
Internal Knowledge base software
can be used to store and share the best practices, experiences, and knowledge
of employees and the company as a whole. Knowledge management tools have a
positive effect on learning and growth, financial results, internal business
processes and customer support.
Sharing interdepartmental knowledge proved to
be especially useful when companies were involved in developing new products
and/or services requiring from sales, marketing, and customer support
departments to stay updated with the latest improvements and innovations. Being
a mobile friendly solution, KB software proved to be of great use for large
organizations who are basing their market success on field work. Access to
relevant information in crucial moments when deals are about to be struck proved
to be a necessity.
The most comprehensive
study done in the field of the benefits of knowledge management for
business has proved that internal knowledge sharing has several benefits with a
high and positive impact on the organization as a whole.
The most affected categories in KB management
are business process improvements and employee performance. Financial results
and innovation are also affected but not as significantly as the previous two.
In the category of business processes, KB management tools had the most effects
on business process acceleration, redundancies, and re-use of internal
knowledge.
Employees who had access to knowledge base
tools in their organizations report that they have experienced increased
motivation, better competence development, shorter onboarding time when they
were hired, and improved teamwork.
As you can see, knowledge base software is a
very versatile tool. It can be implemented for various purposes depending on
the organization’s strategy and goals. From the examples mentioned above, we
can see that the self-service help center can improve customer support overall.
But, we can also safely conclude that knowledge management as an internal
solution bears a lot of benefits with it.
Robin
is a Technical Support Executive. He is an expert in knowledge management and
various Knowledge base tools. Currently, he is a resident knowledge management
expert at ProProfs. In his free time, Robin enjoys reading and traveling.
Source
| https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2017/10/04/3-blueprints-for-a-successful-company-knowledge-base/
Regards
Pralhad Jadhav
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
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