Irrespective of the business type you are running, you certainly have at least a few people who seem to know everything regarding their field of work. Those walking knowledge bases may be your sales managers, your marketing specialists, or someone from your IT department.
Whatever the case, they provide your company with a high level of knowledge and expertise apart from helping you achieve the ultimate goals, because they simply know how to do their job right and their contribution is really invaluable.
However, what happens when those experts walk away? What if they retire or quit their jobs? Where would all the information that they can provide go? If you rely on them a lot, how will you make sure that your company doesn’t suffer the consequences of them leaving?
With that in mind, take a look at the solutions that can help you retain their knowledge and successfully continue to streamline every business operation.
Organize your information databases
You certainly have a number of databases filled with information that is relevant to your business and if you are doing your company any good, you have it all stored in web-based applications.
Gone are the times when actual papers and all kinds of documents and files were stored in offices so, if you are still relying on those, it is time to take a step forward.
However, try not to have a lot of different information storages, because you’ll be back to square one, where no one can really find what they are looking for. You need to have one central database, where every piece of important information will be stored and to which your every employee will have access.
What’s more, you need to provide your customers with relevant information that can help them solve their problems, and what better solution to offer than a web-based knowledge base?
Knowledge base management is crucial for businesses nowadays, so make sure you create an online help center that will allow your every user to instantly find what they need. Not only will you significantly improve customer satisfaction, but you will also improve efficiency and productivity within your company. Also, your walking knowledge bases will certainly not be overwhelmed with non-stop questions and they will be able to focus on their core tasks.
Understand the needs of your employees and customers
One of the most challenging tasks every business owner needs to take on is to understand the needs of both their employees and customers. Knowing what they need is crucial for identifying how to actually satisfy them and provide the right information for resolving their issues.
Nevertheless, even when you create the right content for your knowledge base, it can be tough to integrate all the necessary information into your workflow. The demand for fresh knowledge is constantly increasing and it can be difficult to keep up with your every user’s needs.
You can get on the right track by analyzing your data, such as interactions with your users and every question they may have. It will help you know exactly what they need so that you can create relevant content rich with the right keywords to help people easily and quickly find what they are looking for.
Good knowledge base software will provide you with useful analytics that will help you organize your knowledge base. That way, your walking knowledge bases will have fewer inquiries to deal with, because you will have proper guidance for publishing the right content.
Provide concise and straightforward answers
If your knowledge base articles are lengthy, your users won’t really have the patience to go through them, especially if they are busy and need quick answers to their questions.
If some topics are complex and require a lot of information, make sure you break your articles into sections. In every other case, make sure you provide short and straightforward answers with actionable steps for solving the problems.
You will definitely make your articles more engaging if you consider including images, screenshots, videos and anything else that will make your content interactive. That way, they won’t need to rely on your walking knowledge bases and contact your call center, because your self-service portal will instantly answer all of their questions.
Optimize your knowledge base with smart channeling
Smart channeling settings in your knowledge base will enable you to help every user when they need a solution for a particular problem. Smart channeling will give you an insight into user types, their geographic location, language, and a lot of other useful information for providing everyone who’s seeking help with a seamless experience.
With smart channeling, your users will be able to use your self-service portal on their own, without the need for contacting your walking knowledge base, that is, someone with the expertise to help them out. Furthermore, since you will know their exact pain points, you will be able to route them to the most appropriate person who will make sure that their needs are met, in case they cannot find the right solutions on their own.
Conclusion
Your walking knowledge bases are your most valuable assets, so you need to treat them as such. Don’t put everything on their shoulders and push them away. In fact, respect their time and all the knowledge and expertise that they contribute to your company.
Therefore, find the best knowledge base software and allocate your resources to increase productivity and efficiency within your company and provide an outstanding customer service.
Since there are innumerable knowledge base tools present in the market, hence it is best to opt for a web-based knowledge base software solutions that will help in streamlining your workflow and satisfy the varied stakeholders including both employees and customers.