My oldest daughter has always been a technology fanatic—like many kids her age, I suppose. She has a fancy smartphone and prefers texting to talking, and so it was no surprise when she sent me a text message asking if I could help her with her new digital camera. She was having trouble getting Adobe Photoshop to open her camera’s raw images, and wondered if I had any idea what was wrong.
I suppose I could have called Adobe for help or emailed my daughter with the Web address for their online support. However, since I was sitting at the computer already, I checked out Adobe’s Knowledge Base and quickly located an article that described the problem and the solution. With the article open, I initiated a chat session with my daughter. Using the information provided by Adobe, I walked her through the steps to determine exactly what she needed to do to resolve the issue.
If either of us had called Adobe customer support to find the answers, the call would have lasted at least fifteen minutes. During that time, the CSR would not have been able to help other customers. If Adobe can resolve 32 such issues daily through their Knowledge Base, they can save one full day’s work for one CSR.
Companies who use knowledge base management software undoubtedly reduce the volume of inbound calls to the help desk. Customers find it much easier to find the answers to their problems themselves, rather than make a phone call or send an email. The response is faster, and the information is usually easier for them to understand when they can see it in print. It’s also nice to be able to bookmark it in order to review it later, if necessary, rather than trying to depend on a sheet of hastily scribbled notes.
Effective software will provide the company with numerous benefits as well. Training time can be reduced, since new employees can access the information online. All support personnel will be relaying the same information, also, reducing incorrect responses. Feedback loops can provide continual training for your employees. Additionally, these cloud-based apps are usually extremely easy to use, with intuitive, point-and-click features.
Good knowledge management software will let you archive articles that are no longer relevant without the need to delete them. That way, should you ever need to access them, they will be available. However, they won’t be showing up in the current articles currently in use.
You should be able to create a frequently asked questions section to provide a quick answer to the most common inquiries. You can even provide a link to a relevant article if you wish to make it even easier for the customer to find additional information. This feature alone can save your support personnel from having to respond to the same question repeatedly.
Most software allows customer or visitors to the knowledge base to provide feedback on the article they just read. They can rate its effectiveness and quality, giving you an idea of how you need to improve it. The best feedback forms will have a couple of button options, indicating whether the customer found the answer in the article, whether the article was applicable to the term searched, or similar questions. It should also have a text box for the customer to enter a few words of explanation.
The key to reducing support costs through the use of a knowledge base depends on how well you maintain it. Your company is not static. New products will be introduced, and new articles will need to be posted. Obsolete material will need to be deleted or archived. The right knowledge base management applications, however, can make the task much easier.
