How to Build a Help Desk Knowledge Base

The knowledge base, also known as KBase is a catalog or library of valuable information in the form of articles for the end-user. Knowledgebase helps a business in a lot of different ways, especially the help desk staff. It is a crucial part of starting a world-class help desk.

Once a company starts to really take off, the help desk department will begin receiving an overflow of tickets. As the inflow of tickets starts to rise, your team will start receiving many repeating and universal tickets that they have dealt with a hundred times already. It starts to become frustrating for the employees, not to mention how it kills productivity and wastes time that could be spent on solving much bigger and serious user problems.

A knowledge base contains all of these frequent complaints and inquiries that the users can access and read by themselves without any support from the help desk. Users don't like to contact customer service anyways, so it’s a win-win for both.

The knowledge base may contain a variety of content such as troubleshooting, FAQ, or articles dedicated to the most common ticket issues. It saves a lot of precious time and peace of mind for both the help desk staff and the users. On top of that, building a solid knowledge base can even improve the company's website SEO and traffic.

Why Build a Help Desk Knowledge Base?

The benefits of building a knowledge base are pretty evident and self-explanatory. The following are some of the main reasons why you should build a knowledge base.

• Firstly, the most apparent reason, it will reduce the inflow of tickets. Hence, the help desk team gets more time to better focus on every individual ticket.
• It will also reduce repetitive logs that just waste time and kill productivity.
• Resolution time will decrease significantly. It means better user experience and customer satisfaction.
• Every company has a self-service portal, but without a proper knowledge base, it is not efficient. However, with a knowledge base, you can maximize the usage of the self-service portal.

Types of Knowledge Base

Knowledge base articles can vary. Identify and learn the different types of KBase articles available and used by other companies. The following are the most common types of KBase articles available and used by other companies.

• Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ) articles to answer the most common questions asked by users. You can predict and add questions according to what you think would be the most common ones, or you can research and find out the most common questions asked by users.
• Troubleshooting articles are to help the most common technical issues in your product, website, or application that users can solve themselves. It helps the users to get immediate help.
• How-to articles are like the user manual of your product. These are very crucial, and every company should add them to their knowledge base.
• Lastly, there are articles to provide the resolution for the most frequent ticket submissions. Once again, it helps the user get immediate help and saves time for your help desk team.

However, a knowledge base isn’t just limited to the end-users only. The KBase can be further classified into two kinds, internal and external KBase.

Internal Knowledge base

Internal KBase has all kinds of articles mentioned earlier, just not for the end-user. The purpose of the internal KBase is to help out the help desk team get quick solutions and resolutions. It helps new employees learn quickly and allows team members to share knowledge.

Usually, the internal KBase is a private catalog of articles, which only the help desk staff can; however, there are exceptions to this depending on different company policies. Apart from general access to internal KBase, the access to edit existing articles or publish new ones is given to only a few team members. Usually, one or two team members should have this access to edit the KBase.

External Knowledgebase

External KBase is the opposite of the internal KBase. It focuses on helping the end-user instead of the help desk team. Depending on the company, its policies, and its decisions, the external KBase may or may not be visible to everyone.

There are two scenarios. One, all the articles of the external KBase are visible to everyone, whether they are a user of the product or not. They can easily find this information on the internet.

The second scenario is that there are two different Knowledge bases. The non-users can only have access to a limited amount of content available on the internet, and users of the product can have access to both user-based and non-user-based content.

Structuring Knowledgebase

Structuring is a crucial part of setting up an effective KBase. The structure of the KBase can make or break your self-service portal. The goal of structuring is to make it as easy as possible for users to find what they are looking for.

A weak KBase can make it difficult for users to find solutions to their problems. It should appear neat and simple to the users and arranged in the correct order. The following are some key points to keep in mind when creating a structure for the KBase.

• A great structure of a KBase will include categories and subcategories of topics through which users can effortlessly find what they want.
• An easy navigation system for the KBase structure is crucial. Apart from navigation, the structure, articles, and design should also be consistent throughout the KBase.
• Treating your KBase content as blogs helps in structuring purposes. Implementing best keyword practices in the KBase content can make it easier for people to find these articles through search engines like Google and Bing.
• It will also benefit the company's website SEO and traffic.
• Speaking of search engines, your KBase should also include a search option through which users can type in keywords of the topic of their concern and find the right article. This is another reason why adding proper keywords and tags to KBase content is essential.

Best Practices for a Better Knowledgebase

The following are the best practices to build an amazing KBase that serves its purpose:

Assign a KBase Manager

Dedicating one or two team members to manage the KBase is non-negotiable. A dedicated curator of the KBase will serve so many purposes, including writing new content, editing old ones, deleting old ones, structuring the KBase, constructing a consistent design and tone throughout the KBase, adding keywords and tags, and much more. Managing all of this is much harder than it sounds. Hence, assigning the right person having the right skills is crucial for the management of the KBase.

Keep the Content Easy-To-Understand & Crisp

It's really important to keep the articles as clear, concise, and crisp as possible. The articles should not have fluff content. The content should cover everything thoroughly and have clear and simple solutions for the users. The writer should use language and terms easily understandable by an average user.

Do Proper Keyword Research & Implement

Keyword research is a crucial part of web content writing, but using proper keyword research and implementing it for KBase content will kill two birds with one stone. It will help people find what they are looking for on search engines or on the KBase itself. Plus, it will also improve the SEO and traffic of the company website.

Cross-link Articles within KBase

Cross-linking articles is a common practice, mainly used for improving a website's on=page SEO. However, it can also be helpful to use in KBase. Why? Because it will help people find related articles on related issues, plus the obvious advantage of SEO.

Update Your KBase Regularly

Keeping the KBase up-to-date all the time is essential, and it is the responsibility of the person managing the KBase, as we mentioned before. Many critical information, features, and solutions change over time, so there is no need to explain why updating the KBase time-to-time is crucial for a better and consistent KBase.

Make Your Content More Interactive

Keeping the articles interactive can make your KBase ten times more effective. Using gifs, videos, pictures, and screenshots will make it easier for users to understand and grasp content better. Using these interactive elements, along with clear and crisp writing, will make your KBase better and more efficient.

Managing all of this can be hectic if you are not using help desk software like [Brand Name]. Usually, companies buy software specifically for setting up their KBase, but [Brand Name] has everything your IT department needs in one place.