Customers in the 21st century have evolved greatly, just like the evolution of technological advancements. Today's customers don't like waiting in long phone queues. They want instant solutions to their queries/requests. That's why customer service is now incorporating many self-service options, and one such option is the "knowledge base".
Do you know that 69% of customers tend to solve their issues on their own using self-service options? The knowledge base is a handy self-service option that helps customers find solutions to their queries themselves. In this guide, we will uncover all about the customer service knowledge base, covering its definition, benefits, tips, and a lot more.
- What is Knowledge Base?
- Why is Knowledge Base Important?
- Benefits of Knowledge Base
- Tips & Tricks for Customer Service Knowledge Base
- Bonus Tip: Go Beyond the Knowledge Base with the AI Customer Service Chatbot
- Wrapping Up
What is Knowledge Base?
A customer service knowledge base is a ready-based content repository for customers where they can find plenty of resourceful information and solutions about the company's products/services.
A knowledge base can consist of:
- Articles
- Frequently asked questions
- User guides
- How-to videos
- Troubleshooting steps
- Business info
The content of the knowledge base varies from business to business and customer needs. Some businesses only have a FAQ section, while others have thorough user manuals, articles, how-to videos, and much more. Moreover, you may also find information about translational info, like payment options, return policies, and more.
Usually, there is a dedicated knowledge base web page where users can self-access the essential information they seek. In short, the knowledge base definition can be summed up as an all-in-one knowledge place where customers can solve their queries without interacting with customer support.
Why is Knowledge Base Important?
Customer service knowledge base is no longer a choice but a necessity in today's digitalized and competitive era. Knowledge and speed are crucial factors when it comes to customer satisfaction.
According to the Forrester study, knowledge base is the top preference of customers over all other self-service channels. Furthermore, 89% of millennials use the search engine to look for answers to their queries before making a call to customer service. Therefore, the knowledge base is the first thing customers want today to address their questions.
To better understand, let's consider an example. Shulex VOC offers an AI chatbot for customer service. Suppose customers have received a redemption code from the company but don't know how to use it. So, they will open the Google search engine and search for "how to use Shulex redemption code".
If the company has created a guide for it, it will pop up immediately in the search engine. This way, customers can solve their queries on their own quickly instead of contacting customer service.
Overall, the knowledge base is a modernized way to help customers get the required answers without wasting their time interacting with customer service.
Benefits of Knowledge Base
The knowledge base brings many benefits to the table. Some of the key benefits of a customer service knowledge base are as follows:
1. Faster Resolution Time
Do you know that:
- 90% of customers rate "immediate" responses as very important for customer service questions, while "immediate" is almost 10 minutes or less for them.
- 75% of customers are willing to spend more with brands having a good customer experience.
Today's customers hate waiting to get an answer to their queries. They want instant responses from businesses. For that, a business can either increase the customer support team or implement self-service solutions. The knowledge base is seen to offer faster responses and resolution rates. Customers can quickly search for available information and solve their problems right away.
2. Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
A knowledge base boosts customer satisfaction significantly. When customers can find the required information on their own, without contacting the customer service help desk or waiting long in the queue, their satisfaction elevates.
The best thing is that satisfied customers bring in more sales and word-of-mouth marketing. 91% of customers say that a positive customer service experience increases their chances of making repeat purchases.
For that, it is important that you develop a comprehensive knowledge base that covers all the pain points of customers effectively. For example, if you are selling online software, your knowledge base should have all the how-to articles on how to use the software.
3. Deliver 24/7 Support
The knowledge base is also your 24/7 customer support service. Instead of waiting for the support team to come online in the morning and respond to pending queries, customers are able to address their queries at any time of the day. They simply have to explore the knowledge base and find the relevant information they need.
4. Reduced Costs
The knowledge base is also the source of reducing operational costs. When customers are able to solve common queries on their own, it means less stress on the customer support team. This implies a need for a small support team with limited members and resources. This cost savings can then be utilized for other fruitful activities.
5. Usability for Customer Support Agents
The knowledge base is not just helpful for customers; it also improves the efficiency of the support agents. For customers who prefer interacting with the support team for any query, the agent can use the knowledge base to provide the exact solution immediately. In addition, the knowledge base is also useful for training new employees and support representatives.
Tips & Tricks for Customer Service Knowledge Base
Around 70% of consumers look for consistent experiences from businesses they engage with, and that's what a knowledge base offers. However, it is important to have a top-notch knowledge base to maximize its benefits. In this perspective, below are some useful tips and tricks related to knowledge base worth following:
1. Understand Your Audience
Knowledge base documentation requires a solid understanding of the audience. One effective approach is to create a buyer persona that highlights all the basic audience characteristics.
Once you have the buyer persona, it will indicate the level of language and technicality you should use in your articles. This way, you can create knowledge documentation that is resourceful and easy for the audience to understand.
2. Use Multiple Writers
Often, businesses rely on one or two copywriters to create the whole knowledge base. Although this looks convenient, it minimizes the diversity in your knowledge base voice. Since there are different types of consumers, it is useful to have multiple writers to create a knowledge base. This diversity will then naturally align with different customer tones and make the knowledge base more effective.
3. Make Your Knowledge Base Structure Easy-to-Navigate
Your knowledge base should be very easy to navigate. Customers should be able to quickly find the information they are looking for. To better understand, let's take Shipt's knowledge base as an example.
When you open the Shipt knowledge base web page, you will quickly see different sections of popular topics and FAQs.
If you click any of the topics, you again get a bunch of sub-topics and instant answers in them.
This interface makes it super-easy to navigate through the knowledge base and easily find the required information
4. Include a Search Bar
Your knowledge base web page should definitely have a search bar. Despite an intuitive structure, some customers want to quickly find information. The search bar can help them type their question and get the required answer immediately. So, make sure to include a search bar in your knowledge base web page.
5. Standardize the Knowledge Base Creation Process
Your knowledge base should follow a specific style and template. Since you will be using multiple writers to create a knowledge base, it is important to standardize the content creation process with the right style and template.
6. Make the Knowledge Base Graphical and Interactive
Images and videos increase customer engagement and make it easy for customers to understand the point. In fact, most customers expect videos or at least images when learning the troubleshooting steps. Therefore, try to explain the user guides, troubleshooting steps, and similar material with images, videos, and other interactive elements.
7. Keep the Knowledge Base Up-to-Date
The knowledge base is not a one-time thing. It should be revised, edited, and improved with the passage of time. You can optimize content, add new information about features, improve the style, and more. In short, all your efforts should be to keep the knowledge base relevant and intuitive for customers.
Bonus Tip: Go Beyond the Knowledge Base with the AI Customer Service Chatbot
87% of customer service teams believe that customers' expectations are increasing. This implies that you also have to increase your self-service capabilities. Other than maintaining a top-notch knowledge base, you should also consider integrating a customer AI chatbot.
An AI chatbot for customer service is like a virtual support agent who's available 24/7 to help. It can automatically respond to common customer queries using pre-trained data.
To better understand this, consider the VOC AI Agent as an example. It is an AI-powered chatbot that can be trained with your company data. You can input the knowledge base and other useful data to train the chatbot. Once trained, it can then assist customers with their queries.
Customers can ask questions, get updates about their orders, ask for product recommendations, and much more. The best thing is that it can have human-like conversations with customers. Moreover, you can integrate VOC AI chatbot into the website as live chat or other platforms, like WhatsApp, Messenger, Shopify, Intercom, Zendesk, etc. Besides that, it also facilitates directing requests to support agents on customers' requests.
Simply put, AI chatbots are a more modern way of providing self-service to customers. So, go beyond just creating the knowledge base. Also, deploy an AI chatbot and further empower your customers.
Wrapping Up
The customer service knowledge base is one of the handy and much-needed self-service resources for businesses today. It lowers repetitive questions, enhances customer satisfaction, reduces costs, and offers many other benefits. All it requires is creating an informative, strategic, and intuitive knowledge base that is valuable and resourceful for customers. So, we will wrap up by recommending that you uplift your game of self-service with a knowledge base and then eventually a full-fledged AI chatbot.
