Do all brands need a knowledge base? An Important Discussion

Whether you own a startup, SME, or MNC, a knowledge base is something you just cannot compromise on! Having a knowledge base is no more an option but a necessity for all businesses. Don’t believe us? According to a report by Forrester, customers prefer knowledge bases to other self-service channels. Another report by Social Media Today states that a massive 91% of customers prefer using a knowledge base, provided it is available and tailored according to their needs.

Why shouldn’t businesses rely solely on customer support agents, chat help, and emails?

While providing the above services is always a good idea, customers today need quick access to information with a single click! They don’t like waiting forever till the customer service agent is available on the call. Even post that, the customer has to verify their details and answer the queries put forward by the support agent. The entire process can be pretty time-consuming and tedious for your customer.

Even if chat or email support is available, it can be challenging for customers to get to the minutest detail of their query using these methods. Also, most companies provide support via call, email, and chat only during selected hours and not 24x7.

To overcome the above limitations and complications, it is vital to invest in an efficient knowledge base. A knowledge base serves as the perfect solution for your customers, as they can access, use and reuse it as per their convenience and requirement. They don’t have to think twice about accessing it multiple times.

Why do all businesses need a Knowledge Base?

• Every business should have a rich and deep knowledge base to cater to their growing customer base. Not just customers but also their employees and other stakeholders can benefit from the knowledge base.
• Investing in a robust knowledge base saves a considerable amount of time, money, and effort to serve the customers.
• Larger organizations can effectively reduce their costs by reducing the number of hours their support agents clock in and making do with fewer support agents.
• Small scale companies need not invest heavily in building vast support centers and rely on their efficient knowledge base to do the needful.
• A knowledge base can be used to demonstrate your industry expertise and company-related information, giving your customers more reasons to trust you continually, thus improving brand loyalty.
• Knowledge bases can help you rank better in the search engines and improve your visibility on the internet.  
• A knowledge base provides a better customer experience by providing instant information to the customers looking for answers.

Features of a Knowledge Base

By now, you know the importance of a knowledge base. But there are plenty of knowledge base tools available in the market; which one should you go for?

Choose a knowledge base tool that has the following features:

The in-house solution as well as a cloud-hosted solution

Even if you are only planning a self-hosted solution currently, it is essential to consider whether the knowledge base you select can serve as a cloud-based solution in the future. PHPKB provides both these options with enterprise-class features.

Customizability

Another important consideration is whether you can customize the knowledge base according to your brand and website? PHPKB provides detailed customization in the knowledge base according to your needs.

User-friendly Interface

Your customers need an easy-to-use interface to use the knowledge base efficiently. It should also be mobile-friendly and compatible with different web browsers for better reach.  

With PHPKB, you get an interactive and smooth interface that anyone can use without learning. In addition, it also provides cross-browser compatibility and multi-language support to cater to all customers.

Budget-Friendly

Even startups and firms need a knowledge base to scale their business. People have a misconception that small businesses cannot afford knowledge bases. With PHPKB’s pocket-friendly plans, any business, big or small, can afford a knowledge base for their business!

Web-Based Solution

It would be great if your knowledge base were web-based and not in-house software. PHPKB provides a web-based knowledge base without the need to install any software.

Integration Facility

It is crucial to understand whether the knowledge base you will use has an integration facility with third-party software? For example: If the knowledge base can be integrated with LDAP, your employees can log in to it using their LDAP credentials. PHPKB provides all essential integration facilities that you can use as you grow.

Besides the above features, PHPKB has a long list of additional features like extensive content management, SEO tools, self-service features, improved search experience, knowledge publishing and sharing, article management, collection of feedback, improving front end and backend user experience, administration, and security features, glossary management, and other tools. Businesses can customize every aspect of their knowledge base using these extensive tools and features and provide the best customer support to their employees and customers!  

Creating an efficient and searchable knowledge base

Once you have selected the best knowledge base tool for your business, it is time to populate it with the relevant content for your customers.

Here’s how you can do that:

• Assess previous customer feedback and list all the topics you need to cover.
• Structure the articles on those topics in an easy-to-read manner. Without proper readability, the knowledge base will be rendered useless.
• Utilize diverse media such as images, videos, or sound to make relevant and understandable content.
• Ensure you interlink your articles to make your knowledge base easy to navigate and deeply connected at the same time. 
• Collect feedback from the knowledge base users and make necessary improvements regularly. 
• Lastly, purchase a flexible and versatile knowledge base solution like PHPKB that is user-friendly and high in function.

Conclusion

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that even if you have the best product or service but have lousy customer support, you will not be able to grow considerably.

To scale your business and stay ahead of the competition, providing the best customer support and experience is essential.

An efficient knowledge base is the best solution that can serve this purpose. And with the plethora of features provided by PHPKB software, you can outpace your competitors and provide an excellent customer experience at the same time!