Customer Support Software Featured Articles

In an effort to catch up with the “big data” trend rocking the business world today, many companies are putting analytics solutions in place in an effort to capitalize on – or at least not drown in – the plethora of data that flows to them on a daily basis. For many companies, it has meant building up their knowledge basis, both with customer-specific information and general information that customers might ultimately need.

Knowledge bases are critical to help customer support personnel from having to “reinvent the wheel” every time a customer has a problem. They are an essential way for employees to share their experience and knowledge with one another so everyone in the organization can benefit. Though they may not be aware of it, most companies have a wealth of valuable information locked inside their employees’ heads. Collaboration solutions and deep (and highly usable) knowledge bases are ways to ensure that this valuable information is tapped when it’s needed.

That said, many companies continue to make rookie mistakes when it comes to building out their knowledge bases. One of the most egregious is using knowledge bases only for complex issues, according to a recent blog post by customer support solution provider TeamSupport.

“A truly optimized knowledgebase system isn’t designed to solve only complex issues,” according to the blogger. “It also covers the basics. While you may think of a knowledgebase mainly as a tool for complex machinery or ‘instruction heavy’ products, it can be used for everything from simple how-to instructions and answers to common questions, to in-depth technical information.”

In reality, any process, even if it’s only a few simple steps, should be part of the knowledge base. What may seem like an easy solution to an experienced agent may not be so easy to a new and flustered agent. Similarly, it may not seem obvious to customers. Most contact centers would find, if they examined the issue, that the majority of their calls and other inquiries are about simple resolutions. On the flip side, many companies make the mistake of trying to get their knowledge base to do too much.

“The truth is you can’t answer every single question or issue your customers will have; there are far too many possibilities, and you will always be surprised with what they come up with,” wrote the TeamSupport blogger. “Further, trying to make your knowledgebase the be-all and end-all will just leave you with too much information to stay on top of, and the system will quickly become outdated and frustrating for customers to use.”

Experts and analysts recommend that companies determine which issues make up the bulk of their customer support inquiries and focus on those when it comes to crafting the knowledge base. After all, it’s not worth it to spend hours (or days) building out an issue that may only crop up once a year. But if you can address the issues that represent the majority of your contact center traffic, you’ve made the call center’s job much easier.