6 steps to a knowledge base that empowers your customers and employees
Companies can no longer afford to waste time searching for the knowledge they already possess. Especially in a context of technological progress, channel diversification and Big Data development, where customers expect immediate, precise answers...
This is where the knowledge base comes in. Not only does it act as a catalog of information, it is also a central platform for disseminating the right knowledge, at the right time, to the right people. Focus on a tool that has become indispensable for companies.
What is a knowledge base?
General definition of a knowledge base
A knowledge base can be illustrated as an archive in which companies can find all the information they have acquired since their creation. It's an organized system for storing, managing and sharing information, knowledge and resources.
Information is grouped and categorized according to predefined themes. For example, information can be categorized according to product or service type, or based on the organization's various departments.
The self-service operation and online accessibility of the knowledge base aims to centralize knowledge within an organization, in order to facilitate access to information and promote efficiency, whether for :
- solve problems,
- answer questions,
- improving work processes.
⚡It's imperative to distinguish between a knowledge base and an information base!
The information base stores mostly unstructured documents and makes them available. Whereas the knowledge base transforms this information into instantly exploitable knowledge.
Two types of knowledge base
Internal knowledge base
An internal knowledge base is an organization's centralized system for storing and sharing the information and resources needed to keep the business running smoothly. It is mainly used by employees to :
- access relevant work-related information,
- solve day-to-day problems,
- improve productivity.
Employees can locate all company procedures, guides and best practices. This internal database facilitates the management of internal knowledge in order to strengthen collaboration, avoid task redundancy and ensure continuity of service, even in the event of personnel changes. As a general rule, given the desire for exclusive use of this library, the knowledge base is highly secure and the information it contains is reliable.
The external knowledge base
Conversely, the external knowledge base concentrates data intended for the public, such as customers, users and partners. The aim of this space is to help these external parties. This platform shares practical information to :
- help customers use a product,
- find answers to frequently asked questions,
- read instructions for use,
- identify solutions to common problems.
The external knowledge base is accessible to everyone via the Internet. By disseminating knowledge, this digital infrastructure optimizes consumer autonomy while reinforcing corporate transparency.
What are the benefits of a knowledge base?
Improving the customer experience
A knowledge base enhances the customer experience by offering them all the information they need in a self-service environment.
Rapid access to information
Customers can quickly find answers to their frequently asked questions:
- FAQ
- Procedures
- User guides...
In his study of hypermodernity, Gilles Lipovetsky describes a society marked by immediacy, mobility and flexibility. He defines modern consumers as "hyperconsumers" in search of instant gratification. In line with these changing consumer habits, customer service needs to be adapted.
As a result, the knowledge base library can be accessed without having to contact customer service. As a result, there is no delay in keeping customers informed, while responding to the ATAWAD phenomenon : Any Where, Any time, Any Device. ATAWAD reflects the fact that today's consumers want access to information or other resources anytime, anywhere and from any medium. This data platform shares its help 24/7. So, when properly organized, it enables customers to access help at any time, even outside support hours.
✅ In short, your customers get a quick answer, and you save time managing their requests. It's a win-win situation!
Develop your capacity for autonomous action
Knowledge bases offer self-service. In other words, customers have totally free access to information via all their digital media. However, free access does not mean faulty information. The company must ensure the reliability of its resources to promote accurate, quality responses to customers. This leads to greater customer satisfaction, sometimes even strengthening customer loyalty.
What's more, contributing to customer autonomy leads to the development of customer self-care. In other words, providing customers with tools that enable them to solve their problems independently and obtain information without contacting an advisor.
Optimizing business performance
Certainly, a qualitative and varied knowledge base plays a major role in consumers' quest for immediacy. And that's just one of the advantages of this platform! Your company can benefit from it in its internal communications, as well as in its cost savings.
Promoting transparent, fluid information internally
A knowledge base, as its title implies, stores and makes accessible uniform, verified and multidisciplinary knowledge. The quality and management of these resources are powerful levers for growth.
Firstly, effective management of the knowledge base ensures that tasks are carried out uniformly and that collaboration between a company's various departments runs smoothly. This helps to reinforce the coherence of the organization, promoting a pleasant working environment and a strong brand image.
Secondly, employees of this digital platform have free access to resources, in the same way as consumers. In the knowledge base, employees find help via :
- practical guides,
- tutorials,
- safety protocols,
- work regulations and policies
- answers to problems that have arisen, etc.
Employees are thus more autonomous: managers and human resources can manage their time optimally, so they can focus on more important operations.
Finally, the knowledge base encourages exchange between its expert employees and other parties. The aim is to create a framework that encourages the sharing of knowledge and feedback between employees.
Reduce internal training costs
The knowledge base enables the digitization of several internal processes, such as training. Digitizing these processes has a number of benefits, all of which are reflected in reduced costs for the organization.
Firstly, these savings can be explained by the faster skills development of new recruits, made possible by immediate access to best practices and the work of more experienced employees.
Secondly, employees have access to ongoing training based on up-to-date, high-quality data.
What's more, employees' better understanding of procedures reduces risk and costly errors.
Create your knowledge base in 3 steps
Step 1: Identify your target audience's needs
As with any offer, the usefulness of knowledge base services depends on their ability to meet the real needs of their target audience .
In addition, it's essential to understand upstream the motivations behind end-user behavior, so as to be able to personalize content. To achieve this, there are methods for classifying these drivers.
One of the best-known methods is Maslow's Pyramid. Maslow prioritizes consumer needs by considering the factors that lead to consumption.
You can also create a mind map. The empathy map gives you a visual overview of the motivations of each persona, summarizing what they say, think, feel, hear, see and do. What's more, this method helps you identify the target's frustrations, which in turn helps you identify their needs. To help you identify your needs, we've included an example of an empathy map below.
The SONCAS method can also be used. This method relies on customers' psychological biases to identify the factors that justify their consumption. SONCAS is an abbreviation for the origins of consumer needs and desires:
- Security
- Pride
- Novelty
- Comfort
- Money
- Sympathy
Step 2: Content integration
First, define a clear and relevant structure for your knowledge base. Once you've reached this stage of the process, there are several steps you can take:
- classify resources by category and sub-category: FAQs, procedures, products, technical support...
- organize information by theme and subject: connection problems, data management...
- categorize knowledge by user profile: for administrators, for end-users...
- organize information by level of popularity: most viewed content, recommended content...
Then select and group the information you wish to access via your knowledge base. Prepare your content so that the information is clear, concise and useful. With this in mind, formulate structured content using :
- Hn titles,
- lists
- sidebars,
- images, etc.
Opt for simple language adapted to your target audience. Communicate knowledge by taking into account the nature of the knowledge base, whether internal or external.
Guarantee the choice of qualitative resources by verifying data reliability, currency and relevance.
Facilitate search functionality by inserting an internal search engine for rapid access to information.
Step 3: Choose appropriate hosting
Selecting the right hosting for your knowledge base is essential to :
- reach your target audience,
- respond to search algorithms,
- secure your resources,
- ensure the overall performance of your database.
The criteria you need to take into account when choosing your hosting are :
- target audience
- anticipated content volume
- expected traffic,
- exclusivity or non-exclusivity of access.
How to exploit the potential of a knowledge base?
Feed your knowledge base
☝️Conformément to what we said earlier, the reliability, relevance and variety of information are key parameters in the quality of the service offered by your knowledge base.
To ensure the success of your knowledge library, you need to analyze the relevance of existing content.
- When the base is internal, group together resources concerning the work of your most experienced collaborators and all internal documents dictating the methods and practices applied in your company.
- When the base is external, select content related to frequently asked customer questions and reviews.
Employees are directly responsible for feeding the knowledge base. Each department of the organization participates in the publication and management of content, depending on their expertise and status. In this way, the development of the knowledge base is coherent and efficient.
Optimize its use
You've followed all the creation steps correctly... but that's not enough!
First of all, you need to make it as interesting as possible for your employees, by ensuring that navigation is fluid and easy to understand. You need to ensure that all the tools are available to enable employees to answer their questions independently, and if the audience is part of the organization, train them to use the database and share new resources. Appoint people to validate information and articles before publication.
Make sure your information is up to date to maintain your brand's credibility and inspire confidence in your interlocutors. In the same direction, avoid creating confusion and dissonance in their minds, the layout of the knowledge base must be consistent and each page must be identical.
To continuously improve your knowledge base, monitor user feedback and engagement indicators. This will enable you to assess performance and implement corrective measures. Regularly promote its benefits to employees to maximize its use.
Keep your knowledge base constantly up to date
As you've guessed, up-to-date and reliable content is a must when overseeing knowledge sharing. So it's essential to set up systems for updating articles and ensuring that they meet user needs. Here are some ways of finding out which content needs updating:
- Encourage user feedback: satisfaction forms, experience feedback, etc.
- Analyze the performance of your database: number of clicks, length of visit, etc.
As for updating, modify or even remove obsolete content, notify and date the changes, and finally, highlight the article on your home page.
7 examples of software for your knowledge base
| Solutions | Types | Benefits | Cost | Free trial |
| BookStack | Self-hosted |
|
FREE | ❌ |
| Confluence | SaaS and On premise |
|
From €5.50 /month/user |
✅ |
| Document360 | SaaS |
|
Price on request | ✅ |
| Notion | SaaS |
|
From € 5.00 /month /user |
✅ |
| Slite | SaaS |
|
Price on request | ✅ |
| Zendesk Guide | SaaS |
|
Zendesk suite from €49.00 /month/user |
✅ |
| Zoho Desk | SaaS |
|
From €7.00 /month/user |
✅ |
BookStack
BookStack is an open-source wiki-style software package designed to provide a simple, intuitive, self-hosted documentation management solution.
To set up a knowledge base, this :
- uses a simple hierarchical structure (books, chapters, pages) to organize information,
- offers an intuitive interface with WYSIWYG editor and Markdown support,
- facilitates collaboration through customization and access management options,
- integrates tools such as diagrams.net to enrich documentation,
- offers efficient search and direct links for fast navigation,
- is lightweight, open source, multilingual and easy to host.
An example of the look and feel of a BookStack page:
Confluence
Confluence
Confluence is a tool designed by Atlassian to provide your teams with an online collaborative workspace.
When it comes to choosing a support for your knowledge base, this platform :
- centralizes knowledge,
- facilitates collaboration between members (face-to-face or remotely),
- enables employees to create documents,
- encourages resource sharing ,
- organizes content seamlessly,
- reinforces collective efficiency.
Example of a knowledge base implemented at Confluence :
Document360
Document360
Document360 is an advanced knowledge base management solution, specially designed to meet the needs of SMEs and large corporations alike.
It offers a complete platform for your knowledge base, enabling you to :
- centralize public and internal documentation
- facilitate the creation, organization and updating of vast content libraries,
- streamline knowledge sharing and optimize team efficiency, thanks to its intelligent search engine and multilingual support.
Example of adding an article to your knowledge base on Document360:
Notion
Notion
Notion is an all-in-one collaborative platform, ideal for entrepreneurs, SMEs and large organizations wishing to structure their teamwork in a clear and flexible way.
It offers a comprehensive virtual workspace for project and knowledge management, as Notion enables :
- centralize internal documentation and corporate culture in dynamic wikis,
- simplify project management with customizable roadmaps, templates and tables,
- promote onboarding and collaboration by providing an overview of processes, accessible to all employees in real time.
Example of a page layout on Notion :
Slite
Slite
Slite is a knowledge management solution designed to make teams' work more fluid, by eliminating the repetitive tasks associated with documenting and searching for information.
For your knowledge base, it offers :
- an intuitive, collaborative platform that benefits your knowledge base,
- easily create documents thanks to an AI-assisted editor, ready-to-use templates and advanced visual options,
- keep information up to date with verification, analysis and bulk content management tools,
- find the right answers instantly, thanks to intelligent search,
- Slack integration and a multilingual, rights-based AI assistant.
An example of your knowledge base layout on Slite :
Zendesk Guide
Zendesk Guide is an integrated knowledge base solution designed to improve the customer experience while increasing the efficiency of support teams.
It offers a complete omnichannel platform that benefits your knowledge management by :
- centralize FAQs and documentation on a customizable interface, accessible from all your communication channels,
- streamline customer exchanges by unifying data from email, chat, social networks or the telephone,
- improve agent productivity through automation, AI and analytical dashboards (Zendesk Explore) for real-time strategic management.
Example of a knowledge base on Zendesk Guide :
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk
Zoho Desk is contextual customer support software that adapts to the changing needs of companies of all sizes, unifying communication channels and simplifying request management.
It offers a comprehensive, intuitive platform that benefits your customer service by :
- centralize all customer interactions (email, telephone, social networks, chat) within a powerful omnichannel ticketing system,
- boost team productivity thanks to AI, workflow automation and a customizable interface,
- offer multilingual and multi-brand support, with self-service portals, knowledge bases and community forums for a fluid, proactive and engaging customer experience.
Example of an article to your knowledge base on Zoho Desk :
The essentials for a high-performance knowledge base
In short, a well-structured and efficiently implemented knowledge base is a growth lever for any company. By centralizing and organizing resources, the knowledge base makes it possible to offer an optimal customer experience, while meeting the need for immediacy and flexibility. What's more, internally, it encourages productivity and collaboration. In this way, companies that invest in the creation and management of a high-performance knowledge base benefit not only from reduced support costs, but also from greater operational efficiency.
However, for this base to be truly effective, it is crucial to ensure its ongoing management, guaranteeing the relevance and currency of the information shared. Regular updating, fluid navigation and content tailored to users' needs will enable you not only to offer high-quality customer service, but also to create a genuine culture of sharing and collaboration within your company.
Knowledge base FAQ
What are the best practices for structuring a customer-oriented knowledge base?
Classify your content based on your offers or on web users' requests and profiles. Make sure your layout and language are clear and meaningful to the end-user, whether customer or internal collaborator. To do this, order your structure in a relevant way and use a simple vocabulary that recalls the key words of the query. The aim here is to facilitate navigation while ensuring that they find the answer to their question.
Remember, to build customer loyalty, offer reliable resources. That's why you should have your articles checked by several people, and update them when the information becomes obsolete.
How do I keep my knowledge base up to date?
The starting point for updating is to schedule regular audits to find out whether information is still relevant and true. Keep yourself informed, and encourage communication that enables all teams to alert each other when a change concerning a product or service occurs to modify the out-of-date information. With this in mind, encourage your teams to work together.
User feedback and performance indicators can also identify incomplete or out-of-date items. Performance indicators are also useful for identifying search trends and establishing the degree of urgency for updating each article. Slite and Zendesk Guide are software packages that offer a user feedback system.
How to ensure security and access to the various parts of the database?
To ensure data security and fluid navigation, it is essential to explicitly define the level of access (public, private or mixed). To identify each user's level of access, assign roles that will limit their rights according to their profile. In addition, track all user activity by automatically recording all versions of content in a history.
When it comes to sensitive content, even greater security is essential. Restrict access to sensitive information and limit the number of collaborators who can edit or share data. Pay particular attention to access revisions and user rights, and check authorizations regularly.
How can I automate the updating of obsolete items?
There are a number of software programs available that automatically detect articles that are no longer relevant. Confluence, Document360 and Zendesk Guide, for example, use an alert system to flag content for review.
In addition, integrate a monitoring function to keep abreast of any changes to a product or service's policy, functionality or interface.
Go a step further by automating your content audit schedule, or even your customer feedback system by defining keywords indicating dissatisfaction with a response.
Article translated from French