In SaaS business, customer support is one of those areas you want to be flawless. Customer support can be extremely time-consuming (and expensive) business activity if it’s not handled correctly.
Hence, the way of providing support can make a huge difference. That’s where knowledge base comes in. With all the information in one place, the costs can be drastically lower. Of course, building a knowledge base that works for both the customers and the support engineers can be challenging. On the technical side, it’s easy to create it with knowledge base software, but other challenges remain.
SaaS tools aren’t always intuitive, and having a knowledge base can do significantly reduce the number of support tickets.
What is a knowledge base?
A knowledge base is a FAQ on the company or product website that helps customers find answers in an instant, on their own, without calling support or opening ticket.
Also read: Success Tips For Running A Technology Business
With knowledge base software, organizations can develop not only FAQs but also a wide range of support content from beginner’s guides, software manuals, online Wikipedias and much more.
Understanding the Customers
According to the research, 67 percent of customers lean towards self-service instead of contacting a customer service staff member. This is where a knowledge base can make a difference. SaaS marketing also plays a significant role in understading the customers
Knowledge is money in the business world, and a decent knowledge base can improve user experience, reduce support costs and open a lot of new opportunities.
Sorting Out Customers
An essential step in the process is systematizing your customers. Advertisers and sales teams are familiar with this part of the knowledge base creation. First, they use buyer personas calculation.
Basically, buyer personas are a calculated exercise intended to help companies comprehend the fundamental things about their target audience.
But, when you are contemplating customer personas, focusing on the buyer is not enough. It is a great starting point, and the buyer needs to be an important figure, but a regular potential customer that goes through the business procedure cannot be compared with existing customer, as they don’t have the same problems, needs, and expectations.
In this case, the best approach to address all of their problems with a knowledge base is to first comprehend their engagement with the platform, and what is the difference between their needs.
Review the Existing Content
After you have distinguished your customer personas, you have to do a review of your existing content, and attempt to recognize holes that should be filled. Talk with some of your best customers to discover the greatest difficulties they face, go through each support ticket and search for common issues and document to every customer interaction.
A content review will help you find gaps in your knowledge base. In case that the customers are experiencing difficulties finding the appropriate answers they are searching for, you will be in trouble likewise.
Watch Your Words
A well-structured article is not all about the media. A good support team needs to come up with language and tone guidelines that should be used with customers. MailChimp or Buffer are great examples of how it’s done. Then, ensure that tone and language are consistent everywhere.
Pick the simple terms you will use for technical features, and find a way to describe everything in a user-friendly manner. Choose one style of writing and stick to it.
Structure the Content
For example, imagine going to the library and finding all the books placed in one big pile in the middle of the room. This is not something you would describe as a good user experience, right?
Numerous knowledge base platforms have this kind of approach when it comes to education, and it might appear a bit too complicated to the end user.
When organizing content, try to make it easy for your customers to find what they are searching for, based on their circumstances and conditions.
Pay Attention to Insights from the Customers
Making an incredible knowledge base can be a truly eye-opening experience. If you understand the kind of videos and articles your clients usually consume, you can increase user experience by investing more energy in the development of similar content or enhancing the existing one.
Use a Human Touch
You have to show to the customers that there’s a dedicated support team behind the website’s knowledge base. Highlight the human side of your knowledge base. For instance, make it easier for users to get in touch with support, utilize photos of your support team and leave their short biographies. Do this to show the customers that you have a dedicated and caring team ready to help when they require it the most.
All things considered, you will need to give your customers an exceptional and human experience. This will help you connect with them on a higher level.
Conclusion
Finally, it’s important that entire support system is not a stand-alone thing. It’s deeply connected with everything else the company is doing – product design, missing or messed-up features, marketing, customer success, and more.
Also read: How To Track Expensive Items Using Technology
With a bit of research and a good knowledge software, anyone can create an excellent FAQ site.
What are your experiences with knowledge bases? Have we missed anything? Share in the comments!
| About the Guest Author:
Robin is a Technical Support Executive. He is an expert in knowledge management and various Knowledge base tools. Currently, he is a resident knowledge management expert at ProProfs. In his free time, Robin enjoys reading and traveling.