Why customer experience in your knowledge base is king – By Muhammad Ali Saleem

There has been a long debate for decades to find out the secret which can make a brand successful. Companies and Brands have always wondered how they can differentiate themselves from the competition and win the heart of their customers. 

Companies have been trying hard to win the trust of their customers and take the majority of the market share but still, they are not successful despite having the same quality products and services. Customers still prefer to go with their choice of brands even when there are no additional benefits involved. Sometimes brands offer a great discount or deal to attract the customers but still, customers tend to stick with their preferred brand as in the end, it all boils down to a very simple but very meaningful element which is "The Customer Experience".

What is customer experience?

Customer Experience is a set of tangible and intangible benefits offered by a brand to its customers. It's a complete value proposition which a customer experiences whenever they get in touch with a particular brand. It starts from the very first time the customer interacts with the brand for example: when they enter a shop or land on a website, the first impression, the first experience, that is the beginning of their customer experience journey and, it goes to the very end even after they have purchased a product or service from you. So basically, a customer experience is the overall impression a customer builds and maintains about you and your brand over time and that is what really makes a difference.

The importance of customer experience in knowledge bases

Let's talk about how important customer experience can be for your knowledge base. A good customer experience consists of providing ease and convenience to your customers. Having an easy-to-access and convenient-to-navigate knowledge base makes sure that your customers don't have to make a lot of effort to access the information and can get quick answers to common questions quickly. The more difficult it is for the customers to access the knowledge base, the worse their customer experience becomes. So it's really important that you must optimize all the customer touchpoints for the best customer experience and make sure that your customers have an amazing customer experience when they interact with your knowledge base.

Customer experience results in customer retention

Having a great knowledge base customer experience not only helps in providing a smooth interaction but also results in customer retention. When a customer is able to find an answer to a question easily on your knowledge base, their time is saved, and don't have to hassle a lot by talking to a support agent and when this happens, they feel happy and satisfied with your knowledge base and their trust in your brand increases. They feel that that they are being heard and assisted properly. They feel they are being valued and this results in strong customer retention. As per the research by Bain & Co, "A 5% rise in customer retention can lead to a 75% increase in company profitability", that's why you have to make sure that your customer never leaves your knowledge base unsatisfied and they are able to find answers to their questions properly.

Customer experience helps gain customer loyalty

Providing a nice customer experience via your knowledge base not only helps you in strong customer retention but also helps you build strong long-term relationships with your customers. When your customers find your knowledge base useful and appropriate as per their needs, they feel satisfied and this leads to increased customer satisfaction. Having repeated customer satisfaction over time converts to customer loyalty and then there comes a time that your regular customers become your true loyal customers and their trust in your brand reaches its pinnacle. Gaining customer loyalty has a number of benefits as it helps in strong customer retention. A study by Zinrelo shows that "80% of your future profits are likely to come from the 20% of your loyal customers". Moreover, retaining loyal customers is cheaper and time-saving than acquiring new prospects that's why a company has to make sure that its knowledge base is properly updated and optimized over time so that it can best meet the needs of the customers.

Customer experience helps build new relationships

Having a personalized and smartly designed knowledge base not only helps your current customers in navigation but it also helps your new customers in finding answers to their questions. A new customer might be hesitant to reach out to customer support for the first time if they would like to know the answer to a small query and your knowledge base would be the first place they would go to find the answer to their question therefore the layout, the design and the navigation elements should be laid out in such a manner which is user friendly and easy to use. You can also provide a FAQ section on your main page, which should contain the generally asked question which a new user might have as this would help them save time and hassle to navigate the knowledge base ultimately providing them quick answers to their questions in one place. This would not only help your customers in having a great customer experience but also your new customers are more likely to become your loyal customers in the future.

Customer experience helps with word-of-mouth

We as humans tend to look for social acceptance or support from our peers. We tend to trust those things more that are referred to us by someone whom we trust. The same is the case with customer experience. When a customer uses your knowledge base and find it useful as per their requirements, they become satisfied with your customer service and leave on a good note. Ultimately, your satisfied customers help in spreading good reviews about your brand and become a source of word-of-mouth marketing on your behalf. As a result, more new prospects and customers are prone towards your brand, and this chain of referring one another keeps on going, helping you attract more and more customers all because you provided a good customer experience to only one customer. That's how a good customer experience makes a difference.

Customer experience is king and always will be, therefore you have to make sure that your knowledge base customer experience doesn't lack in any way - otherwise, this can affect your brand in a negative manner!