Creating Effective Knowledge Bases for Customer Support

Overwhelmed by the number of support tickets and customer inquiries your team receives daily? It's time to consider a smart self-service solution that gives your customers quick, easy answers. Creating a knowledge base is a great way to make this happen.

In this article, you’ll learn how to create a knowledge base to reduce response times to customers’ queries and improve their satisfaction score.

What Is a Customer Support Knowledge Base?

A knowledge base is a collection of articles, guides, and answers to common questions about your product or service that customers can easily access on your site. It helps customers find solutions independently anytime they need them without contacting support. 

The knowledge base structure typically includes FAQs, how-to guides, troubleshooting tips, and product information.

2 Types of Knowledge Bases to Create

As you read this article, consider which type of knowledge base will improve customer satisfaction for your business model.

A. External Knowledge Base

An external knowledge base is created for your customers. It gives your customers a self-service option, so they can find answers and solve problems without contacting customer support. This helps improve customer satisfaction and reduces the volume of support tickets.

Here’s what an external knowledge base includes:

• Frequently asked questions (FAQ) and their answers about your product or service.
• How-to guides with step-by-step instructions on how to use your product or service.
• Troubleshooting tips for common problems that customers encounter.
• Product information, including features, benefits, and specifications.
• Information about return policies, shipping procedures, and terms of service.
• Release notes for updates and changes made to your product, like new features and bug fixes.
• Contact information to reach customer support for issues that can't be resolved through the knowledge base.
• Community forums as spaces for customers to discuss and share information.

Every business needs a solid knowledge base but it's especially crucial for 2-sided marketplaces. A good example of this is Prosple because they cater to both students and employers and they've smartly created separate knowledge bases for each group.

For students, it’s like having a career coach. You’ll find everything you need to search for internships, apply for jobs, and build your profile. The guides, tips, and FAQs make your career journey feel a lot less overwhelming.

Employers benefit from a dedicated knowledge base too, where they can learn how to post job listings, manage applications, and connect with top talent. It offers detailed instructions, best practices, and troubleshooting tips, to help them find the right candidates.

Prosple also has a community forum that features well-organized discussion threads sorted under categories like job opportunities, communities, and general.

You can find relevant content, ask questions, create new threads, and answer questions. With features like upvoting, commenting, and tagging, the most useful posts always rise to the top.

B. Internal Knowledge Base

An internal knowledge base is a centralized resource to access company information, guidelines, and solutions to common issues. It gives employees, particularly support and sales teams, an easy way to find the information and resources they need. This helps them give consistent and accurate answers to customers without wasting time looking for information elsewhere.

A solid internal knowledge base gives your employees the resources they need to grow in their roles and careers.

An internal knowledge base includes:

• Company policies and procedures
• Product documentation for in-depth product information and technical details
• Onboarding guides and training resources for new employees
• Pre-written responses and troubleshooting guides for common customer issues
• Tips and strategies for handling various scenarios
• Updates and news relevant to the staff

6 Benefits of Creating a Knowledge Base for Customer Support

Picture your customer support team with an effective knowledge base in place. How do you think this transformation would impact your business's efficiency and customer satisfaction?

1. Reduces Customer Service Costs

A well-organized knowledge base can reduce customer support calls by up to 5%, which means lower monthly operational costs.

If a customer encounters a common issue, like setting up a new device, they can refer to the detailed setup guide in a knowledge base article instead of contacting support.

With fewer support requests, you can maintain a smaller customer support team and improve employee productivity. This means you can save on salaries, benefits, and other employee-related expenses.

Also, front-line support agents can fix complex problems that require help from senior support staff immediately if they find the right answers in the knowledge base articles. This can save time, reduce the workload for senior staff, and reduce costs as fewer resources are spent on each problem.

2. Provides Consistent Information to All Customers

The right knowledge base helps all support agents provide the same information, no matter when or how customers contact support. This eliminates discrepancies that can arise from different agents giving different answers.

When customers find the same accurate answers in the knowledge base articles, it boosts their confidence in the company's product or service. It shows that the company values its time and is committed to offering the best possible service.

3. Offers SEO Benefits

A knowledge base article filled with relevant keywords and phrases that customers commonly search for can improve your site's overall search rankings. As your article starts to climb the search results, you’ll likely see more visitors coming to your site, which means more opportunities to engage with your audience.

Over time, this increased visibility and engagement can increase conversion rates, turning those curious visitors into loyal customers.

4. Facilitates Better Onboarding for New Employees

A knowledge base provides an information hub that new hires can use to learn about products and services, company policies, and standard responses and solutions to common customer issues.

This cuts down on training time and effort and gives new hires consistent and accurate information from the start. They can revisit these knowledge base articles and guides as needed to learn at their own pace and respond to customer queries.

5. Supports Business Operations and Scalability

As your business grows, the volume of customer inquiries and support requests will inevitably increase. A knowledge base helps your business grow without hiring additional support staff. Your team can focus on more complex and high-priority issues rather than repetitive queries.

6. Drives Sales by Equipping Your Team With Powerful Resources

An internal knowledge base can actually drive sales. Your sales reps can share case studies or testimonials directly from the knowledge base to show how others have successfully used your product, which can help close deals.

They can also access up-to-date product information, pricing details, and feature comparisons right from the knowledge base. This way, they can answer questions on the spot and negotiate and sell better.

For your business development teams, you can include different pitch deck templates in your knowledge base so your reps can customize them for new client pitches. Train your team to update these templates with the latest data and insights to keep your pitches fresh and relevant.

10 Easy Steps for Creating a Knowledge Base That Increases Customer Support Efficiency

Identify the most common questions your customer support team handles. How can turning these support questions into knowledge base articles reduce their workload and improve customer satisfaction?

1. Define What You Want to Achieve Out of Your Knowledge Base

• Identify your primary objectives—whether it's reducing support costs, enhancing the user experience, or improving internal processes.
• Prioritize these core elements based on urgency and impact. If customer feedback highlights frequent technical problems with a product, prioritize them in your knowledge base to avoid further dissatisfaction.
• Use a simple matrix to categorize objectives. On one axis, rate the urgency (high or low). On the other axis, rate the impact (high or low). Focus on objectives that fall into the high urgency, high impact quadrant first. High-impact goals will significantly improve your operations or user experience. Creating comprehensive FAQs is a high-impact task because it can drastically reduce the number of support tickets.
• Set measurable targets for your goals, like reducing support tickets by a certain percentage or increasing engagement rate with knowledge base content. To track progress better, set a realistic timeframe for achieving these targets.

2. Choose a Reliable Knowledge Base Software

Knowledge base software helps you create, edit, and organize content easily. It offers features like search functionality and user access controls to manage who can view or update content. The right knowledge base tool will help you build a well-structured knowledge base that can scale with your business.

You can also customize the look and feel of your knowledge base to match your brand and target audience. Plus, you can track how users interact with your content and identify where you need to make some tweaks.

Here are the core elements you should consider when choosing the right knowledge-base software:

• Think about the specific features you need, like customization, search functionality, or integration capabilities with other support channels.
• Look at feedback from other users to gauge the software’s reliability and ease of use. You can find these reviews on forums like Reddit or dedicated review sites like Capterra or G2.
• Make sure the software has good customer support and resources to help you get started. Most knowledge base software companies offer resources for easy troubleshooting, but the company should also provide personal customer service through multiple channels like live chat, phone, and email. Contact support for queries and check how quickly they respond to inquiries or issues (ideally within a few hours or less). Also, evaluate the depth of the support provided. Effective customer support should offer clear, detailed solutions and helpful guidance, not just generic responses.
• Many tools offer free trials. Take advantage of these to see if the knowledge base software fits your needs before committing.

There are several excellent knowledge base software solutions. This article highlights some of the top knowledge base software solutions that have robust privacy features.

3. Identify Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

An effective knowledge base is built around problems that customers frequently face. Follow these steps to ensure that your knowledge base includes everything your customers want to know:

• Gather data from all relevant sources like support tickets, chat logs, emails, and recorded phone calls.
• Conduct surveys or polls to gather direct feedback from customers about their challenges.
• Look for recurring themes or frequently mentioned problems. Identify common keywords or phrases that appear in the data.
• Sort the collected data into categories based on issues or questions using tools like spreadsheets or knowledge base software.
• Compile this information to understand what customers struggle with most and create a knowledge base that addresses their needs.

4. Create a Content Template and Style Guide

Creating a content template and style guide helps maintain consistency and quality in your knowledge base. Here’s how to develop one:

• Outline the basic structure for your content. Usually, knowledge base content templates include a title, an introduction, a body broken down into multiple subheadings, and a conclusion. You can include additional elements like FAQs, a table of contents with anchor links, a related articles section, and a CTA at the end. You can also provide additional instructions (e.g. the introduction and conclusion should be no more than 100 words) for consistency in structure.
• Develop reusable templates for different types of content. For example, an FAQ template can list each question in a simple, clickable format. When a user clicks on a question, the answer expands in a dropdown menu.
• Define guidelines for images and screenshots. Specify formats, sizes, and placement. For example, you can mention that screenshots should include red rectangle boxes or arrows to highlight key areas you want to point out or that featured images should be 1800 x 900 pixels.
• Establish guidelines for tone, language, and formatting. Decide if you want a formal or conversational tone. Include instructions about using clear and concise language, short sentences and paragraphs, bullet points, and internal links. Specify formatting styles, like bolding important terms and italicizing quotes. Plan for any additional elements—like sidebars, quote blocks, and images or infographics—that can add value and break up the text.

While this matters for all industries, it's especially important for fields like technology, healthcare, and legal services. When you're writing user manuals, complex guides, or technical info, good formatting helps make the content much easier to understand.

An example of good formatting is the way this QMS platform formats its guides. Each guide features a table of contents in a light blue box titled “In this article,” which makes it easy to navigate. There are also important disclaimers that are presented in yellow and red boxes.

The site also bolds menu items in step-by-step instructions and adds a shadow effect to all its images and screenshots.

This attention to detail gives the content a polished and professional look. And because every article follows this content and style for consistency, their entire knowledge base maintains a high quality standard.

Similarly, healthcare businesses can use a knowledge base to lighten the load on their customer support teams. 5% of Google searches are focused on health, so there is a major demand for accurate and accessible information.

Think about all of the repetitive questions the healthcare support team gets—things like how to book an appointment, understand test results, or basic information about treatments. With a well-organized and properly structured knowledge base, patients can find answers on their own, anytime, without waiting on hold or for a reply.

5. Write Clear, Concise, and SEO-Friendly Articles

Your knowledge base should have clear and concise content so users can quickly figure out how to resolve their issues. And when you make the content SEO-friendly, search engines can easily discover it, which drives more traffic to your website.

Here are some tips for how to achieve this:

• Use simple language and avoid jargon to make content accessible to as many readers as possible.
• Break down information into short, digestible sentences for better readability.
• Remove unnecessary words and repetitive information to keep content concise.
• Use bullet points and lists to clearly present key information.
• Identify and add relevant keywords throughout the content to improve search engine rankings.
• Write compelling meta descriptions and tags that include primary keywords and accurately reflect the content.
• Use descriptive headings and subheadings to organize content and make it easier for readers and search engines to navigate.
• Link to related articles within the knowledge base to enhance SEO and help users find additional information.

6. Include Visuals and Interactive Elements

Including visuals in your knowledge base makes complex information easier to understand and follow and enhances the user experience. High-quality images, diagrams, and videos can provide clear, step-by-step instructions that text-based content alone may fail to convey. Also, make sure that these images and videos are optimized for mobile devices.

Creating high-quality, mobile-optimized visuals is easier said than done because doing so requires a mix of technical skills and a creative vision.

The best way to go about it is to have an in-house graphic designer as it gives you creative liberty. If hiring one is too expensive, you can always turn to headhunting firms like Genius. That is one of the most cost-effective ways of getting exceptional talent and you don't have to commit to long-term engagements. Plus, it saves you from the hassles of recruitment and lets you focus on other essential tasks.

You can also:

• Use diagrams to illustrate complex processes or concepts.
• Create and embed video tutorials for visual demonstrations.
• Add interactive quizzes and surveys to engage users and gather feedback.
• Use tabs or accordions to break down large amounts of information into manageable sections.
• Include CTA blocks and contact forms at the end of the article for better conversions.

7. Structure Your Knowledge Base So It’s Easy to Navigate

Your knowledge base should be easy to navigate. Follow these best practices to structure it well:

• Group related topics into broad categories (e.g. Getting Started, Troubleshooting, Advanced Features).
• Break down each main category into specific subtopics or articles. For example, within the "Getting Started" category, include guides on account setup, basic navigation, and initial configuration. In the "Troubleshooting" section, cover common issues, error messages, and quick fixes.
• Include a table of contents at the beginning of long articles for easy navigation. This increases engagement and helps you attract readers. For example, you can display a sticky table of contents that remains visible as you scroll down the page, with items getting highlighted as you reach that point in the article. Each item in the table of contents can also be an anchor link that takes you directly to the corresponding section of the article.
• You can also use breadcrumbs to help users understand where they are in the knowledge base. This feature typically appears at the top of a webpage and shows a trail of links that brought you to the current article.

Breadcrumbs are especially important for sections with complex hierarchies and service directories. While most knowledge bases are simple, if your knowledge base has multiple layers—pages within pages within pages—you should definitely implement breadcrumbs like this business-selling site does with its product pages.

Their site has implemented breadcrumbs in a way that keeps everything organized and helps users easily find their way around without getting lost. For example, the page shown in the screenshot below was linked directly from the homepage, but with breadcrumbs, we can trace back and discover other similar pages in the same category.

Similarly, in your knowledge base, a user might land on an article through the search engine. If you have breadcrumbs, they can trace back and explore more relevant articles within the same subcategory. This also increases traffic to other pages on your site and boosts engagement rates.

8. Optimize the Search Function

Robust search functionality helps users quickly find the information they need. Here are some actionable steps to optimize your knowledge base's search function:

• Choose a search solution. Most knowledge bases have built-in search functionality. However, if your knowledge base's built-in search doesn't meet your needs, you can consider using a custom search solution like Elasticsearch, Algolia, or Google's Custom Search Engine (CSE) for more advanced needs.
• Place the search bar prominently on your knowledge base website—in the header, sidebar, or anywhere else you deem fit. Make sure it’s easily accessible on every page.
• Customize the search bar appearance to match your website’s design using CSS so it is visually appealing and user-friendly.
• Implement auto-suggestions to help users find relevant results as they type.
• Let users filter search results by categories, tags, or other relevant attributes.
• Highlight search terms within the search results to make it easier for users to quickly identify relevant information.
• Conduct various search queries to make sure the results are accurate, relevant, and helpful. Have a few users test the search function and provide feedback on its usability and effectiveness.
• Track search queries and user behavior using analytics tools. Gather data on search performance and analyze it to identify common search terms and content gaps. This will help your marketing team understand what users seek and how to improve the search function.

9. Integrate the Knowledge Base With Other Support Channels

You can make your support channels even more useful if you integrate your knowledge base within them. Doing so will also bring more traffic to your web pages and increase engagement time as users navigate the knowledge base. Here's an overview of ways to do this:

• Follow the platform-specific integration steps your help desk software provides to integrate it with your knowledge base software. Then, set up automation rules to suggest a relevant knowledge base article based on keywords users type in support tickets.
• Integrate the knowledge base with live chat support. This will allow agents to share helpful articles during conversations and provide real-time assistance. Use a live chat tool that supports knowledge base integration, like Intercom, LiveChat, or Zendesk Chat.
• Follow the chat tool’s documentation to integrate it with your knowledge base. For this, you'll have to link your knowledge base URL and configure settings in the chat software application. You can also train agents to manually provide real-time assistance by sharing relevant articles directly in the chat window.
• Promote articles on your social media channels and encourage discussions in community forums. This will extend the reach of your knowledge base and drive traffic to your knowledge base and website while fostering a community of informed users who can support each other.

10. Regularly Update Your Knowledge Base

Just like your blog needs regular updates to keep things fresh for its readers, your knowledge base will also need ongoing maintenance and updates to keep things relevant for its users. Make sure you:

• Conduct periodic content audits to identify outdated information and areas where new content is needed. Schedule regular reviews of existing articles to make sure they reflect the latest product updates, industry standards, and user feedback.
• Actively monitor user interactions and search analytics to identify common queries and gaps in the content.
• Encourage users to provide feedback on the usefulness of articles and use their suggestions to continuously improve the knowledge base.

Conclusion

Creating an internal or external knowledge base can be a great way to help your support staff or customers find answers to common questions.

If you're looking for a high-quality knowledge base solution, you can try KnowledgeOwl for free or watch a short demo to learn more!