Would you use your own knowledge base?

A good test of the usefulness of your knowledge base is whether or not you would use it yourself. If you wouldn’t use your own knowledge base, there’s a good chance your customers won’t, either!

So many companies pour all of their marketing budget into a fancy website to attract new customers, and host a substandard knowledge base. When you visit their knowledge base for help with their product, your heart sinks. 

Nowadays, the pressure is on for companies to have online resources and they’re also seen as a cost-saving measure. 91% of customers prefer to use a knowledge base if it meets their needs, but 40% of customers have contacted a call center after they have looked for the answers to their questions via self-service. 

Customers are looking for a self-service knowledge base, but are not always satisfied with what they find. 

Taking the easiest route

All human beings take the path of least resistance to reach their goals as this is the logical choice. It limits the amount of effort spent on accomplishing a task and is an evolutionary advantage. 

Customers won’t use your knowledge base if it’s too difficult or they can’t find what they’re looking for. You may be happy with your knowledge base but the real test is whether customers are using it or not. 

If they’re having a problem with your product, they can either struggle with your bad navigation and content that doesn’t actually help them, or they can simply shoot an email to your customer support team. 

Make it easier for your customers to use your knowledge base than it is for them to email your agents. 

Reasons customers don’t use your knowledge base

There are many reasons why customers get turned off when they get to your knowledge base. 

1. You don’t have the right knowledge base software

Your first downfall when it comes to your knowledge base is not using the right software. Perhaps you have a wiki when you really need a knowledge base. Perhaps you tried to save time and money and are using more general software like a website CMS that isn’t specialized enough to provide knowledge base content. Perhaps you’re relying on a WordPress plugin that isn’t powerful enough to provide a proper customer self-service knowledge base. 

Companies that want to provide a successful self-service application know that their knowledge base needs to serve customers information that enables them to solve problems or perform tasks. Rather than trying to struggle with less than ideal knowledge base software, invest in a dedicated solution to truly wow your customers. 

2. Your knowledge base content isn’t providing value

Knowledge base software allows you to provide an unlimited number of resources but that doesn’t mean all your content is valuable. Perhaps your customers are arriving at your knowledge base but finding your content doesn’t meet their needs. Or perhaps the content is there, but your search bar isn’t returning the right results, and customers are leaving your knowledge base in droves. 

You should make sure your knowledge base software has a powerful search function that returns intelligent results based on what your customers are searching for. Tag your content with possible terms that customers might be using, and use a popular articles widget to display commonly used content on the homepage. 

3. Customers can’t easily ask questions

Your knowledge base should provide a forum where customers can find answers to their questions. You can’t anticipate every customer question in advance but the knowledge base should provide a way for them to ask. 

Your knowledge base search bar should allow customers to type their questions and return results based on keywords. If there is no answer to the customer’s question, it should be easy for them to contact support either through live chat, email, or phone call. 

4. Customers can’t access content when they need it

For your knowledge base to be useful, the content needs to be available at the moment the customer wants to take action. They may not always be sitting at a computer, but trying to access your knowledge base on a mobile device. 

You should choose knowledge base software that is mobile responsive, and that can be accessed anywhere a customer is looking for information. Ideally, your customer-facing knowledge base should be indexed by search, so content is showing up when customers are googling your products. 

Testing the scenario

New staff members are much more like your customers than seasoned employees who know the product back to front. They have no prior conceptions or biases that distance them from customers using your product. 

A great way to test whether your knowledge base is up to scratch is to get your new staff members to road test your knowledge base. Ask them to figure out how to use your product with just your knowledge base for help. 

What roadblocks do they encounter? Are there any parts of the documentation that are confusing or out of date? Make a note of these so you can address these issues later by improving your knowledge base content. 

Let them know that this test isn’t going towards their performance score! 

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

It’s a well-known fact that you are not your customer. You’re far too close to the product to see it with your customer’s perspective, and that’s where customer feedback comes in very handy. 

With the best of intentions, it’s common for teams to look inward when analyzing their business, and forget to test with actual customers. You should try to gain an objective opinion of your knowledge base by asking your customers for their feedback. 

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes by conducting some user testing. Learn how to create a simple user test by following this plan. 

Even if you don’t have time for proper user testing, you can still use some features of your knowledge base to gather feedback. 

• Activate the ratings widget so customers can rate your content as helpful or unhelpful. 

• Make sure customers can leave a comment on your documentation. 

• Conduct a user survey on your knowledge base to gain an idea of how satisfied your customers are.

• Search terms in the knowledge base that aren’t returning any results (you can create content to fill the gap).  

Collect all your customer feedback and use it to improve your knowledge base. 

Valuing long term customers

If your customers can see that you’ve invested in your knowledge base to help them use your product, this will turn them into long term fans. Loyal customers are much more likely to purchase from you again, and recommend your products and services to others. 

As we’ve mentioned, you need to invest in the right knowledge base software to truly be successful. We can recommend our own KnowledgeOwl as an ideal solution for customer-focused teams. 

Your knowledge base doesn’t have to be the fanciest kid on the block but it should be made with love. It should be simple, well-organized, free from errors and use up-to-date software. 

Make your content so helpful that you would use your own knowledge base, rather than simply turning to your coworkers for help! Your customers will thank you. 

KnowledgeOwl considers your happiness our top priority - try out our knowledge base software today!