How to Create a Multi-Channel Knowledge Base Approach

Data collection has always been important for companies, regardless industry. It always helps to know how many people have bought which products and whether they are new or returning customers.

However, the nature of data and knowledge has changed considerably over the years. In the past, knowledge was passed down verbally; this meant that only one or two people would be able to use draw upon it. However, today there is a need for every worker who needs to use it to have access to the same knowledge.

It is for this reason, that businesses are turning to knowledge bases to help them spread information and knowledge as far as possible within a company. Staff and customers alike can gain a lot from a knowledge base, especially when you consider the need for continued customer support. With more complex products, there is often a need for customers to be given additional help or troubleshooting. Additionally, there are software upgrades and other additions that customers need to be aware of during the life of the product.

Along with text-based knowledge base, there are many other and arguably better ways to support staff and customers. Implementing different approaches, including video and chat-based systems can be a game changer in that regard.

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A multi-channel approach

To ensure that you develop successful customer retention, you need to treat them to a premium service that will allow anyone that needs help to receive it. Part of this requires a multi-channel approach to customer satisfaction, allowing one to easily funnel into the others, if needed.

Chatbots, for example, are a valuable way to get customers from the beginning of the process and channel them to the best options such as a video knowledge base or a text-based knowledge base. This will also take some of the pressure off of customer success teams and allow them to deal with more complex customer queries.

One of the main reasons for a knowledge base is to help deal with the recurring questions that can arise from customers. These can swamp customer support teams and mean a less favorable experience for the customers.

Research shows that 70% of customers like to go to the company’s websites to get the information they need. This will also lead to 85% of customer interaction with a company being conducted with no human support by the end of 2020.

 

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Here are some of the ways that you can learn how to create a multi-channel knowledge base approach:

Text-Based

To create an effective text-based knowledge base, you need to offer customers the information they need. This can be achieved by analyzing the data coming from your customer queries and other support information.

For example, if one of the recurring questions relates to the operation of a particular product, then having this information in the knowledge base will help future customers.

The knowledge base not only has to be filled with helpful information, but it also has to be easy to navigate. If a certain product is frequently inquired about, then having a link to that answer near the product description will be useful.

Text-based knowledge bases, in particular, need to be easy to read and written in layman’s terms when possible. Diagrams can be included, but these need to be easy to read, and plainly marked. To get the best from a text-based knowledge base, you will often need to rely on a 3rd party platform such as Connectwise, Freshdesk, and Zendesk as they will help you to tie in all the support services.

Video

For most customers, a video-based knowledge base is the best option, mainly because they don’t have to visualize the product, and they can follow along with the video. Loyal customers are often those that will appreciate the little things that a company does to help, such as posting video tutorials and maintenance guides.

To get the best from your video knowledge base, you need to see to it that it can be constantly updated. You need to ensure it can be adapted to new products and changing customer needs. Video hosting platforms are invaluable in that regard. Offering a variety of solutions, these platforms enable companies to create video channels dedicated to specific products or customer personas. They are often complemented by free or affordable extensions, enabling easy webcam recordings. That way, whenever a video needs to be tweaked or replaced due to a shift in the product or service, it can be done on the fly. Typically, the backend user experience is highly-intuitive; in just a few clicks, you’ll be able to swap out-dated videos with newer versions.

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Chatbots

Chatbots are good as a gateway to other support services and knowledge bases. Platforms, such as LivePerson and LiveAgent, have revolutionized the industry and are now pivotal in making sure customers are granted the best possible support experience. These chatbots can be programmed to respond in certain ways to customers’ questions, and give SaaS system users the additional information they need.

Bots can either have text or video appear within them, and can even redirect customers to one of your video or text-based knowledge bases.

Bottom line

Customer success has become a major focus for companies; businesses are now more concerned with how their customers feel after they make their purchase, as this impacts future business.

By having a number of ways that knowledge of products can be disseminated, you can help more customers, especially when dealing with complex instructions. It is no coincidence that people, in general, learn more from a video than a text-based tutorial, and this type of knowledge base has yielded considerable results for many companies.

Using these strategies will increase customer satisfaction and retention, which companies can measure using platforms such as Survey Monkey. This is a form of A/B testing that companies employ, allowing them to continually optimize their corporate initiatives.

Originally published on April 14th, 2020, updated on August 21st, 2020
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How to Create a Multi-Channel Knowledge Base Approach

by Marc Bonne time to read: 4 min
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