Reasons why your company needs an online knowledge base

Most companies are convinced of the need for a helpful knowledge base. You can provide outstanding customer service or enhance employee satisfaction with a self-service repository of information.

If you want delighted customers and satisfied employees, then you need an online knowledge base. 

What is a knowledge base? 

A knowledge base is an online repository of information that provides users with answers to common questions and problems. The purpose of the knowledge base is to make it easy to gather information on the part of your customers or your employees. 

It’s possible to create either an internal or external, customer-facing knowledge base. You won’t have any trouble creating the right knowledge base if you choose the appropriate software. 

Now, let’s move onto the reasons that your company needs an online knowledge base. 

1. Provides 24/7 customer support

Unlike your human agents, a knowledge base doesn’t need to sleep, go on vacation, or take sick leave. It’s always available to help your customers, even when your agents aren’t. 

This means you can provide global support to your customers without hiring more agents in different time zones. Customers feel like they are receiving a better level of service because your knowledge base is always on hand to help them solve their problems. 

2. Reduces the load on your customer support team

When customers are able to self-serve the more basic queries using your knowledge base, support agents have more time to focus on the more complex problems. Morale increases as they don’t have to deal with repetitive mundane questions and support agents become more satisfied in their jobs. 

More customers engaging in self-service means fewer calls to the help desk and shorter wait times for those customers who do feel the need to get in touch. This means you can scale your business much more effectively and lower the costs associated with your support team. 

3. Increases customer satisfaction

It’s a fact that 40% of customers prefer self-service over the human touch. That’s a huge number of customers who don’t want to contact your support agents with their problem. 

Providing a knowledge base delivers the customer experience that your customers now expect. They will be more satisfied and rate your company more highly for providing the self-service option. 

Satisfied customers spend more with your company and have the potential to become valuable brand advocates. This means they will recommend your products and services to others. 

4. Delivers more consistent customer support

Having a self-service knowledge base means you provide consistent support to customers whoever, wherever they are. Knowledge base articles written in your brand tone of voice can help customers with their problems and they always have the same experience.

Consistency in customer support is important since customers need to feel engaged with a unified brand. Your knowledge base is a great way to offer consistency and deliver the same experience every time.  

5. Helps your customers faster

A knowledge base is available instantly so that means no more waiting on hold for an agent or for an email reply. Customers will appreciate getting the help they need, exactly when they need it. 

Knowledge bases are valuable because they can help a theoretically unlimited number of customers at once. All customers have to do is type a query into the search bar and they will find a ton of articles relevant to their problem. 

Customers will be happier when they can obtain an instant answer to their question and feel happier with the service you provide. 

6. Manages customer problems in a proactive manner

In today’s world, it’s not enough to sit around and wait for customers to come to you with problems. You need to anticipate their needs with relevant knowledge base content and proactively help them with their problems. 

You need to work to solve customer problems before they even notice that anything is wrong. Add value to your product and teach your customers how to use it. Useful guides teaching customers how to use various features is a good way to proactively help your customers. 

7. Helps you become an authority in your domain

Providing lots of content in your knowledge base shows that you know your business and offers helpful content to future customers who are interested in your products and services. 

When you have lots of valuable content, this increases your position in the search engine rankings and Google starts to prioritize your site. You gain visibility for potential customers, who may want to browse your content to learn about your products. 

Building a comprehensive, thorough knowledge base is a great way to build domain authority and reach more potential customers. Keep improving your articles with customer feedback and checking the analytics of your knowledge base. 

8. Increases employee engagement

Providing a knowledge base for your employees increases employee engagement because staff always know where to find the information they need to do their jobs. 

Making content available through a company knowledge base shows that your organization values transparency. You can document best practices and knowledge that formerly was in the heads of your employees, enhancing collaboration and trust. 

Employees will appreciate seeing what other departments are up to and how their work feeds into wider business objectives. They can also share their own knowledge and feel happy that they have contributed to the organization. 

9. Improves productivity

Employees tend to spend 20% of the working week searching for information. When you centralize all your knowledge in a knowledge base this speeds up the time employees spend looking and enhances productivity. 

No more scrolling through Slack messages, searching for an attachment in an email, or trying to catch the attention of a coworker. The information is all there for the taking and employees can reclaim a full working day with access to a knowledge base. 

10. Enhances employee training

Instead of staff spending lots of time out of their jobs training new employees, you can direct new hires to your knowledge base to learn everything they need. Instead of having to ask a question of their coworkers, new hires can simply consult the knowledge base and get up to speed with their job much more quickly. 

Final remarks

A knowledge base is a powerful way to help your customers and improve the experience of your employees. Customers have come to expect self-service and will be disappointed if your business doesn’t provide it. Employees need a way to find vital information that helps them do their jobs, and the result of not offering a knowledge base means overall lower job satisfaction and increased staff attrition. 

A knowledge base is not only useful for existing customers but can be a good way to attract potential customers. If done well, your knowledge base will rank in Google and provide visibility to new leads. 

It’s not enough to set up a knowledge base and forget about – you need to continually improve your content and add new articles to keep the site fresh. 

Take our very own knowledge base software KnowledgeOwl for a free spin.