If you’ve considered investing in knowledge base software, you’ve probably already looked at the typical reasons that companies add the tool to their arsenal. Knowledge base software supports customer service, giving your employees the tools they need to help your customers quickly and efficiently, and in some cases, giving your customers more self-service options. A well-developed knowledge base helps improve staff productivity as well.
When all of the answers they need are at their fingertips, they don’t waste time searching for information. And knowledge base software helps keep you customers happy. Not only can they get help quickly, but a comprehensive knowledge center increases the likelihood that they will get the rights answers when they need them.
However, of all of those good reasons to invest in knowledge base software aren’t enough to sway you, there are several other reasons that you might not have considered yet.
1. SEO Value
The basis of any good content strategy is answering customer questions. What do they want to know more about? How can they most effectively use your product? How can they solve problems with your product? How can your product help them do more, and do it better? When you think about it, the most useful and well-received content tends to hinge on one of these themes.
And so is your knowledge base. When you include an online knowledge base on your website, you are essentially populating your website with useful and relevant content. This doesn’t mean you should forgo your other content marketing and SEO activities, but view your knowledge base as part of that strategy. When you use knowledge base software through eGain, for example, you also gain access to SEO tools that can help maximize the search value of your knowledge center. In short, you’re not focusing on user’s search queries and creating content based on what they wanted to know in the past, but distributing relevant content to users when they need it.
2. Customer Insights
Want to know where you need to improve your products? Check out the searches users are making in your knowledge base. Your customers are telling you what they need and want from you, you just need to listen to them, and monitoring usage of your knowledge base can provide a wealth of actionable insights.
Many companies have opted to include a rating system for customers to rate the usefulness of the information they find in your knowledge base. By watching these ratings, you can easily identify opportunities to expand or improve your content, and give your customers a better experience. By turning your knowledge center into a means of two-way communication with your audience, you can gain unparalleled insights into your customers, and make smarter decisions for your business.
3. Improved Employee Training
Consider your typical employee training session. Can you possibly cover everything they need to know about your company and its products? Even the most comprehensive training program will have gaps, and it’s unreasonable to expect every employee to know everything, especially in the early days on the job.
Knowledge base software can support your employee training efforts by putting everything that your workers will need right at their fingertips. Once they have been taught the basics, your employees can spend some time perusing the articles, case studies, procedures, and other information to improve their understanding of your company.
This is especially useful when someone leaves the company. All too often when employees leave, they take with them the vast repository of knowledge they’ve gained on the job. It’s possible they may leave some notes or binders with information, but with a knowledge base, you can avoid the “brain drain” that comes with departing employees. New employees can get up to speed sooner when everything is more centrally located.
There are so many reasons to invest in knowledge base software that it seems almost unbelievable that all companies haven’t taken the plunge and created a clearinghouse for all of the information that their employees and customers need. Given that knowledge base software can improve customer service and satisfaction while also allowing you to develop and meet your company’s strategic goals, it only makes sense to include the investment in your planning.
