What is knowledge base? Strategies to build a knowledge base system for enterprises

1. Overview What is the Knowledge base?

1.1. Explain what the Knowledge base is

Knowledge base translates to knowledge base, this is a centralized, scientific and systematic data store. Knowledge bases are commonly used by organizations to store and manage information related to their products, services, and processes.  The primary goal of a knowledge base is to provide a unified, standardized source of information for an organization's audience including employees, customers, and other stakeholders.

The knowledge base is considered a “self-service digital library” because it facilitates the sharing and transfer of knowledge by collecting, organizing, and communicating information to target audiences needs, helping users easily access and find the information they need. Basically, the purpose of any knowledge base is to help end users find solutions to their problems without having to depend on others.

1.2. Data classification in Knowledge base

Data in a knowledge base can come from anywhere. Normally, according to the purpose and source of information, the data of the knowledge base is divided into 3 types, including internal knowledge base, customer support knowledge base and public knowledge base:

- Internal Knowledge Base: Used by organizations to store information related to operational activities, such as policies, procedures, and workflows, etc.

- Customer Support Knowledge Base: Used by companies to provide self-service solutions to customers, allowing them to find answers to common questions and problems without having to contact them  with support, such as product manuals, troubleshooting, etc.

- Public Knowledge Base: Designed to reach a wider audience, including potential customers, partners or the general public. The data in the knowledge base often provides public information about the company's products, services, organizations, and areas of activity.

2. What are the benefits of Knowledge Base? 

Enhancing customer experience and satisfaction 

One of the greatest benefits of the knowledge base is that it can reduce the workload of the customer care department and improve customer satisfaction. By giving customers access to a variety of information sources, they can find answers to their problems faster and easier without having to wait for a response from the support. This not only saves time but also improves customer experience because they can find information as soon as they need it. Standardizing information sources Another important benefit of the knowledge base is that it can help organizations standardize their processes and ensure that people are accessing and exploiting the same source of consistent information. This is especially important for companies with human resources working at different offices and branches, as it helps ensure that people are following the same set of principles and workflows. 

Improving the performance of a knowledge base can also help improve an organization's overall performance by providing a centralized information store that people can easily access. This helps reduce the amount of time employees spend on information and can help ensure that people are using the most up-to-date source of information. The less time your employees take to gain the knowledge they need, the more time they have to focus on fulfilling their main tasks, thereby improving the overall performance and quality of work. Cost savings on knowledge base training can reduce training and onboard costs by providing centralized information storage that employees can access to learn about specific topics. For example, if an organization is introducing a new software system, that organization can create a knowledge base to store detailed instructions on how to use the system. This can save time and direct training costs for all employees on the new system. Instead, employees can access the knowledge base when needed to learn how to use the system. 

3. 6 Steps to build a Knowledge Base system for businesses 

Step 1. Determine what is the purpose and scope of the knowledge base. 

Determine the purpose of the knowledge base, what kind of information will be included and who intended to be. In order to clearly identify what is the target audience and the scope of the Knowledge Base system, the business can start from the following questions: Which questions or topics are most interested by customers? Is the customer support department often overloaded with information requirements? How long does it take for employees to respond to customer requests? Is there a "gap" of knowledge / skills that will appear if a position is empty or an employee leaves the company? 

Step 2. Identify the core elements of the knowledge base 

The core elements that every knowledge base system needs to include: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) The first place that users will look to when they have basic questions about products, services or processes in the enterprise is the FAQ. This must be a list of the most searched frequently asked questions. The search bar sometimes comes to the Knowledge Base with a specific problem / question. In this case, the search bar will help them easily find and access the problem they want. The search bar of the knowledge base system will predict what the user is typing and give a list of results. Contact support even if the business provides a massive knowledge base system, sometimes users still can't find what they're looking for or they will still need additional help. Integrating a quick link so that customers can contact the support must be the core element of the business's knowledge base. 

Step 3. Building a knowledge base structure 

A knowledge base is not merely collecting and storing information, businesses need to pay attention to its availability. Building a structure for a knowledge base will help businesses organize content and allow users to easily collect data and navigate through articles. There are many different creative ways to organize your knowledge base structure. The common type is the structure depending on the object that your knowledge base will serve. For example, if the enterprise is building an internal knowledge base system, the structure of the system may be based on the following users: 

The common knowledge base for the entire Integration 

Training Organization (Onboarding) 

Marketing human resources to support customers to develop products for the Knowledge Base system for customers, rely on the demand for searching or consumer behavior to design an appropriate structure. The structure of the customer support knowledge base can be sorted by product type, by the role of the user (beginner, advanced, expert) or customer itinerary (starting, account upgrade and product instructions). 

Step 4. Prepare knowledge resources 

To build a knowledge resource store for Knowledge Base, build articles that provide knowledge according to the following criteria: 

Clearly: Use a title based on search behavior to help users immediately know the content mentioned in the article .. Explain all the jargon or technical terms in clear language. 

Easy to understand: Readers like the content that provides information quickly. That means the paragraphs must be short and divided by titles, subheadings, bullets or numbered lists if any. 

Intuitive: Includes images, charts, information graphics or videos in the content or as independent content to increase interaction. 

Utilities: Make sure to link to related articles in your knowledge base. This will help users easily find other sources to fully answer their questions. 

Value: Each part of the content in the knowledge base should provide a valuable solution or detailed information. 

Step 5. Selecting the appropriate knowledge base software 

Finding a suitable knowledge base software for businesses can be a big challenge no matter what your organization is. A suitable software can help businesses improve service quality as well as improve employee performance. On the other hand, an inappropriate software can lead to an unpleasant experience for users, even leading to worse situations than that businesses do not have a knowledge base in the first place. So, how to choose the best knowledge base software, suitable to the needs and strategic direction of the business? Let's start by finding a software with the right features that can help businesses easily build a user-friendly knowledge base system; Help teams easily create and organize content as well as end users easily find the information they are looking for. Moreover, an appropriate solution will help you solve your needs and initial expectations for a knowledge base, such as to improve customer service, improve workflow, etc. Some features to consider when choosing a knowledge base for your business: 

Drafting and format of user-friendly content: Easy-to-use, easy-to-use knowledge base: Easy-to-use The group creates additional content, formatting and manipulating text as well as image and video files. 

Advanced search function: With a large amount of information stored, it is essential that the knowledge base must provide advanced search engines so that users can find the information they are looking for easily and quickly. 

Smart analysis: Assessing how the content being used can help businesses improve the quality of information for their knowledge base - thereby turning the knowledge base into a valuable asset for the business.

Step 6. Update and optimize content regularly

Updating and optimizing information content should be done regularly to ensure that the knowledge base is always relevant and useful to users. Based on the analysis tool built into the knowledge base software system, enterprises can collect feedback from reports to serve as a basis for improving their knowledge base system.

In addition, the company should plan to update and refresh the relevant content whenever the company policy or product or service changes.