A healthy knowledge base and Help Center community bolsters success for you and the customer. When customers can find easy, accessible self-service options, they can solve basic problems quickly, and that leads to increased satisfaction. No one wants to sit on the phone or wait for an email ticket response if they don't have to. A robust community and knowledge base also keeps basic issues from clogging your chat, email and phone help lines so staff can work to resolve more complex problems.
To obtain such benefits, you have to make people aware of the information available in your knowledge base. You also have to drive traffic to your forum and knowledge base so you can create a community of users who provide feedback and help each other.
Use Your Knowledge Base When Responding to Tickets
Drive traffic to knowledge base articles by telling users where to find answers. Incorporate links to relevant pages into responses for tickets, but make sure you don't forgo providing assistance simply because you provided a link. Instead, provide the knowledge base link if you would otherwise be copying in the same information present there or if you feel the article provides something that enhances or expands the answer to a ticket request.
Publicize New Forum Articles
Let your customers know when you publish new knowledge base articles or when a particularly helpful forum post is made. Include a link to a helpful piece of content in each email newsletter or post a link on social media. New content can entice people who haven't visited the forum or knowledge base to return.
Make Use of the Related Topics Widget
Use a widget to suggest related topics when someone is creating a Help Center ticket. If the widget serves up a page that already has an answer to the customer's problem, then they are happy and you have one less ticket to deal with. It also increases the likelihood the customer will visit the forums and knowledge base more often for answers.
Integrate Links Throughout Pages and Profiles
Integrate links to relevant knowledge base and forum pages throughout all your content. You can create additional authority for your pages by including quality links in YouTube content, social media posts and profiles, articles and blog posts and your main website pages.
If you push your Help Center knowledge base and forums, make sure to keep them updated and robust. Customers that seek answers in the knowledge base only to find no helpful information are less likely to come back to those pages in the future.