4 mistakes when creating knowledge base that a company should not make

Avoiding errors when creating a knowledge base can be a differential both for the operational efficiency of your business, as well as a guarantee of greater engagement and productivity of your employees.

For those who don't know, the knowledge base is a document of great importance for a service team and strut from any company. Because it contains all the necessary information and standards that will guide employees' customer service, whether in general or specific situations.

This document must clearly and objectively state how the attendant should behave in hypothetical situations of interaction with the consumer.

This will not only allow for a standardization of methods so that clients do not have different treatment from each other, but it will also help to optimize the performance and efficiency of the processes.

After all, when the collaborator has a question, they will have the document within easy reach to solve the problem they face with their interlocutor.

The importance of the knowledge base can be represented in numbers: a survey conducted with the 500 largest companies in the United States showed that these corporations lose about U$31.5 billion every year because of errors when creating a knowledge base, according to the IDC Servey.

It's a lot of money, isn't it? Therefore, to prevent your business from potential losses and optimize internal processes, we will show you four mistakes that you cannot make when drafting this document. Check it out!

4 mistakes when creating knowledge base

1. Not setting clear objectives

Defining clear and tangible objectives can be considered the first step in how to build a solid and efficient knowledge base, but unfortunately it is common to see this step being skipped. After all, to create a document of respect, it is important to know where you want to go.

In particular, the digital transformation brought us into the data era. Nowadays, everything on the internet can be measured using metrics and concrete data that should guide the choice of objectives and decision-making.

With this information in hand, it is possible to know which points should be improved and which guidelines should guide employee service.

In this way, the knowledge base will show not only which indicators will be used to guide the work of the attendants, but will also be based on concrete and accessible objectives according to the reality of the business.

2. Don't take feedback from the public into consideration

Despite all the potential for interactivity that the internet and traditional communication channels offer between brands and audiences, many companies still insist on this second item on our list of errors when creating a knowledge base.

Acting without gathering dialogue and feedback is the same as putting up a wall between the company and its consumers. And this is a crucial mistake, because it is precisely for the customers and for them that a business exists and guarantees profits.

Thus, the opinion that it relates to the brand is the main thermometer that should guide strategic decision-making and, obviously, also how to feed a knowledge base for service.

The creation of a Voice of the Customer with feedback, opinions, suggestions, and metrics from Customer Experience can be used to adjust and improve the document over time and according to current needs. In fact, this point already brings us to the third point on our list of errors when creating a knowledge base.

3. Don't update the document when necessary

You must agree that we live in times of great volatility, right? Information circulates at a speed never seen before, trends are born and die in short periods of time, and deals are closed in terms of insurance.

Thus, if the information contained in the document to guide your collaborators makes sense today, tomorrow they may not do it anymore.

Therefore, one of the main mistakes when creating a knowledge base is thinking that it is already a finished work.

Quite the contrary, it must be renewed and adjusted whenever the business context changes and processes that worked before fail to match.

In this context, it is the monitoring of the objectives based on customer service indicators that will determine the frequency of the change in the content of the knowledge base.

4. Don't make it user friendly

Thinking about the experience of the user who will consult the document is essential for those who want to know how to organize a knowledge base. In fact, that point is almost as important as the content itself that comes with it.

After all, we learned how to structure a knowledge base with the objective of optimizing employee performance and standardizing interactions with customers. In this case, if the information is not accessible and exposed in a simple and intuitive way, the service process may get stuck and not work as expected.

Therefore, think of a scannable, pleasant interface that makes it easier for employees to navigate through the categories in the service manual.

Did you like the content? Are you in need of professional help to guide you how to improve a knowledge base?

Use the Cloud Humans spreadsheet to create an initial knowledge base template for your business:

https://form.jotform.com/221454881362053