When you are a part of the customer support service industry, the professional equivalent of the Bible, which all support executives and representatives swear by, and pledge allegiance to, in times of distress or indecisiveness at work, is the Knowledge Base Hub. The Knowledge Base or that place in the workplace where all queries and doubts are resolved, all impending questions find their answers, the Bible for redemption from all your profession sins committed while compromising the process guidelines. The Knowledge Base is an assimilation of consolidated subject matter expertise content on various aspects of a customer support initiative especially pertaining to the process and on general matters as well.
It is the source of reference when a customer query has a resolution you are not quite sure about or in case of a troubleshooting procedure that you somehow forgot the sequence of the steps for. Well thank God for the Knowledge Base, the primary resource of training for prospective support representatives and the final resort for unsolved situations within the confines of a particular process. Hence when composing the Knowledge Base content for your process, it warrants a lot of care, attention and awareness as it is practically going to be perceived as a lifeline for generations of customer support representatives to come. Below are some guidelines and heady pointers to follow and keep in mind while compiling the Knowledge Base.
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Never Write Without An Outline – Do not start writing as thoughts keep coming to your mind. Without a pre-decided proforma you want to elaborate on, building a foundation for the Knowledge base will not be an easy attempt. Once you have a strong foundation that is well laid out, developing on it to expand your content for the Knowledge Base is quite comprehensible. However, rattling off points straight out of memory and recollection is not an advisable start to your attempt to compose the complete Knowledge Base for your process.
Always begin with a mental outline and jot it down on a rough piece of paper to give you a rough outline you need to be approaching. Once you have built the outline as you had envisioned it to be, the wireframe of the complete project is ready and now what needs to be done is just flesh out the skeletal framework and elaborate on the outline to give it shape and prominence and flourish. So in summary the start of any Knowledge Base composition should begin with a mental sketch followed by a rough outline of points to build the framework of the Knowledge Base around. Once the working framework is ready and a distinct foundation has been laid out, the Knowledge Base is ready to be fleshed out with proper content.
Avoid Use Of Fancy Titles – Avoid being overtly creative or using ornamental titles for segregating and categorizing content while compiling the Knowledge Base with information and material. It is advisable to use fairly straight forward language and easy to understand words so that it can permeate to all levels of intellect and can be readily pulled up for reference. Using fancy titles or being unnecessarily creative with the composition, especially titles can divert the attention of users in an unwanted direction and may complicate things thereby unnecessarily making it difficult to identify the relevance and reference of a content matter on the Knowledge Base in an event of emergency or urgent requirement.
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Using of creative alternatives to technical terms and jargon is also strictly discouraged because these are Keywords for heading a search query by and in the event these technical terms are replaced with alternative creative terms, it not only complicates things but also makes it difficult to bring speedy closure or easy reference while referring to the Knowledge Base.
Focus on Style & Structure – With a majorly young audience comprising most of the employee strength of customer representatives and executives, it is very important to be aware of the language and style of writing while compiling the Knowledge Base. Not only is the Knowledge Base an infallible source of information but it is the highest point of reference for accurate answers pertaining to queries regarding the process details and policies.
So while dress code and other norms of professional setup are considerably relaxed, the Knowledge Base is the ultimate source of reinforcing a professional approach and seriousness to all things in the workplace. Moreover the content matter of the Knowledge Base should resonate to be the highest point of authority in the mind of any reader and at no point should the language or the style of writing create an atmosphere of doubt in the mind of the reader. Hence the style and writing of the content for the Knowledge Base should involve professional crisp and compact style written in a user friendly and easy to understand language.
Exploit Multimedia Solutions – In the present day and age, content can be fleshed out for better engagement and interaction to make it more interesting by incorporating multimedia elements like audio visual components, graphic illustrations and interactive infographics with demonstrative and self explanatory pictorials. Video clips guarantee better visibility and easiest absorption of a message being conveyed. Text content is no longer a preferable way to engage audience and keep them, especially when it is desired that the reader go through the content and absorb its gist in their memory for later reproduction. With capacity for absorbing technical knowledge varying from person to person, multimedia elements add an interesting twist to the flow of content and knowledge works at the same time making their consumption an interesting exercise. When captivated, the chances are improved of readers consuming the subject matter and absorbing it perfectly well for accurate reproduction when summoned from the depths of their memory at later occasions.
Be articulate & do not close before mentioning steps to follow – As discussed earlier it is very important for the content matter for Knowledge Base information should be clear and easy to understand. Language shortcuts and colloquial terms should be avoided in use and articulation in sentences is highly recommended.
Technical jargon should be simplified by use of articulate language but never be replaced with simpler alternatives as they represent a benchmark in the lengths and depths of the Knowledge Base material. Incorporating multimedia elements, pictographs and suitable illustrations is advisable to ensure greater interest and affinity to the content by readers which encourages engagement and promotes interaction. Use of video content and suitable multimedia education material relevant to subject matter is also highly advocated within the content matter included in the Knowledge base. Be clear that the Knowledge Base is a positive reminder and a constant reinforcement of the policies and professional commitment of the workforce to its customers and should adequately reflect none the less.
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Actively solicit feedback – Promote engagement and affinity to content and encourage interaction. An interactive content ensures content users and successful creators. It also signifies active participation of the users in the consumption of content provided. If the content matter is naturally appealing by suitable employment of multimedia elements, it will interest audiences almost naturally and the consumption of content and retention of the same for later reproduction may not be enforced but absolutely voluntary which reflects greater success of the management in its job. Motivated employees at work produce remarkable results at work leading to greater productivity and enhanced results.
