What Is a Knowledgebase and Why Do You Need One?

Since the publication of manuals, human beings discovered the importance of educating the customer. And with the invention of more complicated software along with the revolution of the internet, it was clear that knowledge should be closer to customers, scalable, and easier to retrieve and manage.

The web then started the trend of tutorials, how-to articles, forums that let everyone share and retrieve knowledge. After that, cloud computing came on the scene, and the way software is delivered, managed, and learned has changed a lot with the generation of the search button.

Now, each business has a website, customers expect to know more about any product or service through its online resource. Self-service became an essential part of any customer service department and knowledge bases are the way for that self-service.

What is a knowledge base?

In a nutshell, a knowledge base is an online repository that contains information about your business.

Who can access this repository?

It depends. It can be your employees, your customers, partners, investors, or just anyone who wants to know about your business.

What is this information?

Anything related to the product or service you provide, like FAQs, how-to articles, pricing models, business policies, etc. You should provide the information that answers questions, fixes problems, or clears confusion.

A side note

There is another type of knowledge bases that aren't made for humans, rather it's created for AI (Artificial Intelligence) systems. The term knowledge base is a little bit ambiguous as it didn't mean the same thing before the revolution of the internet. But the scope of this article is human-readable knowledge bases.

Why do you need a knowledge base?

For your customer service reps

Having a knowledge base saves your customer service reps time and accordingly, their costs. Instead of answering the same questions again and again, customers can search for the answers they want on your website or reps can refer them to the resources that would help them. That way, you ensure that your service is consistent, professional, and fast.

It's also helpful for new employees who need to be educated about workflow and policies. Creating an internal knowledge base breaks the ice for newbies.

For your customers

Self-service is now a demand for most customers who have an internet connection! Customers prefer searching for what they need rather than reaching the customer service department. Let's face it, even you prefer so. It's faster and easier.

Knowledge bases also educate your customers and create a community that adopts your business and spreads it.

Finally, customers may doubt your business if there isn't enough information about it on your website. Professionalism is now related to your online presence.

For your business

Knowledge bases are a great way to generate traffic and show yourself in search results. If you optimized it for SEO purposes, you can generate both traffic and leads.

And if you are scaling your business and facing the fear of customer service scaling, creating a strong knowledge base will pave the way for you. Finally, whether your business is big or small, you need documentation.

Final words

We believe that creating a knowledge base is essential for any business nowadays and is a core thing when it comes to customer service; thus we encourage you to take practical steps on creating a strong knowledge base.