Knowledge Base: A Comprehensive Guide

One of the key goals of any customer service operation should be to find the best and most efficient ways to share information with your customers — in a way that appeals to them. The good old knowledge base has withstood the test of time, proving itself time and time again to be one of the best tools to do this. Often, we think of one-on-one agent support as the gold standard in customer service. The problem? Your customers beg to differ.

In fact, 81% of consumers still want more self-service options. And, 92% are more than willing to engage with a knowledge base.

In this article, we’ll clear up any confusion you might have regarding what a knowledge base is and why it’s such a fundamental component of any business. Plus, we’ll provide practical information on how to craft an exceptional knowledge base of your very own.

What is a Knowledge Base?

The definition of a knowledge base is a collection of organized, easy-to-access information that supports and assists customers and employees.

It typically includes a wide range of information, such as product or service descriptions, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and other helpful resources. On top of textual content, it can even be enriched by video tutorials, infographics, and more.

A knowledge base can take many forms, including a dedicated website or platform, an internal database, or a collection of documents and resources.

The most important thing is that the information is organized and easy to access, so customers and employees can quickly and easily find the information they need.

Today’s knowledge bases have evolved beyond being static information resources. These so-called “AI-powered knowledge bases” are also critical supporting structures for training and facilitating AI-powered chatbots. 

And, combined with generative AI and automation, they can be turned into a living, breathing entity that grows and adapts alongside your business and the needs of your customers.

A quick aside: What is the difference between a knowledge base and a help center?

This is something that confuses a lot of people — it even took me some time to wrap my head around it!😅

A help center is a customer-facing interface with an intuitive design that makes finding information as user-friendly as possible. A knowledge base, on the other hand, is a comprehensive, organized resource of information that may be useful to both internal and external parties.

In the backstage, you usually have a knowledge base management solution that facilitates organizing, creating, and publishing all these resources.

So, the help center can use the information from your knowledge base but surface it to end-users in a way that’s easier to navigate and digest. This usually means integrating it with advanced search and filter tools, conversational chatbots, multiple support channels, and more.

What is the purpose of a knowledge base?

So, besides the obvious benefits of having a centralized repository of easy-to-access information, what’s the main purpose of a knowledge base?

Glad you asked. The answer is that there isn’t just one, but many roles that a knowledge base fills in the modern organization:

• Self-service option: Your platform’s knowledge base or documentation is typically your main self-service resources and the first place customers go to troubleshoot or look for solutions.
• Automated support: As a comprehensive repository of knowledge, chatbots can reference the knowledge base to inform their responses or guide customers to relevant solutions. Not to mention serving as an engine to feed canned responses.
• Centralizes company knowledge: A knowledge base acts as a single-source-of-truth. This promotes consistency and ensures everyone has access to the same level of information. Plus, it facilitates internal knowledge transfer between agents and teams.

Different stakeholders/departments can also use a knowledge base in different ways, for example:

• Sales: Houses product information, pricing details, and customer resources that help reps close deals and assist prospects.
• Marketing: Stores campaign documentation, brand guidelines, and content resources to help steer initiatives.
• Product development: Organizes product specs, development guides, and feature documentation to support collaboration.
• Customer success: Maintains resources for onboarding, best practices, and success playbooks to help new customers.

Types of Knowledge Base

Your business and customers’ needs determine what kind of knowledge base will serve you best. While there are many types and subtypes, the only two that really matter from a goal-oriented standpoint are an internal and external knowledge base:

Internal Knowledge Base

As the name suggests, an internal knowledge base is a collection of information that’s only accessible to employees within an organization. 

Companies often use it to store information like company policies, procedures, and internal documents, serving as a central point of reference. Some also use it to standardize internal operations, including customer experience training, for example.

It also happens to be handy for synchronizing collaboration on internal tasks:

External (Customer Service) Knowledge Base

An external knowledge base is intended for customers or the public but can (and should) also be used by your customer service or technical support teams. These KBs offer everyone they have access to self-service options to find answers about products, services, and common issues 24/7/365.

So, this is where you’d most typically house your FAQs, user manuals, troubleshooting guides, how-to guides, video tutorials, and anything else that could be useful in resolving issues.

Users can find this information by browsing through the available categories or using the search tools.

Components of a knowledge base

As we’ve already pointed out, an effective, modern knowledge base is not just a monolithic resource or a random collection of articles. To be as valuable and helpful as possible, it needs to address all your customer’s needs and cater to their different preferences regarding how they want to be helped.           

With that in mind, here are some of the most important facets that make up the best knowledge base software:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

A well-designed FAQ section anticipates users’ most frequent queries, providing instant fixes and reducing the need for customer support interventions.

By being literally structured around the most commonly asked questions, FAQs provide a highly intuitive way for customers to quickly find answers to their burning questions.

Common examples include questions like “How do I reset my password?” or “What are the shipping options available?” 

How-to Guides and Tutorials

Whether it’s using your software’s advanced features or navigating product onboarding, these guides help users gain confidence and maximize their experience with your product. 

It also helps reduce ticket volumes, particularly more complex queries that would keep your agents busy for longer periods of time.

Reference Documentation

Reference documentation is like the technical backbone of your knowledge base. 

It contains comprehensive and detailed information that’s typically most useful to advanced users, developers, and IT teams. For example, the internal IT team of your client organization, which is responsible for setting up and managing the backend of your software systems.

This includes stuff like your API documentation, system architecture blueprints, integration instructions, and system requirements — things the average user shouldn’t have to sweat over.

Community Section

This serves as a dynamic hub where users can interact, ask questions, provide fixes, and make suggestions to improve your product. On top of crowdsourcing peer-to-peer support, it also helps create a vibrant community around your product.

Your agents can also check in from time to time, offering expert advice or guiding posters to existing help resources. While it can take the form of a dedicated forum, it can also just be a social media group or Discord server, for example.

News and Updates Section

While it may not be strictly service-related, this is a great way to keep your audience in the loop and boost engagement.

This is where you can share your latest features, product improvements, upcoming events, brand collaborations, press releases, and key company news (like hires or mergers & acquisitions). 

Product and Policy Information

This essential information covers your return policies, subscription types, account management, and billing options. Any online business needs to minimize confusion and build online trust by having this spelled out in black and white so everyone can see it.

It’s also key in protecting your businesses from potential legal ramifications or if there are misunderstandings.

Benefits of Knowledge Bases

Regardless of the type of knowledge base, and content, that best fits your business, it has the potential to transform how you offer customer support.

Its benefits extend not only to help satisfy your end-customers, but also to your agents on the frontlines as well as your big-picture decision-makers guiding your customer service strategy.

While some of these benefits should already be clear to you, let’s go over them just to make sure you know what’s in store for you:

• Improved customer satisfaction and loyalty: Self-service is still the go-to for many consumers. A knowledge base allows them to quickly and easily find the answers they need, without having to wait for customer service.
• Increased support team productivity: Agents can also leverage the knowledge base to improve their resolution times by cutting down their research time, particularly for complex cases.
• Consistent and up-to-date information: Relying on a single, centralized, and synchronized resource means everyone will have access to the same accurate information.
• Lower ticket volumes: A rich KB with content that caters to different users (FAQs, in-depth guides, reference documentation) will drastically cut down on incoming tickets. This alone has many advantages, such as faster response times, more manageable peak hours, less strain on your human resources, and improved service quality.
• Reduced support costs: The knock-on effect is less pressure to hire more staff and upgrade your support packages, leading to long-term cost savings.
• Boosted SEO and organic traffic: Public knowledge bases drive traffic to your site, particularly if you take advantage of SEO and keyword optimization techniques. This can drive more traffic to your marketing and sales funnels.
• Faster onboarding: New hires or customers can easily access training resources and guides, automating the onboarding process and removing many common speed bumps.
• Increased team collaboration: A central repository for knowledge makes it easier to share information and work as a team, particularly when integrated with an intelligent, collaborative help center.
• Scalable support solutions: The right knowledge bases will grow elegantly with your business, adapting to evolving needs without breaking the bank.

Knowledge Base Examples

Top companies use knowledge bases not just as support tools but as powerful ways to engage and educate users. Here are two standout examples:

Spotify

Spotify’s knowledge base is a music lover’s go-to resource for everything from app installation to troubleshooting common issues. It’s packed with interactive tutorials, FAQs, and helpful articles that cater to both new users and seasoned pros. 

It has a helpful wizard that suggests content based on just one or two keywords, so you don’t have to dig through its categories (which are all well-organized). What’s more, almost all articles have a community aspect, with comments from peers and Spotify reps alike.

This all creates a highly personalized and immersive experience across all of Spotify’s platforms.

Ahrefs

While taking a more traditional approach, Ahref, a leading SEO tool, uses established best practices to deliver a familiar and streamlined experience.

On the homepage, visitors are immediately greeted by some of the most common and essential FAQs or articles, particularly ones that would appeal to novice users. It offers a perfect blend of both platform-specific knowledge as well as topics to help users boost their SEO expertise.

With its intuitive search functionality and vast library, it helps users maximize their time using the knowledge base, driving both skill-building and product engagement.

CookieScript 

Built on Customerly, CookieScript takes a minimal and clean design to its ultimate form.

Still, it offers a flexible, customer-driven experience with multiple ways to find the information you need. You can immediately use the search function or browse the most commonly used resources.

Plus, the handy Chat widget is always on hand to help customers quickly find specific resources or contact a human agent, powered by Aura AI.

How to build an effective knowledge base

So, having a well-organized and rich knowledge base sounds like a good foundation for your customer service. But, how do you actually connect the dots and get from A to Z?

1. Determine what kind of knowledge base you need: You can start by defining what your exact needs are or what problems you’re trying to solve internally or for your customers. 
2. Come up with a content strategy: You may have existing content to leverage or are starting from scratch. Either way, pinpoint what kind of information you need (FAQs, how-to guides, articles, forums, etc.) and develop a content plan with a backlog of topics and a publishing schedule.
3. Create a style guide: Formalizing your house style, brand voice, and other content guidelines will speed up your content production and help you maintain high standards.
4. Get a robust knowledge management solution: Managing everything using spreadsheets is not only old-fashioned but super inefficient. Instead, invest in a knowledge base management tool that comes pre-packed with all the publishing, managing, collaboration, and optimization tools you need.
5. Make sure your content is well-structured: The last thing you want to do is make your customers or agents feel like they are digging through quicksand trying to find answers. A well-defined and logical structure will not only provide suitable answers faster but also encourage exploration. You can do this by:
   • Identifying the main categories and subcategories
   • Using tags and keywords.
   • Implementing advanced search and filtering.
6. Keep it updated: You should be constantly looking for content gaps, updating it according to product changes, and analyzing user feedback to see if you’re actually addressing their needs.
7. Measure performance with analytics: Use tools to analyze the engagement and effectiveness of your content, both from an SEO and user-experience perspective. Look at metrics like page views, time on page, bounce rates, etc. to see if your content is working the way it should.

Conclusion

Documenting your processes early helps your business grow efficiently while preserving essential knowledge. 

Having both internal and external knowledge bases is key to supporting this growth. Whether you’re focused on improving internal workflows or offering customers self-service solutions, the right software can make a huge difference.

Are you looking to streamline internal operations or empower customers with external support tools? 

If your focus is on creating an external knowledge base to boost your self-service options, Customerly’s 360° AI-powered platform won’t disappoint. It features multilingual auto-replies, video tutorials, and an intuitive, AI-driven editor that makes managing your knowledge base a breeze. 

Start your free trial today to experience how Customerly can elevate your customer service.