The pandemic revealed key customer behaviours to businesses. The identified trend of digital development suggests that there is value in user friendly, informative online resources. Based on this trend, local web hosting company 1-grid, invested in an internal project which aims to enhance the online resources provided to customers.

The development, design and content team at 1-grid identified key areas of improvement on the existing customer knowledge base. Notable improvements were made to the design to ensure optimum user experience and journey.

What is a knowledge base?A knowledge base is an online library of resources that individuals may utilise to better equip themselves during an onboarding process and throughout their product experience. 

Why is it important to have a knowledge base?A knowledgebase has many benefits for both your customers and employees. 

1. Empowering customersProviding your customers with the option to utilise a self-help guide will give them the freedom to solve their query on their own.  

2. Up-skilling employeesA knowledge base offers employees an additional learning tool throughout the on-boarding process and as a guidance throughout their career with you.  

3. Supports different learning stylesHumans interpret information differently and through different presentations of text, images, video and audio, you enable all individuals to understand your content.  

4. Availability and convenienceContent is readily available to your customers, therefore they can utilise resources at any time, from anywhere.  

5. InsightsA knowledge base can provide you with valuable insights to your users’ search terms which is useful for SEO. It will further identify gaps in your knowledge base which will allow you to make necessary improvements.  

6. Cost-effectiveYour resources will reduce the time and effort that a customer has to spend on solving an issue. In turn, it reduces the amount of customer contacts thus contributing to a higher customer satisfaction score.

Now that you are aware of the benefits of a knowledge base, here’s how you can get started with your own:

1. Create contentYour knowledge base should include information that will assist customers and employees in understanding how to solve problems. This content can include copy, graphics, video or audio. Have your content team sit together to discuss and plan a strategy for execution.  

2. Decide where your knowledge base will liveOnce you have your content structure defined, you should consider how you will make the content available to your audience. Some companies create a shared document system utilising Dropbox or Google Drive. An alternative is to add your knowledgebase onto your website. This will require expertise from your development team. Some companies build their websites from scratch and others make use of Website Builders or a Content Management System (CMS). 

3. Share your knowledge baseMake your customers aware of the resources that you have. Include links to your knowledge base in welcome mailers and any relevant customer touch points. 

As your knowledgebase attracts more visitors, your team can grow the knowledge base by editing existing content or adding new content that will better facilitate your customers and employees.