Knowledge-Based Support
Giving users the tools to find help themselves is key to the success of a business. According to a Forrester study, 53% of online shoppers are “likely to abandon their online purchase” if they can’t find a quick answer to their question. Ultimately, users would rather help themselves than receive help from someone else. A technical writing team can help to create documentation that gives users the ability to find answers to their questions and problems without having to consult another person. These systems of self-help are called Knowledge-Based Support and are built on the backbones of a technology called Knowledge Bases.
What is Knowledge-Based Support?
Knowledge-Based Support is a system of documentation that outlines problems and solutions. These systems are typically found within Knowledge Bases. A Knowledge Base can be thought of as a database for a company, where new questions and answers regarding a product or service can be added at any given moment. There are two main types of Knowledge Bases: machine-readable and human-readable. Human-Readable Knowledge Bases, predictably, are full of documentation that humans can read and understand, such as text documents, images, and videos. Machine-Readable Knowledge Bases store data that can only be analyzed by artificial intelligence systems. The former type helps users directly by presenting them with answers to their questions. The latter type helps a company improve by storing user data and interaction information, which can be statistically analyzed to assess consumer behavior and direct future decisions and projects. Technical writing professionals can help a business create both types of Knowledge Bases.
Benefits of This Support
- Knowledge-Based Support helps customers find information more quickly and easily, likely leading to increased sales and return customers.
- It decreases employee time spent answering questions, freeing up resources that can be used elsewhere.
- They are intuitive to build and user-friendly, increasing employee and customer satisfaction.
- Acquired information can help identify common problems customers face, decreasing resource waste on non-essential issues.
- Consumers can create them (i.e. Product Reviews), building a network of customer-to-customer support and increasing consumer trust in your products and company.
Whether you need a team of consultants to produce a complete line of documentation or a single technical writer for a brief project, Essential Data’s Engagement Manager will lead the project from start to finish. At Essential Data Corporation, the quality of our work is guaranteed. Contact us today to get started. (800) 221-0093 or [email protected]
Written by Jeffrey Pinsker-Smith
