Build an effective
help desk knowledge base

How to build an effective help desk knowledge base.

What is knowledge base?

A knowledge base (KBase) is an organized repository of relevant data, structured with IT best practices and knowledge gained from practical experiences. A full-fledged KBase will help improve agent productivity and customer satisfaction. (taken from MSP page)

What are the benefits of KBase?

A KBase stores resolutions, workarounds, and best practices that help,

• bring down ticket inflow
• avoid repetitive incident logs
• improve resolution times and first call resolution rates
• maximize self-service portal usage

Here are six steps to build an effective KBase:

1. Keep your KBase up-to-date.

• Nominate a knowledge base manager from your team. The manager must own the entire life cycle of KBase articles, from identifying solutions to regularly updating the KBase.
• Include contributions to the knowledge base as a key performance indicator (KPI) for your technicians.

2. Structure your KBase.

• Ensure ease of use and better navigation for end users by organizing articles under categories and subcategories, based on the nature of the issues they solve.
• Maintain consistency in information and design across the KBase with pre-defined templates.

3. Define an approval process.

• Ensure reliability and maintain good quality for KBase content by implementing an approval process. The following plan will give you an idea of how to go about it: Technician → Domain or Solutions Expert → Knowledge Base Manager.
• Publish solutions to the end users as soon as they're approved.

4. Enhance the search capability of your KBase.

• Improve user satisfaction with better search capability of your KBase by tagging articles with appropriate keywords.
• Provide a clear structure by categorizing every article under problem-specific topics.

5. Determine who sees what.

• Declutter the KBase for end users and offer what's relevant to them with role-based access to KBase articles.
• Improve technicians' productivity by giving them exclusive access to technically advanced solutions.

6. Manage your KBase articles effectively.

• Keep the content updating process flexible by allowing technicians to revert updated articles to their earlier version, if required.
• Maintain KBase content for use at all times with regular back ups.
• Monitor the functionality and quality of your KBase with timely reports on KBase performance and usage.