What Is an Internal Knowledge Base?
A knowledge base is the best space for employees to find the answers to their burning questions. More than just a way to transfer knowledge, it empowers them with the right solutions that they could possibly seek.
But is an internal knowledge base really needed for just about any organization? Is it expensive to build? How long might it take to have a full-fledged knowledge base up and running?
These are some of the common questions that business owners expect when considering owning a knowledge base for their organizations. The truth is, there are plenty of benefits that you might be missing out on without a knowledge base. In this article, we will dive deep into how a knowledge base can help your business work better and improve your customer satisfaction.
Without much further ado, here are the top 5 reasons that every organization needs an internal knowledge base –
1. Knowledge Base Software – as a Communication Tool
Knowledge bases can be more than just a repository of knowledge. They also serve as a means for your entire organization to meet online and collaborate. When working on complex projects among multiple departments in an organization, communication is key. The lack of solid communication between employees is an easy way for misunderstandings and errors to occur.
According to McKinsey’s study, the typical employees spends about 20% of his working time looking for important internal details or requesting other co-workers to assist with their problems. According to the study, a searchable database of facts will save up to 35% of the time staff spend searching for company-related content!
With the help of a well-rounded internal knowledge base, your employees can have a platform where they can stay connected with each other. Many knowledge bases allow for live chat, instant messaging, multiple conversation thread channels, and more.
2. Enhance Customer Service team’s efficiency
For most customers, fast response time is high on their list of priorities. They are greatly benefitted by communicating with executives that have encyclopaedic knowledge at hand.
Considering how important rapid responses are for customers, being able to tabulate information and frequently asked questions to guide your executives can be especially helpful. This is likely to be greatly appreciated by your customers since they are more likely to receive resolutions faster. This results in you having a better chance at significantly improving your customer satisfaction levels.
The benefits do not just stop there. In fact, knowledge bases can also help to improve your customer retention rates.
3. Higher Retention Rates with Knowledge Base Software
Better customer retention is one of the most powerful ways to have better customer service quality and loyalty. 44 percent of businesses are more focused on customer acquisition, while 18 percent are more focused on retention. An internal knowledge base can be used as a great retention tool because when your customers need answers, one of the first places they are likely to visit is your website or call support. An internal knowledge base can contain in-depth information on issues and questions that your customers might have that help your team to quickly apply solutions to customer problems.
It is not hard to set up a formidable knowledge base and can help you retain customers at a much better level. Not only this, but knowledge bases can make onboarding and internal transitions much easier.
4. Easier Employee On-Boarding with Internal Knowledge Bases
One of the biggest things weighing your onboarding process down could be the lack of a full-fledged internal knowledge base.
“How so?”, you might ask. The answer can be quite simple.
With the use of internal knowledge base software, you can effectively onboard several employees and transfer knowledge at scale.
Using this makes it easy to find information and details that new employees may require. It can also serve as a resource for How Top’s and guides that your employees might find especially useful. Having a strong base for helpful content can be greatly beneficial to everyone that visits it.
The knowledge base is most effective when it contains not only just instructions and plain information but also testimonials, experiences, and anecdotes that can help make the most of its capabilities. They can significantly reduce the learning curve that can come with joining a new organization.
Now, your employees can refer to guides and instructional files on your knowledge base to progress further, learn new skills, and effectively self-train. This leads us to our next big reason that every organization should have a knowledge base, to improve productivity.
5. Knowledge Base Software Can Help Increase Overall Productivity
There are few better ways to contribute towards making your company more resourceful than using an internal knowledge base. It helps that the knowledge base be easy to find and searchable.
Being able to easily search and find the required documents or fixes to common problems or frequently asked questions can be incredibly empowering. Not only does it allow employees to serve themselves without the need for contacting an executive, but it also saves plenty of time.
In this way, the ability to quickly access information can dramatically reduce wasted time and effort, and in turn, improve your organization’s productivity.
Key Takeaway
Overall, there are plenty of benefits to having an internal knowledge base, and many reasons why we think that every organization should have one. Not only do they give your employees a way to easily search and find information on the fly, but it also helps you stay more efficient and improve performance.
While it can be challenging to find a suitable knowledge base for your organization, there are some features you should look for when choosing the right one for you. Document360 is one of the most comprehensive standalone knowledge bases that you can find on the market. It is seamless to set up and run.
With Document360, you could be onboarding employees, transferring knowledge, and educating the masses with ease.
