In the lifetime of a document, it goes through many different versions as multiple contributors give their feedback, make comments and apply changes. Tracking these versions in a single system would be great for productivity and efficiency, enabling you to preserve your work as you go along.

Tools for document collaboration and management have become increasingly sophisticated as workplace needs have changed. Your projects can really come to life when you find the right tool to write and edit your documents together as a team, enabling everyone to share their input at an earlier stage far before it’s too late.

60% of workers find it extremely difficult to find the information they need to do their jobs, according to research by Panopto. Struggling to locate documents that are mission-critical falls under this umbrella. Enter document collaboration.

What is Document Collaboration?

Document collaboration is one big step above using an email chain or instant messaging tool to create a back-and-forth exchange relating to feedback for a document. With document collaboration, solutions become more robust, especially as more and more people get involved and document security becomes a concern. You might be a distributed team collaborating on documents, or you could require revisions and feedback from clients operating all over the world. Perhaps you’re a student writing a thesis and need to obtain reviews from loved ones or even your professor. Maybe you’re a charity building a big campaign, and you want to gather your team’s input on the materials.

Not so long ago, individuals would create a version of a document and work on it on their desktop computers. This document would usually be shared through email; contributors would make changes on their own local computers and send an updated version. Naturally, this process was time-consuming and not fit for purpose.

Many companies now offer their versions of document collaboration tools, including Document360, Google, Microsoft, Zoho, and more. Which tool you choose will depend on your business’s requirements and your desire for robust and comprehensive documentation. 57% of teams prefer to use collaborative document editing.

Collaboration is key to comprehensiveness and effectiveness, particularly when producing documentation for your product, service, or organization. Your documentation will go through many iterations in its lifecycle, and you need to assign everyone a role, manage access, and preserve edits when reviewing the documentation.

Interested in Document360 Knowledge base? Schedule a demo with one of our experts

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Tips for Successful Document Collaboration

Now we’re going to look at how you can be more successful when collaborating on documents.

1. Central Knowledge Hub in the Cloud

First, make use of a central knowledge hub in the cloud. With Document360, for example, you access all your documents through a portal as a SaaS application which is available to anyone with the appropriate login and security clearance. Centralizing your documents in this way means you can easily share particular files with team members and kickstart the collaboration process.

Ensuring your documents are cloud-based means you can access them from anywhere and through any device – even mobile. This opens up far more possibilities for collaboration if contributors are not restricted to one computer in the office. This also makes collaborating with external parties, such as clients, easier and means you always have access to the latest version of the file.

2. Clear Identification of Roles

When involved in the creation of documents, you need to make it clear what role you want each contributor to play when it comes to drafting, editing, reviewing and publishing content. These roles will often follow a hierarchy, especially when it comes to how your document collaboration tool grants permissions.

The responsibilities for a document Owner will look a lot different to a document Reader, for example. The first owns the file, has edit access, manages permissions and has the ability to roll back or accept changes. The latter can only access a read-only version of the file without the ability to make any changes.

3. Granular Access to Documents

The beauty of document collaboration is that you don’t need to give someone access to every file. You can choose the particular document that you want to share and set permissions, so someone sees only what you want them to see. Some tools allow you to only set permissions, to edit part of a file, so other parts can remain read-only.

This kind of access can also be revoked should your document be completed or the project comes to an end. When a user’s ID is always associated with their ability to make edits, you can see exactly who has made which amendments.

4. Facilitate Communication

When you collaborate on documents, it’s not just about sharing the content – facilitating communication is key to an effective process. The advantage of a document collaboration tool is that conversations can be held directly within the document, with comments and user-tagging enabling collaborators to become very explicit.

When you make a change to a document that requires explanation, leave a note for the document owner explaining what you have done. This could end up saving lots of time down the line, preventing miscommunications between collaborators. Documents should become part of a process that helps teams or partners to achieve their goals.

5. Develop Collaborative Environment

Your tools are only as good as the environment you work in. If teammates aren’t inspired to collaborate, they won’t end up using your tool – no matter how good it is. Foster a spirit of collaboration through rewarding teamwork and using documentation as a record of outcomes and progress.

Encourage employees to use collaborative documents instead of some meetings to share ideas and stimulate innovation. Documents are an amazing method of asynchronous communication that enables colleagues to participate at their convenience. Not only that, but you have a record of changes made so you can see how projects have evolved into being.

6. Make Sure You Choose the Right Tool

Last but not least, you need the right tool to enable your team to successfully collaborate on documents. Document360, a knowledge base solution that works as a document collaboration tool. Unlike other comparable solutions on the market, with Document360 you can go much further.

Ensure that your document collaboration tool has the following features:

• Private Hosting – allowing you to host your own document collaboration tool
• Version History – the ability to view and revert back to previous versions of your documents
• Search and Tagging Capabilities – being able to find and tag particular documents in the system
• User-Friendly Interface – short learning curve with a UI that employees enjoy using
• Advanced Analytics – data regarding how documents are used, user characteristics and search terms performed
• Third-party Integrations – integrations with other apps, such as instant messaging tools
• Editing and Commenting Features – the ability to edit and comment on documents in the cloud

Wrapping Up

If you don’t already have a document collaboration tool, you need one now. The market for these solutions is only growing as more teams move towards remote work, and there is an increased emphasis on collaboration in teams. Companies need a way to securely and efficiently work on documents together, and tools like Document360 provide the solution.

Not only can you use Document360 to work on documents, but you can also use it to host your own documentation site. Teams that want to document products or processes enjoy using Document360 to collaboratively develop documents that are truly helpful to their users.

Documents are a great way to communicate more complex ideas and solicit the feedback of your team. Sometimes they are necessary to move projects forward, record decisions and document important processes. Use document collaboration tools to improve your team’s productivity.

An intuitive knowledge base software to easily add your content and integrate it with any application. Give Document360 a try!

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What is Information Architecture (IA)?

Information architecture is a discipline that primarily focuses on how we organize the information in a document. It is the amalgamation of users, the context, and the content.  

Technical writing is not just about the words or grammar you use. It is also about presenting your information to readers so there can understand it and find what they need easily and quickly. 

To create an information architecture, you must first know what kind of content you have. Information is organized by type of content, not by its intended audience or some other secondary factor. 

But what are the distinct types of content? The following article covers various tips for creating a knowledge hierarchy for your next technical writing project.

Defining what is important

As you are planning information architecture, you will need to determine which topics are most significant within your content library.

For example, A commercial refrigeration equipment manufacturer’s content library comprises product descriptions, user manuals, and installation guides. Also, refrigeration cycles would be an essential topic within your content library. In knowledge base terms, think of it as your first-level category.

It is essential to make this distinction between necessary and less significant topics when organizing content because it will determine the hierarchy and structure of your information. You may have several secondary topics that are related to your many topics. 

For example, A refrigeration cycle might include system efficiency, compressor types, and vibration analysis. Refrigeration cycles are vital; the other topics are secondary topics that might be referred to in the content library. In knowledge-base terms, think of it as subcategories and articles.

 

Stake out the boundaries

If your content is modular and can be reorganized or repurposed, then it is best to wait until the end to establish boundaries. This way, you can take a modular approach to organize your content and adjust it as needed. 

For example, your content library may have a collection of documents related to a specific product line. In this case, you may want to create boundaries based on the product lines and ensure there is no content overlap.

However, if your content is not modular and tightly coupled, you can establish boundaries sooner. Technical writers should keep the following in mind when creating the information architecture for modular content,

Boundaries can be based on

• Topics
• Audiences
• Product lines
• Brands
• Organizational units
• and more.

For example, if you want to create an information architecture based on organizational units, such as Customer Service or Human Resources. In this case, you might want to create boundaries based on cross-organizational such issues as talent acquisition, employee happiness, operations, etc.

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Know your readers

Depending on your target audience, you will want to incorporate certain aspects into your information architecture that make it easier for readers to navigate, understand, and find what they need. 

For example, if your target audience is primarily non-technical readers, you may want to include a glossary of terms related to your industry or product. If your content is appropriate for technical and non-technical readers, ensure you strike a balance in the technical information you present. The vital thing to remember is that non-technical readers should easily navigate and understand your content like technical readers.

Certain basic practices can help make your content more accessible, such as writing in plain language, including a glossary of terms, creating visual representations (images, GIFs, videos) of complex processes, and creating an information architecture that is logical and easy to follow.

Also, Check out: Must Attend Technical Writing Conferences of 2024

Establish a framework

Technical communicators should always look for ways to build a framework for their content that is easy to follow and logical. A common framework for any type of content is a process or procedure framework often represented as a flowchart or a sequence diagram. 

There are many bases on which you can create a framework for your content. 

• Information architecture based on a process or procedure 
• Sequence diagram 
• Flowchart
• Decision tree
• Decision list 
• Outcome-oriented matrix

This will help readers understand your content better and easily find what they need.

Define levels and types of content

Once you have determined your essential topics and boundaries, you can determine the levels and types of content within your information architecture. An excellent way to think about this is to decide how many layers you want to place your content on.

Levels and types of content can include Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary topics. 

For example, let us say that your important topic is refrigeration cycles. You have three secondary topics within refrigeration cycles: system efficiency, compressor types, and vibration analysis. Each of these secondary topics will be placed on a different level. This can be drawn out as a Table of contents to make it easier for readers. Usage of the Heading tags (H1, H2, H3…) within the document is recommended.

Also Read: Best Practices to Improve Knowledge Base Information Architecture

Summing up

Creating an information architecture for your content is a key step in the technical writing process. This is the phase where you will figure out what topics are most significant, create a framework, and decide on levels and types of content. Once you have a set architecture in place, the writing part is like driving within your Information architecture’s set lanes.

An intuitive technical documentation software to easily add your content and integrate it with any application. Give Document360 a try!

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The post 5 Tips to Create Information Architecture for Technical Writing appeared first on Document360.

Figuring out how to start, who will own what, and when to stop iterating will be challenging. Ironic as it seems, that’s a good thing! If you feel tied up in knots when thinking about product onboarding, that means you understand its complexity, significance, and scope.

One reason why we want to nail product onboarding right on the head is that customers churn.

It’s reported that 52% of customers leave within 90 days of purchasing because of poor engagement, poor customer service, and poor onboarding.

Source

Anyone who’s ever worked in marketing can tell you that onboarding can make or break your product — and it’s a major effort that requires teamwork.

In this article, we’ll dissect the anatomy of a product onboarding so you can create a great product experience that gets you happy active users.

What is the product onboarding process?

Product onboarding is introducing your product to users. It helps users learn how to use your product and its best features. It guides users to be successful in their first few uses instead of them just figuring things out along the way.

Product Onboarding process is an integral part of product led growth strategy. The process should be smooth which makes the user adopt the product quickly and efficiently. Plus, it should train them to incorporate your tool into their regular activities.

In essence, the product onboarding process should help customers experience the value of your products right away.

Why is onboarding important?

Let’s use the SaaS industry for example.

About 10% of SaaS businesses lose revenue to churn every year, which amounts to roughly 0.83% of revenue churn every month. Don’t let your product’s steep learning curve scare your users — and revenues — away.

Aside from that, a good product onboarding can also:

• increase customer satisfaction and loyalty
• sell your product more, increasing to increased Lifetime Value (LTV)
• improve your word-of-mouth marketing
• reduce customer support tickets
• lower your customer acquisition costs (CAC)

Is product onboarding and user onboarding the same thing?

User onboarding and product onboarding share many similarities, but they’re 2 different terms.

The product onboarding process involves systems that’ll make the product discoverable during the initial interaction. It’s more of a discovery strategy that focuses more on the features alone.

User onboarding focuses on how certain user segments can use the product to get the most out of it. It’s more about showing the users relevant use cases so they can see the value of your product even more.

The Anatomy of an Effective Product Onboarding Process

Product onboarding is not a cookie-cutter process. Consequently, it differs from business to business. The SaaS companies are the biggest fans.

There are different approaches to take depending on the complexity, model, and trial length of the products, but it’s important to know the basic factors you have to put in place.

An excellent product onboarding process should have these…

1. Defined goals and strategy

Before everything, you should set clear goals for your users at the end of the onboarding process. This will shape your entire onboarding journey.

To begin, ask yourself these questions: What is it that you want them to achieve? Which features do you want to highlight first? Who are the users you’re talking to and what do they need? What do they care about? How do they learn best?

You will have to talk to a few of them to answer these questions. Know your users well so they stick around and get what they came for.

2. The right onboarding team

Establish a team that will design the onboarding journey. This will differ from team to team, but you’ll probably need a representative from the following teams:

• Product – they know the tool the most
• Customer Success – they know the usual customer questions and problems
• Marketing – they’ll need to craft the messaging
• Sales – they know what the users want

The important thing is the team should be able to design a journey that has a holistic approach with valid user pains and real-life use cases. This way, the journey is smooth, cohesive, and compelling.

3. Cohesive onboarding journey

Customers will want a seamless experience as they explore your product.

You don’t want to overwhelm them with an email, a pop-up, and a chatbox that all say the same thing. Or you don’t want to confuse them with an email talking about feature A and linking them up to the app showing feature B.

The point is, you are the onboarding team so the journey is clear and ties up together.

4. Right medium and tools

It is important to identify your current tech stack, goals, and strategies so you can pick out the right medium and tools. You’ll also need to consider your budget because some tools are pretty much expensive and might not be ideal for your use case, current tech stack, or audience size.

But here are the most helpful tools that you can use.

Emails

Trigger-based emails improve product activation and help convert free trial users to paying users. These emails get sent to a select group of users depending on their attributes, product usage, and where they are in the onboarding journey.

A marketing automation platform like Encharge can automate emails based on user behavior. This helps new users navigate your product minus the information overload.

With Encharge, you can accelerate product activation by sending relevant emails to the right people at the right time. Email automation platform is the perfect solution for startups who want to focus on their product and not on the tedious task of onboarding users.

Product tours

Product tours help users find their path through your product’s mountain of features (especially if you have a sophisticated SaaS).

Tours are like guided hikes that show them where exactly to click to do this or that. Here are some tips to make your onboarding product tour a success:

• Make it simple and easy to follow (2-3 steps)
• Don’t overteach, just show what they need to do first
• Allow users to set the pace of the tour
• Highlight what they get when they complete the tour

Knowledge Base

Knowledge Base is like a digital “how-to vault”. It holds tutorials, step-by-step guides, and even onboarding videos. With Knowledge Bases, users can easily find what they’re looking for. They can help themselves whenever they get stuck. They won’t have to wait for support to email them back to get some answers.

Providing contextual help during product onboarding is mandatory, a modern Knowledge base solution like Document360 could remove the hassle of documenting the product guides and making it instantly available for end-users. You can categorized and structure the content making it easy to search and navigate without getting lost.

An intuitive knowledge base software to easily add your content and integrate it with any application. Give Document360 a try!

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Also Read:  How to Create a Knowledge Base in 9 Easy Steps

Onboarding Videos

An onboarding video is a visual way to help users get started with your product. This kind of video provides an introduction and explanation of specific features. A simple walkthrough of the product provides essential information to new customers within minutes. This should be no-fuss and easy enough for anyone to follow.

5. Compelling messages

Writing onboarding emails, in-app or product tours is key. Your messages should be clear, simple, and direct.

Here’s the trick: Avoid using jargon or complicated explanation that causes more confusion to your users. You should write like you’re explaining it to a kid (classic copywriting tip).

More importantly, your messaging should not only encourage users to take action — it should excite them!

6. Personal touchpoints

Building trust with your SaaS customers and ensuring they have an enjoyable experience are crucial to its success. This can be achieved by making personal touchpoints, every now and then.

By initiating tailored messages for B2B and VIP users, you make users feel like you’re holding their hand during the onboarding journey.

This is recommended if you have a B2B audience who have the potential to become enterprise clients.

7. Feedback loop

The only way to optimize your onboarding for the better is through data. By analyzing the performance of your onboarding regularly, you can consistently improve your conversion rates as well.

Tracking your data ensures that your business is running at its peak potential, boosting your revenues, and making your customers happy at the same time.

Also Read: 3 Customer Onboarding Best Practices to Improve Your Conversions

7 Common onboarding mistakes to Avoid

1. Doing it “solo”

Onboarding is not a single department’s job — it’s the entire company’s responsibility. Everyone should communicate and understand each other’s roles.

2. Showing off your product too much

You want to veer away from sounding like a grocery salesman. Showing off your product is fine, especially if you know how much it will benefit users, but overdoing it backfires. It causes overwhelm, driving potential customers away.

Show them the best parts of your product without bombarding them with information.

3. Perfecting the product onboarding in one go

Onboarding can never be perfected in one sitting. You’ll always think of something better to implement. You have to scope it, implement stuff, and improve over time. Or else, you’ll never get it out there.

4. Forcing new users to fully explore the product

Use a guide or tutorial that leads them in the right direction, but provide people with more freedom in their pace-setting at the same time. It’s better to add a “next” button that they can press whenever they’re ready to proceed. Or an alternative video that the visual learners can watch.

5. Overteaching

This is what usually happens on product tours. Too much information can be overwhelming and frustrating for users. You don’t have to explain every step. You can leave the rest for them to explore.

6. Ignoring disengaged users

If you want to maintain a good relationship with your users, it is important that they feel like their needs are being met. Nurture emails can help people get back into action.

Go beyond email. Integrate and activate users across all channels. Retarget trial users via Facebook ads. Ask the customer success team to reach out after a trial has ended. Using a different platform might pique their interest once again in the onboarding process.

7. The “set it and forget it” attitude towards onboarding

Onboarding is never-ending. You’ll always have new features to push out. You might have a UI redesign. Or your target customer segments can shift.

Updating your onboarding regularly is good practice to make sure that you’re sending the right messaging.

Also read: What is Product Adoption with Metrics & KPI to Track

Getting your onboarding right

Product onboarding is a big task that involves huge commitment, time from the department leaders, and expensive spending on tech. But it’s a critical process that welcomes, delight, and educate users. To put it simply, onboarding helps your users become invested in your product.

So yes, it’s worth it and it’s important to get it right.

There is no one-size-fits-all onboarding process. But knowing the key elements will help you create an onboarding process that gets you the ROI you’re looking for.

The post How to Create an Effective Product Onboarding Process appeared first on Document360.

According to a survey by Jobvite, 28% of the employees quit within 90 days of starting a new job because of poor onboarding experience

Hiring is expensive. After months of effort by the Talent Acquisition team in finding the right talent and if he quits due to poor onboarding, it is a very expensive mistake.

To avoid this unfortunate situation and help you with better onboarding, in this article we will focus on the checklists to be done during the employee onboarding process.

Importance of effective onboarding process

An effective onboarding process will help your new hires feel more valued, better understand their role, and increase their productivity and performance, resulting in increased engagement.

It is crucial to develop a strategic plan to map critical touchpoints to improve employee onboarding with an effective learning journey.

New hires connect with existing knowledge

When people understand their job, they’d be more productive. According to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, companies with a powerful onboarding program are 50% more likely to produce productive employees. Through knowledge management software, your new employees can easily access the information they need to complete a task—no need to call the help desk or delay a problem until it can be tackled with a teammate.

Employee self-service

Do you find your new hires constantly revisiting their jotted notes from training even after months of employment? Then, you need knowledge management software. This will provide them easy access to any information they need for their projects—from creation to strategizing and knowing who to approach for a specific concern. Make sure to put all relevant data in your knowledge management tool because it would be useless if your employees have nothing to view when they use your software. You may also integrate with LMS software for learning and training resources.

Also Read: Things You Should Be Aware While Creating Onboarding Documentation

Better employee retention level

Employee retention is one of the most important goals of any company. As shown in O.C. Tanner’s statistics, a good onboarding program will make 69% of employees stay for at least 3 years in a company. If you want to retain your workforce for a longer period, you should invest in knowledge management and create an effective onboarding program for your employees.

Your onboarding program should make your new hires feel that they belong to your company. Feelings of discomfort and being out of place can cause them to feel unproductive, dissatisfied, and eventually leave your organization in a short time. Make sure your onboarding program provides a healthy atmosphere, warm welcome, and necessary guidance to your new employees.

Social collaboration for the team

When you have ready information in place, your employees can better communicate and collaborate on specific tasks and projects. Instead of spreading the information manually, your team members can access everything in one place. This also provides a seamless workflow and makes your overall operations simple.

Mentoring can be an added task to your old employees’ daily hustle. Hence, effective internal communication and engagement should be implemented in your organization. To efficiently implement these factors, you need good knowledge management software.

Read more: What Do I need a Team Collaboration Tool 

Best Practices to Improve employee onboarding

Make information readily available

Employees should have access to all of the information that they require to know like company announcements, metrics, health and safety, regulations, and compliances. Having access to this information helps them make better, faster, and more accurate decisions. Teams are able to work together cohesively and this helps the organization to stay ahead of competitors.

Having a structured onboarding program provides a welcoming atmosphere for your new hires right from day one. That also means you can rule out massive paperwork and have new employees at a loss. It’s crucial for organizations with functional onboarding systems to retain 81% of their new employees. The quality of your onboarding could determine if new hires stay with you or walk away after the initial months.

Capture FAQs, provide answers and make them searchable so new hires don’t have to always rely on their tenured employees. If a question has never been asked before, capture that into your knowledge management platform and crowdsource from the rest of your organization. This way, your KMS will always be growing with valuable and updated information.

Utilize analytics

New hires require an internal knowledge base to help in self-learning and refining products and even train remote employees. It is important to monitor and understand the learning curve of the new hire. Advanced knowledge management platform with AI support accelerated the learning journey in a new hire. They capture analytics on employee performance and help you to improve the learning materials.

A KMS with engagement analytics will show you which content is getting the most engagement, such as views or likes. This lets you know which information is valuable to your new hires and determine if there are any knowledge gaps.

Read more: Why is Analytics required in a Knowledge Base?

Empower self-serve and self-pace

Your talent team might have recruited the best hire but it is your organization’s responsibility to empower the resource. How to empower new hires? To acclimatize with a new position, role, and responsibilities the employee should have direct access to documents and articles that will help him learn, understand and clarify his questions. So invest your time in creating articles that you find useful for your employees. Document360 helps you set up an internal knowledge base to self-serve employees.

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KMS empowers employees to take an active role right from Day One. For instance, they can be in control of personal development and supercharge their expertise in their domain. Also, they should have a sense of independence by having access to implicit, explicit, and tacit knowledge.

It’s also essential to have a search engine on your KMS so employees can search for any training material they’re looking for right in a central repository. Use filters and categories for a structured system. A mobile-friendly KMS is also helpful for the new hire to access it using any device, 24/7 and on the go.

Ensure employee alignment

Employees should have a good understanding of the Company’s vision, strategic goals, and organizational culture. Lack of alignment between your organization and your employees leaves them misunderstanding goals, duplicating work, lower performance, and barriers to employee empowerment.

New employees have access to this documentation for alignment:

• Employee handbooks
• Standard operating procedures
• Company mission and vision statements
• Core values
• Organization chart
• Employee directory
• Learning and training resources
• Policy agreements (e.g. internet use policy, company equipment)

Plus, onboarding can start even before their first day. This way, the employee won’t be overwhelmed in their first week and they get to read and study these policies at their leisure. In the first week, your priority would be training. Here, you can assign a buddy or mentor to help the new hire to show them the ropes. You’ll have to integrate the employee into your organization – introducing them to colleagues and go-to executives, engaging with company processes and technology, inviting them to network events, and more.

The onboarding timeline varies for different organizations, but it shouldn’t be less than a month. This would be too short and quick for the new hire to grasp everything and feel comfortable with the pace. Usually, organizations take three months to complete the necessary forms, adapt to the company culture, and get adequate on-the-job training.

Read more: Remote Onboarding Best Practices for New Hires

Foster team communication

Creating synergy across your organization is crucial and your internal communications have a great impact on team collaboration and productivity. Both new hires and existing employees need to access information and effective communication to review, collect feedback and clarify their doubts. By clarifying that their feedback is welcome, you make your employees understand that their feelings are valued and empowered. Additionally, employees have insight into protocols, processes, change management making a better workplace.

New hires can reach out to colleagues for structured initiatives and on-the-fly engagements. For example, they can use KMS for mentorships.

KMS can also help enhance productivity. Imagine if a new hire goes into work and is clueless about your roles, policies, goals, projects, and so on. Getting acquainted with important company information takes a lot of time and effort if it’s not readily available. However, structured onboarding equips new hires to have all information they need right at their fingertips so they can jump on their job and responsibilities immediately.

Over to you

If you feel your team is tired of spending more time onboarding new employees, then it’s high time for you to think about investing in some employee onboarding knowledge management tool that will retain the interest of new hires and help them get empowered.

If you’re still thinking twice about whether to invest in knowledge management software for your onboarding processes and overall business operations, let the information above convince you. You can’t have the right people without providing the right knowledge. As the cliché goes, “knowledge is power.” And it’s even more powerful when utilized appropriately.

Also Read: How to Create an Effective Product Onboarding Process

The post Best Onboarding Practices For New Employee appeared first on Document360.

If you are not valuing your customers via customer service, they will indeed move on to your competitors. Currently, there are thousands of options available on the web where customers can get their products.

For eCommerce businesses, they must revamp their customer service options to satisfy their customers. Otherwise, there will be lackings between service and customers’ expectations and it will hurt you in the long run.

According to Nextiva, 96% of consumers say customer service is an important factor in their choice of loyalty to a brand. Customers with good customer service usually stay with the store providing it.

This article will guide you through some solid customer service strategies that are applicable.

What is E-commerce Customer Service?

Ecommerce customer service is served to customers through a structured framework. The aim is to help shoppers via online platforms. We mean the eCommerce website that you are running to operate your business by the online platform.

Ecommerce customer service mainly simplifies a customer’s shopping journey. You are helping customers to consolidate their buying decisions. In addition, you are offering solutions to their queries and issues. As a result, you provide seamless customer service and craft a fine reputation for your business.

Customer service is a primary concern to get your desired placement in the eCommerce marketplace. This is because, with excellent customer support, you can win your customers’ hearts and expand your business by getting good feedback.

Why does Customer Service Matter?

Customers now differentiate the brands based on the customer service they experience. So, it’s essential to provide an excellent customer experience to make your customers purchase again.

However, to increase your e-commerce sales, you must provide the service according to the standard. Otherwise, you will not only lose sales but also your reputation, and the brand image. Let’s learn some stats on customer service that will clarify why customer service matters.

According to Obrello:

• 84% of the customers say that customer service helped them finalize their buying decision.
• Brand loyalty massively depends on customer service, and 95% of the respondents say so.
• 68% of customers say that they are ready to buy products and services from companies providing excellent customer support.

With all these stats in mind, you can surely acknowledge the significance of customer service in eCommerce.

Read more: Top 11 eCommerce knowledge base examples to learn from

8 eCommerce Customer Service Best Practices

The greatest way to provide excellent e-commerce customer service is to exceed your consumers’ expectations. Your service will compel your customers to provide positive feedback about your store at the end of the day. Additionally, they won’t only say “Good” or “Excellent,” but “Wow.”

Let’s introduce you to some of the best eCommerce customer support strategies that you should apply.

• Maintain Consistent Customer Service
• Meet customers on their terms
• Develop a Multichannel Strategy
• Deliver Real-time Support with Live Chat
• Use Help Desk Software
• Provide Self service-based Ecommerce Support
• Leverage Customer Reviews to Boost Your Brand
• Measure, optimize, repeat

We will break down each of the strategies mentioned above:

Maintain Consistent Customer Service

To maintain consistent customer services that surpass the overall customer experience cost of developing an eCommerce site is an essential subject an eCommerce business needs to focus on while building an eCommerce site for their targeted customers. Though the customer expectations do not align with the user’s experience, there’s a massive chance of failing as an eCommerce business.

When a consumer has an initial positive engagement with your company, it’s realistic to anticipate the same quality of service in future interactions. Therefore, you should always maintain consistent customer service.

Customers expect the same level of service across all of your company’s communication channels. This is because they don’t want to be left in the dark about the conversation’s outcome. Customer service must also be of the most outstanding grade during critical and urgent events, such as a sale. Keep in mind that if your customer service isn’t up to the mark while selling something, you’ll lose the sale instantly.

Customer service is essential to reduce the average response time. Moreover, you can get a better insight into your customer preference, and buying journey. As a result, you can ensure guaranteed sales. Additionally, the first contact resolution is higher with constant customer support.

Meet Customers on Their Terms

In the realm of eCommerce, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. Customers demand a tailored approach that treats them as individuals. Businesses must maintain constant contact with their clients through customer service. As a result, they will have a deeper understanding of their clients and will be able to establish a long-term and meaningful relationship with them.

To succeed in today’s marketplace, meet your customer’s constantly changing and rapidly increasing demands and habits. Some customers prefer getting service over the phone, while others prefer the live chat option or regular email communication. Also, some customers prefer utilizing the social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to communicate.

However, you must be ready to serve your customers according to their preferences. So, it’s essential to establish a multi-channel customer strategy that syncs with your business. The goal is to meet and surpass your customers’ expectations.

Develop a Multichannel Strategy

More than 85% of customers prefer multi-channels for completing their shopping journey. It is clear that customers want to peruse business-related communication via multi-channels that includes:

• Your eCommerce website,
• Shopping-related search engines (Google Shop, Bing Shopping, Shopzilla, etc.)
• Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and many more)
• Email
• Over Phone
• WhatsApp

So, your approach should include a multi-channel communicational approach to serve the customers. Customers feel comfortable communicating in their preferred channel because they can multitask under one significant channel.

For example, if a customer is using Facebook and searching for a product, he may land on your business page. Therefore, while asking or inquiring about a product he can use the same interface to communicate with your business. Another benefit of a multi-channel strategy is, that you will get all the customer queries on one platform which is your business website.

There are three primary elements that you should focus on to provide a smooth customer experience:

• Identify the channels that your customers prefer using
• Try to ease your customers’ buying journey by applying effective strategies to those channels
• Create a consistent experience of customer service throughout the customers’ shopping journey

The multi-channel strategy aims to utilize the power of these channels and optimize the customers’ shopping experience. Also, it creates a bond between customers and the brands. In the ever-changing environment of eCommerce, the right channel and strategy can assist you in boosting your brand. In addition, you will get long-term success with stability.

Deliver Real-time Support with Live Chat

Live chat has surpassed email as the most popular digital contact option for online consumers, with 30% of customers preferringlive chat to connect with support agents to reduce wait time. Utilizing the live chat option, you can instantly respond to your customers from your website. As a result, the response time will reduce, and the conversion rate and sales will increase.

According to Emarketer, 63% of customers are interested in returning to eCommerce websites that use live chat software. This means they are willing to speak to a customer care representative via the live chat option.

Real-time communication with a natural person intensifies customers’ buying intentions. As a result, they are more engaged with you and won’t leave your site to get the service from others.

The critical factors of Live chat that makes it crucial for eCommerce customer service best practices:

• With live chat, you can orchestrate real-time communication with your customers. Thus, identifying the customer’s problem becomes easy and providing a solution becomes more manageable.
• Solving multiple customer queries improves the capabilities of your customer service agents. As a result, your store’s efficiency becomes better when it comes to multiple-chat utilization.
• Customers mainly prefer messaging to get customer support. Implementing the messaging option on your website is ideal for utilizing the live chat option.

Use Help Desk Software

Perhaps your eCommerce shop employs professional customer service agents. However, having the appropriate tool is more important than having the correct support staff. How? Technologies have been enhanced to the point that they now exceed the capabilities of human beings.

The following eCommerce customer service support tools can enhance the customer support service by providing excellent service:

• ThriveDesk
• Zendesk
• Zoho Desk
• LiveChat
• Freshdesk

Customer support representatives can use this software to handle client queries swiftly. Moreover, you can integrate social media platforms or the messenger option via these tools. Therefore, the communication channel is centralized on one platform.

An intuitive knowledge base software to easily add your content and integrate it with any application. Give Document360 a try!

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Provide Self service-based Ecommerce Support

Customers prefer fixing their issues by themselves rather than seeking customer support’s assistance. Present age customers are concerned about selecting their products over the internet. They explore multiple websites and try to resolve their issues by avoiding customer support options.

However, to provide top-notch customer support, you have to solve issues before they go through the roof. Therefore, you need to provide customer support 24*7 and deliver the best experience proactively.

Customer service statistics show that “78% of customers expect a brand/product to have an online self-service portal over traditional customer service support.”

Proactive support increases customers’ trust in your business by lowering the support interactions. Also, it enables you to minimize your customers’ buying journey. To provide a self-service-based eCommerce service, you can follow the tactics mentioned below:

You can create a page on your website that contains all the information related to your business. It will increase the knowledge of your customers regarding the product and service of your company. We have our own tool Document360 which is a modern-age tool that supports numerous eCommerce sites with an online self-service knowledge base. As a result, customers will simply understand anything related to your business. Here’s an example you could look at:

You can create a page on your website that contains all the information related to your business. It will increase the knowledge of your customers regarding the product and service of your company. We have our own tool Document360 which is a modern-age tool that supports numerous eCommerce sites with an online self-service knowledge base. As a result, customers will simply understand anything related to your business.

Check out how to create a self-service knowledge base in simple steps:

Use chatbots to provide AI-based customer support. It is automated and available all the time, even when your support agents aren’t available.

With frequently asked questions (FAQs), you can provide automated solutions to your customers. Add an FAQ page on your site so that customers can find out their solutions independently.

Read more: How an Ecommerce Knowledge Base can Supercharge your Business

Leverage Customer Reviews to Boost Your Brand

Customer reviews can significantly influence other customers who will buy your products. Viewing other customers’ comments and reviews, they finalize their buying decision. Additionally, review improves the customer experience by minimizing the customers’ effort.

77% of customers choose brands that solicit and respond to customer feedback. This is because customers are happy when you evaluate their honest feedback. With customer feedback, you can understand how your product or service is performing. Moreover, you can further improve your service based on their feedback.

Another fact is- satisfied customers are the best brand ambassadors that you can get for free. Because they spread positivity about your brand with word of their mouth. Moreover, their positive reviews will let others know how well the brand serves.

After closing a deal, ask your consumers for comments on your product or service right away. If you ask them shortly after you give customer service, they will gladly provide you with one.

While engaging with customers, executing deals, and so on, you can simply classify their feedback. Even if you are getting negative reviews or feedback, you can work on top of it. How? You’re putting customer service first by enhancing your service in response to negative comments. You can decide which one to prioritize based on reviews and then fix each issue.

Measure, optimize, repeat

There are no hard and fast rules for eCommerce customer service best practices. Businesses that sell online must be proactive in resolving consumer complaints and improving their tactics based on data.

You can evaluate your customer service team’s capabilities on each channel and improvise based on it. Find out the busiest hours of your business when you can assist more customers. Additionally, always keep your business and customer service options updated with trending topics.

Well, there are more aspects that you can measure and optimize to provide optimal customer support. To optimize the overall customer support service, you need to sort it out.

• The average response time of your service
• Resolution time
• Quality of your customer support
• Solved tickets & queries

These data set a monthly objective, track your lackings, and show the scope of improvements. In this way, you can improvise your customer service approach and resolve issues flexibly.

Wrapping Up

To bring success in your eCommerce business venture, customer service plays a key role. The total customer experience is closely intertwined with customer service. To constantly uphold the reputation of your brand, you must improve your customer experience via eCommerce customer service best practices.

We hope our mentioned strategies will surely help you enhance your customer service strategy. Ultimately, you will be able to grow your eCommerce business by ensuring legendary customer service.

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The post Top 8 ECommerce Customer Service Best Practices to Follow appeared first on Document360.

Many organizations undertake strategic planning exercises every year or two to build their business strategy. The business strategy maps out the future state of an organization. Once approved by the organization’s board members, the business strategy is put in motion. This business strategy provides a foundation for people strategy, sales strategy, marketing strategy, and so on. These strategies are very focused on achieving business objectives set out in the business strategy. One of the fundamental strategies to propel business innovation is the documentation strategy. The documentation strategy lays a strong foundation for how the organization creates and manages its documentation. 

Documentation strategy must have a strong business focus, and it should be aligned with achieving business goals that are set in your business strategy. It should clearly articulate how your documentation offers a unique value proposition to the organization, how it helps internal stakeholders with their day-to-day operations, how it helps its customers and service delivery. 

Why do we need a good documentation strategy? 

Documentation strategy focus areas include knowledge retention, product documentation, standard operating procedures, service delivery processes, and governance. The documentation strategy should empower internal stakeholders to serve its customers better by utilizing internal resources in an optimal way. The core business drivers for a good documentation strategy include 

• Customers wish to self-serve for product support; thus, product documentation is vital for product growth and customer satisfaction 
• Service delivery processes provide transparency to customers on how an organization does business, thereby increasing customer trust 
• Internal stakeholders have a solid understanding of ‘the organization’s internal business processes, and a collaborative model that maximizes customer outcomes 
• Organizational knowledge is retained; thus, it becomes part of institutional memory. This practice promotes an open culture of knowledge sharing 
• Knowledge sharing propels business innovation as new knowledge is created using foundational organizational knowledge about the product, process, and people 

Check out How Document360 helped Whatfix streamline its documentation process:

What should documentation strategy contain? 

A good documentation strategy should focus on creating high-quality documentation that helps a business achieve its business strategy. The documentation strategy contains a list of key focus areas, project stakeholders, operating model, engagement plan, project plan, risk plan, and communication plan. 

For example, if you are a SaaS product company, your focus may be on product documentation; Capturing and documenting product features helps your customers to maximize the utility of your product. Documenting troubleshooting guides will help your internal customer support team serve your customers in case of any issues with using your product.  

Documentation strategy should clearly outline the current and future state of the ‘organization’s documentation. To measure whether the organization has achieved its current state is done through Key Performance Metrics (KPIs). Senior leadership in the organization is accountable for achieving those KPI targets and will champion the execution of documentation strategy. The KPIs are reported in quarterly meetings and shared across the organization.  

How to create a good documentation strategy? 

The list of items in your documentation strategy are  

1. 1. Clear business goals  
   2. List of documentation projects that needs to be executed along with business priorities 
   3. KPIs are defined with senior leadership accountability to measure the success of a documentation strategy 
   4. Governance structure to oversee the execution 
   5. Risk plan and Mitigation strategy for decision making 
   6. Communication plan to promote success stories 

Creating a good documentation strategy start with an organization-wide consultation process. This process can be done in tandem with building a business strategy. The consultation process would result in understanding business goals and customer outcomes. The consultation also helps audit the current state of organizational capabilities in creating, managing, and sharing content. After consultation, internal ‘stakeholders’ objectives are mapped to business strategy and prioritized.  

The organization gap that is identified can be formulated as several projects. Thus, the documentation strategy execution plan contains several projects that can be executed based on business priorities. Each project has a dedicated project manager. A program manager may be hired to assist the leadership team in overseeing the projects. 

The structure of the governance committee that oversees the execution of documentation strategy needs to be established along with robust terms of reference. The governance committee meets every quarter to review the KPIs, assess current documentation strategy risks, provide guidance on mitigating those risks, and prioritize documentation strategic initiatives and projects. The Organization board shall allocate appropriate funding and empower the respective leadership team to drive the documentation strategy forward. 

The business goals for documentation strategy are also clearly documented. The KPIs, KPI accountable owners, KPI current state, and target state are clearly defined. The business definition of all business terms used in the KPI calculation is communicated across the organization to avoid ambiguity. The calculation methodologies of all KPIs are explicitly defined to bring clarity among all stakeholders. Internal dashboards are created to monitor those KPIs and to gauge the progress of documentation strategy’s program initiatives.  

A communication plan is another vital component of documentation strategy as it relays the project progress to all internal stakeholders. The ‘organization’s customers are also given periodic updates about the ‘organization’s documentation strategy. The communication plan includes what channels will be used to promote project milestones, success stories, KPIs, and so on. 

An intuitive product documentation software to easily add your content and integrate it with any application. Give Document360 a try!

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What are things to consider for the execution of a successful documentation strategy? 

The documentation audit provides a clear direction on the kind of capabilities that an organization needs to build to successfully execute a documentation strategy.  

• Hiring  

Technical document writers, documentation team leads, project managers, and program managers may be required to run the projects. Once these roles are identified, start your hiring process swiftly in accordance with your project deadlines. 

• Tools 

A good documentation authoring and publishing tool is indispensable for content writers to help with creating, managing, and sharing documentation. Choosing a cutting-edge knowledge base platform that can help content writers undertake activities around the documentation lifecycle is essential.  

• Process 

A structured documentation framework and workflow process help to achieve consistency and clarity in producing high-quality documentation. Document all internal documentation workflow processes and seek consensus among your project stakeholders for process efficiency.  

• Engagement plan 

The way the documentation team engages with parts of the organization is crucial for the successful execution of your documentation strategy. Documenting the clear roles and responsibilities, engagement process, governance, and change management process are essential. 

Final remarks 

A good documentation strategy adheres to good principles that drive the execution plan. The leadership team shall empower program managers and evangelize documentation strategy initiatives. Championing a strong documentation culture is necessary for change management and strengthens leadership commitment. Building long-term strong organization capabilities should be the focus of your documentation strategy. Timely project execution helps to win internal stakeholder trust and deliver customer outcomes. If the documentation strategy supports business value creation, it helps the organisation fulfil its mission. 

Read More: Step by Step Guide to Create Sales Documentation

The post How to create a good documentation strategy appeared first on Document360.

Why is onboarding important?

There are many good reasons to invest in your onboarding process. Organizations with a standard operating procedure experience a 62% boost in new hire productivity as well as a 50% increase in new hire retention.

On the flip side, employees who have a negative onboarding experience are two times more likely to look for other career opportunities. When you consider that the average employer spends $4000 and 24 days to hire a new employee, it starts to get really expensive, really fast.

Unfortunately, 88% of employees don’t believe that their organization does a good job of onboarding. There is a lot of room for improvement.

Also Read: How to Create an Effective Product Onboarding Process

How to communicate with new hires

Just because onboarding has shifted to a remote environment, doesn’t mean the quality has to suffer. And it’s not about the amount of money you spend, either – it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg to train new employees.

As we’ve mentioned, organizations can spend thousands of dollars on training new hires. And the costs start to spiral when onboarding is not successful and that new employee looks for another job. Luckily, there is a way to decrease onboarding costs – an internal knowledge base for your employees to find essential information like policies, procedures, contact details, and more.

Here are the benefits of an employee knowledge base for your new hires.

1. First-hand access to information

Onboarding a new employee can take weeks, and a popular route is classroom training – which is not possible in the COVID-19 era.
Instead, new employees can use your internal knowledge base to access all the information they need in just a few clicks. Content is available from anywhere as all they need is the link to your knowledge base and their login details.
This ease of use promotes your knowledge base to your new hires, who don’t have to search high and low for the information they need.

2. Minimizes information overload

Your new hire is likely to be overwhelmed when they first start their new job. There’s so much for them to learn and so a knowledge base can be a streamlined tool that offers information in an easy-to-digest way.
You can offer short articles, manuals and how-tos for your new hires so they can absorb just the required information they need and no more.
It also reduces the burden on the rest of your employees to answer questions for your new hires. Instead of requiring them to take time out from their job to help your new employees, the answers are readily available in your knowledge base.

3. Encourages internal collaboration

A knowledge base is not only beneficial for your new employees but fosters internal collaboration among your seasoned pros. They will be encouraged to document their knowledge ready for use by coworkers instead of hoarding the knowledge in their heads.

Your internal knowledge base becomes a single source of truth for your organization and captures knowledge in case employees leave. Your new employees are well-placed to evaluate the effectiveness of the knowledge base and they can let you know if the content has met their needs.

Also read: Employee intranet: Why does it matter to your employees? 

4. Enables location independent learning

Since offices are closed during COVID-19, a knowledge base allows your employees to access their training materials from home. There’s no need for face-to-face training if you have an online knowledge base that can be accessed through a computer or phone.

The advantage of location independent learning is that your employees can learn at their own speed. In contrast to in-person training sessions, the employee can review the materials in their own time which may be faster or slower than others.

5. Eliminates errors

When information is passed during live training sessions, there is always the possibility that the instructor will make a mistake. Since hiring never stops, the onboarding process has to be repeated many times, which can be emotionally and financially taxing.

If information is stored in a knowledge base, you have full visibility and can update content as and when it needs changing. The likelihood of mistakes being made is reduced and new hires know they are getting the most up-to-date information.

Other tools for remote onboarding

Hopefully now you’ll be convinced of the importance of having a knowledge base for your remote onboarding strategy. It not only saves you time but enables employees to have instantaneous access to all the information that they need. A knowledge base is an affordable solution for your remote onboarding and you can get set up in just a few clicks.

An intuitive knowledge base software to easily add your content and integrate it with any application. Give Document360 a try!

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Beyond your knowledge base, there are a few other tools you need for remote onboarding.

Online training software

Online training software or Learning Management System can complement your internal knowledge base software because it allows your instructors to pre-record training sessions for your new hires to consume anytime and anyplace.

Companies nowadays focus on employee development in the workplace and a Learning Management System allows you to monitor employees’ progress from a centralized dashboard

They also have the option to host live training sessions with access to interactive features like online whiteboards, screen-sharing, breakout rooms, and chats, which makes the learning process more engaging.

Video conferencing software

Just because your employees can’t meet face-to-face in the office doesn’t mean you can’t still see each other. Instead, use video conferencing software to introduce your new hires to their coworkers in order to build those all-important relationships.
Video conferencing mimics in-person interactions since participants can make eye contact and read facial expressions. It’s the best alternative to the in-person interactions that normally take place during the onboarding process, and allows your new hire to feel part of the team.

Best practices for remotely onboarding employees

Here are some of the things you should do when remotely onboarding your new employees:

Engage your new hires before they start with your company. Make your employees feel like they are already part of your organization by sending a company swag bag or a book for them to read that embodies your culture.

Recreate as many face-to-face interactions you can with video conferencing software. You might host an onboarding meeting, a zoom lunch, or a virtual happy hour.

Communicate and engage with your new hire as much as possible. Create a sense of belonging with your communications and give them opportunities to engage with other team members.

Introduce your company culture to your new hire – whether that’s through virtual lunches or happy hours, or online games and competitions. Use a mentorship program so the new hire feels engaged in your company and its culture.

Make use of essential technology such as knowledge bases and Learning Management Systems to impart information to your new hires.

What to avoid when remotely onboarding employees

We’ve gone through the correct way to onboard employees, so now we’ll look at some things to avoid:

Don’t assume that the way you used to onboard new employees is the only correct way. Be open to change and create a new onboarding strategy that works in a remote environment.

Don’t assume that your current managers know how to onboard using remote tools. Invest in training from HR to ensure that everyone knows what is expected of them.
Don’t delay in implementing your remote onboarding strategy – the time to act is now.

Don’t hire candidates who lack a strong independent work ethic. You won’t be around to motivate them so they will have to be engaged workers who don’t require much accountability.

Final remarks

Don’t overlook the potential of a knowledge base to help you train your new employees and get them up to speed. Combine it with a Learning Management System and video conferencing software to give new hires the onboarding experience they deserve.
COVID-19 has presented many challenges to HR professionals but with the right software, you can rise to the challenge and implement a remote onboarding strategy that works. This has a positive impact on employee retention and productivity, saving your organization money and time.

An intuitive knowledge base software to easily add your content and integrate it with any application. Give Document360 a try!

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The post Remote Onboarding Best Practices for New Hires appeared first on Document360.

Every company’s reputation relies on its customers.

If the world’s beaten a path to your door but you end up doing a bad job dealing with customers, word is going to get out and you’ll lose sales no matter how good your mousetrap is.

Just as much as marketing relies on the relationship with prospects, the customer service branch of your company needs to rely on its relationship with existing customers. Believe it or not, companies compete on this front just about as much as they compete on the merits of their individual products!

In recent years, a new tool has come into play in the arsenal of customer service teams everywhere. That’s the customer service knowledge base, also known as an externally-facing knowledge base.

By now, in 2020, it’s outgrown its early quirks and moved into the spotlight as a tool that can really make the difference between a positive and a negative customer service experience.

What is a Customer Service Knowledge Base?

A customer service knowledge base is a centralized repository of information and resources designed to assist both customer service representatives and customers by providing detailed information like user guides, troubleshooting guides, and FAQs of a product.  

It covers everything about your product and how to use it. From the initial setup process to advanced power user techniques – there are no limits in size. It is similar in principle to a wiki. It’s a collection of articles arranged into a hierarchy, much like how an encyclopedia might be broken up by subject or geographical area. 

An editor or team of editors is in charge of handling the design, layout, and structure of the pages and the categories so that users can drill down and quickly find all of the information they might need on a specific topic.

Generally, most companies choose to fully integrate their knowledge bases with their main websites. That means the URL, page title, and even the overall design will fit seamlessly into your website’s design theme, and there won’t be any way to tell that you didn’t code it from scratch on your own servers.

Even easier than a good structure, though, is search. Knowledge bases are known as being somewhat similar to search engines, in that you put in a query and get back the articles related to that query. However, these search bars are fine-tuned specifically for help-related searches.

As you put in a query, you’ll instantly see the articles that match up, even arranged by order of probable relevance after the very first word. A lot of engineering goes into the search bar specifically, because that’s what your customers are going to use as their very first point of contact.

Once they find the article title matching what they want to know (for example: “how to make a date appear on the auto-generated reports”), the goal is that they can learn how to do the task as soon as possible. The articles are brief and to the point, and after reading there’s even a quick rating they can complete to let you all know how hard it was to follow the instructions.

That all sounds fine and dandy for the customer, but what’s in it for you?

Why a Customer Service Knowledge Base is Important?

First and foremost, a customer service knowledge base is designed to help you cut down on your customer service costs.

Think about it – people like helping themselves. They’re not necessarily interested in waiting for a long time in a phone service queue, or in trying not to fall asleep while waiting for a text chat support rep to finish typing. If there’s a single place where they can access high-quality support, then you no longer have to pay for any live people to work as your full-time instant customer service team.

Even if you’re offshoring phone support to a place with lower wages, you’re still looking at a monthly savings of a couple thousand dollars by going with a knowledge base over an actual phone team.

And when a decision like that makes your customers happier because they found their answers quicker, it’s a win-win for everyone involved.
You also end up with a stronger sense of authority cultivated in your own company in the online community.

When you Google a tech support question, you’re probably going to find answers from Quora, StackOverflow, Tom’s Hardware, and so on. Only rarely do you come up with actual usable tech support answers from the software maker’s own website – but when you do, it’s a great feeling, right?

Finally, the people writing the software are taking responsibility for supporting it directly!

Of course, you’re seeing this more and more with the rise of knowledge bases. Having this kind of information right there on the website looks sleek and professional, and allows your users to have increased faith that you’ll be the company to look to for answers.

All this extra content on your own domain, with the appropriate traffic going to it, is of course going to have a side benefit: increasing your search engine rankings.
Companies spend a lot of time and energy fine-tuning their websites and creating interesting content to publish all in the hopes of getting a few more clicks and bumping up a few more slots on the search engine ranking totem pole.

The addition of a knowledge base is sure to drive that up by quite a bit.
And perhaps you’ve already noticed, but when you search for a general tech support question, you’ll often find results from people with similar products. That means that if you have a knowledge base well-optimized for SEO, your software solutions are going to appear when people search for problems they’re having with your competitors.

When they come across your website, you now have an opportunity to impress them and clinch another sale.

Sound like a dream? Keep reading and find out how to make your customer service knowledge base the best it can be.

Also, check out how Document360 simplified new customer onboarding for VIEW:

Seven Steps to Building and Keeping a Top-Quality Customer Service Knowledge Base

If you follow these seven principles, your knowledge base will be ranked up there with the best of them.

1. Know Your Audience

Starting out with documentation requires great understanding of your audience. A great way to do this is to create a “buyer persona” that breaks down all basic characteristics of your audience.

As HubSpot puts it: “A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.”

Here is a simple example of a buyer persona from HubSpot:

Creating a buyer persona enables you to nail down the levels of technicality and language inyour copy, which makes it easier for your audience to read your documentation.

For example, if your audience could potentially be non-native English speakers, instead of writing “Head up to the “File” menu and look for the “Save As” button” you would just write “Go to the “File” menu and select “Save As.” That way the verbs are immediately understandable at first glance.

2. Use Diverse Voices

A lot of people rely on a single copywriter or technical writer to work on the whole knowledge base project. This is great when you have someone who really knows their way around the keyboard and can write clear and consistent knowledge base articles, but can actually be a drawback when it comes to fully representing everything that your customers need.

As an example, someone manning the phones at the tech support desk might have a very different idea of what constitutes important customer service information than someone testing out the UI.

The knowledge base might seem like a relatively minor part of your overall operations, but remember, almost all of your customers are going to interact with it once or twice in some capacity. That makes it extremely valuable to get right.

Because it’s an awful feeling if a customer takes the time to do exactly what they should and use the knowledge base to pull up information about the issue they’re having – and then just not find anything. It’s back to Quora for them, and what could have been a satisfying (or at least not negative) customer service experience turns into just another statistic.

In fact, knowledge base platforms like Document360 show you this number. You can easily pull a report of which queries were bounces (meaning the user didn’t click on any of the results) and which queries returned zero results in the first place. These, it goes without saying, should be your first priorities when expanding your knowledge base.

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You’ll never be able to totally predict what every customer wants, so don’t take this too hard when it inevitably happens. But what you can do is make your best effort to involve people at all levels of the company and every department, asking them for their feedback on what they think the most important article topics to include might be.

People are going to overlap in their opinions, but you might be surprised at what kind of blind spots some people have. And you don’t have to wait to get everybody’s opinion until after the knowledge base is complete.

3. Delete Mercilessly

Just as the best advice for writing metaphorical language into your knowledge base is “don’t do it,” it turns out that that advice is good for most everything in your articles.
Shorter articles tend to be better.

Your readers will get through them faster, because let’s admit it, everyone just skims help articles anyway. With a minimal amount of information there in the first place, your readers are more likely to read every word and follow your instructions correctly without skipping over anything and becoming frustrated when it doesn’t work.

This is of course the end goal for your customers, and you may not even realize how much it was happening with longer and more convoluted instructions.

You might even try holding yourself to a strict word count when you write. After you finish writing your first draft, see if you can get by with 80% of the existing word count. Chances are, if you really go over it all with a fine-toothed comb, you’ll be able to find places to cut things out and shorten up your sentences.

One great way to cut down on words is to add pictures. Any modern knowledge base software will let you add in photos directly inside the article, which can greatly speed up the process of following any steps you’ve got outlined. Just remember to update them if you change the user interface at all!
However, this advice to minimize doesn’t apply to articles themselves. You should always create a new article when you start mentioning a new subject. This is the best way to get the search function to pick up all the tags and article contents successfully.

4. Listen to Feedback

At the bottom of each article is a series of smiley faces or a thumbs up / down icon to let the user express whether they liked the article or not. On many platforms, like Document360, there’s even place to add a brief comment about what they didn’t like.

This is absolute gold for learning what to improve about your customer service platform. Imagine having this kind of ability in the days of paper manuals!
Naturally, you should take this kind of direct feedback to heart immediately and make whatever changes are necessary right away.

But there’s another, more subtle way to get feedback about which of your articles are doing better than others. That’s in the form of the metrics appearing on the backend dashboard.

This will tell you what articles are the most and the least visited, and where the visits are coming from (for example from the web, from other links in the knowledge base, or from the search bar). And you already know you can see which search queries are dead and which ones are alive.

It’s up to you to figure out how to adjust your knowledge base to deal with these metrics, as different companies are going to have different levels of traffic and different conclusions to draw from these data points.

5. Always Check for Updates

This doesn’t refer to your knowledge base software itself, which updates automatically without you having to do anything, but to your content.

When you make an improvement to your product or roll out a new feature, you’ll naturally want to have documentation for it up at the earliest point possible. New features are where people most often turn to the Internet for help – plus you can link to your knowledge base articles directly from your update blog post. Remember those SEO rankings!

This integration isn’t that hard of a feat to pull off, but it’s the kind of thing you should be aware of because it can slip under the radar much easier than you think when you’re all getting set up for a new launch.

These updates might not break things, but that can actually be even more insidious. Over time as your articles stay un-updated for longer and longer, users will notice reference to buttons that don’t exist or that have different names, and that will slowly reduce confidence in your support documentation.

It’s a good idea to try to perform a full knowledge base audit every couple of quarters in a fast-moving development environment. That means going through every article, checking every link, every screenshot, and every video to make sure that nothing’s been overlooked and left to degrade.

In a new feature just released in 2020, Document360 allows you to set reminders for regular updates or possible one-time future updates for any article. When the time runs out, you’ll get a Slack or email notification telling you to check that article for relevance.

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6. Enrich Your Content

You’ve already seen in this article a couple of times that you’ll have the ability to add photos and videos to your articles to help your users follow along – after all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Why explain exactly where the button is when you can just throw up a screenshot with a big red circle?

You’ll have a moderate amount of file storage space, as well. It’s not meant to be a file server for your product itself, but you can definitely post up some documents like forms that your customers should download and fill out. Naturally, you’ll have these on your main website as well, but if your help page makes reference to a specific file that the user needs, you’ll make a great impression by having it right there in front of them.

One other thing we haven’t talked about quite so much yet is links.

You can create references to other help desk articles inside each article, as you’d expect, and these are extremely useful for guiding users through complex, multi-stage tasks. Remember, it’s best to create a new article for each self-contained topic that someone might search for, but you can tag and link together articles in sequence if need be.

This is yet another thing that can help boost SEO, as each time you get good link referrals from one page to another, you prove that your website is tightly connected with useful content.

The best part is that these links update automatically without you having to do anything when you shuffle around categories. If you move your “Signing In” section from the “Login Screen” category to the “Getting Started” category, all of your links will be automatically preserved.

7. Use the Best Tool for the Job

There are what seems like hundreds of knowledge base solutions out there for you to explore. Each of them, though, offers relatively similar features.

Most of them are cloud-based, but there are a couple of self-hosted options. The advantage with self-hosting, of course, is that you have total control over the entire data flow and you can sometimes get a good product with a lower price than a hosted solution. However, the downside is that you’re also locked into supporting everything yourself, and you’ve got to be responsible for all your uptime.

If you’re using a CRM, it’s entirely possible that they’re bundling a knowledge base in with it. Many of these are used by tons of businesses for their convenience and integration, and that may be the way you want to go. However, by choosing a tool designed from scratch to be an excellent knowledge base, you’ll put your trust in a company whose focus is on providing an unparalleled knowledge base experience.

Also, Check out our article on ChatGPT for Customer Service

Conclusion

For that reason, we recommend Document360. It’s a knowledge base built by people who recognized the need for a new solution in the field, a solution with innovative techniques done right.

Document360 has all of the features mentioned in this article so far, plus much more. You’ll find a full Markdown editor, a high-quality backup and version control system, and integration with the most common team collaboration tools just for starters.

Suppose you’ve got a multi-tiered product and want only some customers to have access to all tiers – that’s a snap with access levels built right into your article management console. You can even turn your whole knowledge base around into an internal knowledge base for your staff’s eyes only, useful for internal procedures or a live company handbook.

The documentation possibilities are endless. Now that you’re armed with the knowledge of how best to take advantage of them, sign up today with Document360 and see how your customer service can be transformed!

The post Customer Service Knowledge Base Best Practices in 7 Steps appeared first on Document360.

In a long conversation, it’s a distraction and no one really bothers about that little preview.

For some time we were asking team members as a best practice to remove that previews whenever they posted a URL. As we know, it’s hard to implement a practice with a lot of people. After some digging, we figured out it’s fairly easy to turn off URL previews across teams with a simple setting.

Just follow this instruction.

1. Go to Microsoft Teams Admin Center: https://admin.teams.microsoft.com/
2. Select “Messaging Policies”
3. On the RHS, you’ll see the option “Allow URL Previews”. Just turn the option off.
4. Save the configuration

PS: I had to logout and login again from Microsoft Team for the changes to take effect. But I guess it might have reflected automatically after some time.  

That’s all. Now there is no URL preview in any Microsoft Teams communication. I don’t think anyone will really miss it. 

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First, you need a steady stream of articles to keep educating and helping your customers. When creating a knowledge base from scratch, you’ll have to develop a lot of articles in a short time frame. Maintaining your knowledge base will need posting regular content and refreshing existing articles. Coming up with knowledge base article ideas, therefore, is practically a full-time job. Luckily, there is plenty of inspiration available. Ideas for new articles can come from many different corners.

Talk to your customer support

To begin with, it’s worth considering what objectives you want your knowledge base to achieve. Most business leaders would agree that they want their knowledge base to educate and help customers. Whilst also taking the strain off of their customer support teams.

That means that customer support should be your first port of call. As discussed in our guide to knowledge base articles, customer support can offer a wealth of information and insights for your knowledge base. For example, they can tell you what questions crop up time and time again. Creating knowledge base articles to answer these questions can free up a lot of your customer support team’s time to help customers in other ways.

You should also look through any other customer communications to see what’s bothering users the most. Frustrated customers may post about their issues on social media, for instance. Incorporate these insights into a new article. Or feed them back to your product team for iterative improvements.

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Look at your clicks

Google Analytics (and similar web analytics software) can identify popular areas of your website. For existing knowledge bases, it will tell you what articles your customers are engaging with the most. Expand these popular articles and turn them into a series for your knowledge base.

Alternatively, if you have an FAQ section on your existing website then analytics from those pages could give inspiration for future articles.

Competitor knowledge bases

Competitors’ knowledge bases can be helpful to visit too. Or you can visit similar companies in your industry. These may provide a springboard for new topic ideas. You might come across other features that you think will work well for your own knowledge base. There might even be some areas of improvement that will make your articles better than the competition.

Easy readability of articles and tone of voice are crucial to the success of a knowledge base. Your competitors’ knowledge bases may have some useful pointers for your own writing. Even your competitors’ visual assets (such as video) can be a source of ideas.

Your customer feedback

You want your customers to be well-served by your knowledge base. So it goes without saying that you should consult them about its development. Ask them what they want to see on it and the pain-points that they want addressed. The only way to really understand what stuff is working and what’s failing is through customer feedback. With both your product and your knowledge base.

That’s why Document360 automatically incorporates feedback in its knowledge base software. That way, you’re always up-to-date on how your articles are performing. You can use this for future article development and reviews.

But what if you don’t have an existing knowledge base? Then you can rely on general product feedback. Collect this through in-store surveys (if applicable), email newsletters, social media and other marketing channels. You’ll find that most customers are keen to offer feedback. However, if you want to encourage more participation then you can always offer a discount or exclusive offer.

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Your wider team

Ideas don’t have to flow from only your knowledge base creators and customer support. Employees throughout your organisation may see customer pain-points that you haven’t yet identified. Your social media manager, for instance, may see many requests for help using a particular plug-in. Therefore, it’s worth double-checking that no stone has been left unturned by your knowledge base.

Conversely, it’s also a good idea to get any technical content reviewed by the technical people in your company (like your developers or IT team). These employees may have a very similar knowledge level to your customers, so can provide another sense-check for your content. To make this easier, Document360 offers an inbuilt collaboration function. This will help you connect with other people in your organisation to provide feedback on your knowledge base articles.

Also Read: What is Knowledge Centered Service (KCS): Complete Guide

Emerging developments

Emerging developments in your industry may change the way that customers use your product. Also, any new product development will require knowledge base articles to support it.

Advances in smartphone technology, for instance, have led a lot of people to browse the Internet on their mobiles. A similar change may occur with your products, where people suddenly begin using their tablets, phones, or an app a lot more. This new use case will require an article or two to help people make the most of it and to troubleshoot potential issues.

Best Practices for Updating Your Knowledge Base

Coming up with knowledge base article ideas is one thing, but there are some best practices that you must also bear in mind when producing content. These change over time, so remaining updated is another task that you must do when searching for ideas.

Industry blogs and websites

For knowledge-base-specific content, there are plenty of blogs that offer handy tips on length, imagery, video and tone. Knowledge base software companies like Document360 will often help customers keep up with best practice through blogs and newsletters.

You might also want more general writing advice, especially because knowledge base articles can be tricky to write. They have to bridge the best of two worlds: technical writing and blog creation. The best knowledge base articles are educational and technical enough to help customers… but also engaging and SEO friendly.

So, getting some blog writing tips is a good idea. A guide to designing clear blogs using the right headings and sub-headings is incredibly useful for knowledge base creators. Knowledge bases can be dry if you don’t break them up with the right headings.

Tone of voice is also important. MailChimp has published its own style guide as a tool for business owners looking for a fun tone of voice that’s also educational. Of course, it is geared towards internal use at MailChimp, but many of its tips (such as writing technical content and the different types of content needed) can be used as a starting point by other businesses.

SEO tips and tricks

SEO can be very complex, so we’ve covered it in greater detail in another article. However, when coming up with new knowledge base ideas, it’s worth checking for any changes to how the major search engines rank web pages. This is because any algorithm changes will impact the words you use in your articles, your headings and even the way you describe your images and videos.

Keeping updated can be easily done by reading SEO-specific blogs and publications such as Search Engine Land and Moz. Any major changes will likely be reported here first.

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Making the right templates

Templates can vastly speed-up your knowledge base content creation and make it more consistent. Depending on what you need, template ideas can be found for short (blog-style) knowledge base articles, through to heavy technical and legal documents. Certain tools such as RoboHelp may also provide templates to help you create articles.

If you plan to produce a lot of imagery, then pre-designed templates will come in handy. Canva provides some great free and paid-for templates that allow you to create infographics (and other images) without hiring a designer. Or if you have the luxury of a dedicated graphic designer, point them in the direction of Creative Bloq and Information is Beautiful for more advanced infographic food-for-thought. Remember, adding images and video to your articles can stop them becoming dry and assist people who learn visually.

Always come up with new ideas

Your knowledge base is always a work-in-progress. So, you always have a chance to refine, improve and expand your articles. Coming up with knowledge base article ideas is a critical task that is never finished.But you don’t have to do it alone. Ideas can come thick and fast from many different places. Such as from within your own organisation, from the wider industry, via your customers and even from competitors. Never stop searching for your next knowledge base idea, because you never know when it will help someone at the exact moment they need it.Even when you think you’ve exhausted all angles, there will be a new idea somewhere. You just have to look around to find it.

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