Is your knowledge base perfect?

Now, there’s no such thing as perfection. But would you say that your knowledge base includes the latest information uncovered in the support center? Is it pretty complete, with no gaping holes? Are users spared the chore of having to sift through old documents to find what they need? And what about the documents themselves? Are they easy to read? Easy to understand?

Many knowledge bases are not even close to meeting these criteria. And many support centers, already overburdened with taking care of urgent customer requests, are simply not doing knowledge base work, so that the quality of the knowledge base is sinking, and with it the ability to deliver self-service effectively.

Enters outsourcing. Most support managers think of outsourcing as a way to deliver personal support, but it’s now possible to find outsourcers that offer quality knowledge base maintenance services. They could allow you to improve your knowledge base without impacting the other deliverables of the support center.

What can an outsourcer do with the knowledge base? Let’s run through the maintenance cycle.

Identifying the needs for new documents

Requirements for new knowledge base documents come either from new product introductions or from the experience gained in the support center. It’s usually not too difficult to identify the documents required for new products, at least if senior support staffers can participate in the development and rollout of the new products.

Using the experience of the support center is more complicated. It’s best to use two strategies:

1. Allow and encourage the support reps to identify document requirements as they resolve cases for which no information exists
   
2. Review and analyze closed cases to look for new trends

In low-complexity support centers where many issues are already known and documented, concentrating on reviewing and analyzing closed cases is the best strategy. Don’t think you have to look at each and every case: instead, review a small percentage of randomly chosen cases each month.

In high-complexity centers where many issues are one of a kind, sampling techniques don’t work well and reviews are time-consuming, so preserve the ability of support reps to flag interesting cases. (They tend to spend more time on cases anyway, so a couple of seconds to signal a potential document is not a problem.)

Can you outsource this step? Yes. Competent outsourcers should be able to review cases and come up with recommendations. The technical knowledge of the individuals doing the surveys needs to be at least “level 2”, however.

A good tool is a great ally for this step: look for case-tracking systems that allow support reps to place a closed case directly into the review cycle for documents.

Creating new documents

Once the requirements for new documents have been identified, the documents need to be written, checked for accuracy, and edited so they are easy to use. In low-complexity environments, outsourcers can easily handle the entire document creation process, with only a final approval required. In high-complexity environments, it’s a little more challenging, although extracting information from well-documented cases should be possible with a little ingenuity. Try using several approval steps, including a technical approval early on.

Especially if you are using offshore outsourcers, pay careful attention to the writing skills of the knowledge base workers. Even people with excellent spoken communication skills may write poorly, and the proper tone for knowledge base documents is difficult to achieve from non-professional writers who are not immersed daily in the culture of your customers.

Updating existing documents

Document maintenance is really a two-step process: identifying problematic documents on the one hand, and revising (or tossing) them on the other.

To identify problematic documents you can again use a combination of asking the support reps to report problems and using reviewing techniques. At least for high-complexity environments there should be an easy way for support reps to report problems (ideally, the knowledge base tool should allow such a step while reading a document.)

Useful review techniques include:

1. Identifying heavily-used documents: they are good candidates for polishing
   
2. Identifying seldom-used documents: are they no longer relevant? Are they confusing? Are they mis-categorized so they don’t come up when expected?
   
3. Identifying documents that give rise to escalations: are customers reading the documents and then logging a case? This is a telltale sign that the document is not clear.

Outsourcers can certainly handle this type of work, as well as sifting through the support reps’ suggestions. Once the problematic documents are identified, outsourcers can revise them using the same process as for new documents with the same approval steps.

Should you outsource knowledge base maintenance? If you simply don’t have the bandwidth to do it internally, look for candidates that supply appropriate technical and writing skills and put in place a robust approval process (which you will have to staff internally!). Outsourcing can be a good solution for knowledge base maintenance.

About the author
Francoise Tourniaire is the founder and principal of FT Works, a consulting firm that helps technology companies create and grow their support operations. She is the author of “Just Enough CRM”, a practical guide to selecting and implementing CRM systems published by Prentice Hall. You can find a full description at www.ftworks.com/JustEnoughCRM.htm. You can contact her at 650 559 9826 or FT@ftworks.com.