Best practices: Developing content for your knowledge base

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">There are many ways to manage the content creation process for your knowledge base. The size of your team, type of business you have, and whether you are creating internal or public-facing content might determine your process.</p>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">To build a strong knowledge base, you need one owner to track content needs, a clear process for agents to flag issues, and assigned writers who make updates part of their regular work. Use templates, short articles, clear titles, lists, plain language, links, and expert review before publishing so your content stays accurate, consistent, and easy to find.</p>
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<p class="p">There are many ways to manage the content creation process for your knowledge
base. The size of your team, type of business you have, and whether you are
creating internal or public-facing content might determine your process.</p>
<p class="p">These best practices, based on feedback from Zendesk users, are meant to offer
guidance and help you build a valuable knowledge base. </p>
<div class="p">This article covers the following topics:<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_vnn_zgw_jx">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_zhx_wtm_1l">Identify a
knowledge base owner</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_qlv_3sm_1l">Establish a process
for flagging issues for the knowledge
base</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_433_hsm_1l">Determine who will
write content for the knowledge base</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_wsv_3wr_ll">Establish standards
for authoring quality knowledge base
content</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_k1q_jsm_1l">Require technical
reviews before content is published</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">
</p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_zhx_wtm_1l">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Identify a knowledge base owner</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Be sure to identify an owner for your knowledge base. Whether this person
is dedicated to the KB or wears many hats, you need one person on
your team who is responsible for the KB. The KB owner is the contact
for the team and can ensure that content is created and is
consistent.</p>
<p class="p">The KB owner should regularly monitor and check the list of issues that
need KB documentation. This helps ensure that new content is created
in a timely manner and that existing content is up-to-date.
Depending on how the team is identifying issues, a <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408888828570" target="_blank">view</a> in Zendesk is probably a good
way to get a snapshot of KB issues. The KB owner can then
prioritize, schedule, and assign content accordingly. </p>
<p class="p">Having a KB owner is also a great way to make sure that your KB content
meets standards and is consistent and thorough. </p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_qlv_3sm_1l">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Establish a process for flagging issues for the knowledge base</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Support agents work closely with customers and understand their issues,
so identifying issues for the KB should be a standard part of each
support interaction. Be sure you have a process for agents to flag
issues that require new or updated documentation. </p>
<p class="p">At Zendesk, our Support team uses a specific tag to flag tickets with
issues for the KB. Alternatively, some of our customers add a custom
field to their tickets so that their agents can select Yes or No for
KB updates. </p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Community tip</strong> from Cheryl! My end goal will be this: (1) Tier 1
and Tier 2 agents suggest topics to our Technical Writers, (2)
Technical Writers write the document, (3) Document is submitted back
to (probably), a Tier 2 agent for review to make sure the topic is
appropriately covered.</p>
<p class="p">Agents should always search for existing documentation to avoid creating
multiple versions of the same issue. And when there is existing
content, the agent should check to see if it needs updates or
improvements, and flag it if so. After a while this will become a
standard support process, and agents will identify content needs
naturally and according to demand. </p>
<p class="p">If possible, go one step further and build content creation and
maintenance into your support workflow as well. For example,
encourage agents to take time after working with a customer, while
the details are fresh, to make quick KB updates or at least get
started on larger issues. If that's not possible, at least you know
the need has been recorded in the ticket and the team can handle the
KB update via another process.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If you are just starting a knowledge base, you might want to
comb your tickets for issues to populate your knowledge
base. For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828230554" target="_blank">Best practices for
finding customer issues to start your knowledge
base</a>.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested1" id="topic_433_hsm_1l">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title4">Determine who will write content for the knowledge base</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">
</p>
<p class="p">If you don't designate people to write content for your KB, then chances are no one will
write content for your KB. Creating KB content has to be a priority, and part of the regular
responsibilities for specific people or a group.</p>
<p class="p">Some teams have dedicated writers who are technical writers or members of the support team. Some
teams have SMEs (subject matter experts), who create content. Other
teams rely on their support agents for content creation. If your
agents are responsible for content creation, make it part of their
workflow. You might also try rotating writing responsibilities among
the agents. </p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Community tip</strong> from Todd Zabel! We have a small Support team (5 people), so we all
wear multiple hats. I have created the style guidelines and taxonomy, and I assign writing
projects to specific members of the team based on their subject matter expertise. Each
month, we do a review of a cross section of articles. Each member of the team picks 1/5 of
all articles from a spreadsheet to ensure that each one complies with our guidelines, is
current, is not redundant of other content, contains good multimedia content, and has been
syndicated to our social channels for maximum visibility. </p>
<p class="p">
</p>
<p class="p">Your KB authors don't have to have "writer" in their titles. But make sure updating the KB
part of someone's regular job. </p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested1" id="topic_wsv_3wr_ll">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title5">Establish standards for authoring quality knowledge base content </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Regardless of who is creating the content (support agents, technical writer, or someone
else), it's important that articles are clear, concise, and consistent. If users can't
easily find answers in your KB, they might get frustrated and file tickets instead.</p>
<p class="p">Here are some general tips for authoring KB content so that it's easy for users to find and
use:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_wsv_3wr_ll__ul_rpr_4kr_lj">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Develop a template for your articles.</strong> A template
makes it faster and easier to create content. No one
likes facing a blank page. Develop a template with
designated sections to fill in, so that authors
include the right information and not extraneous
information. A template also ensures your articles
are consistent and users know what to expect.
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Community tip</strong> from Kirk! Yes, two core
templates are - PERC (problem, environment,
resolution, cause), for issues and Question -
Answer - Overview for FAQ's. Lists can be in
bullets, directions in numbered and lettered
steps. The other "template" is direction and
monitoring - each article should be a short
solution to 1 core issue. </p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Keep articles, short if possible, and divide content
into sections.</strong> Articles should be short enough
for users to quickly scan to see if the info they
need is there. You don't want to overwhelm users
with too much information in one article. And for
longer articles, be sure to break content into
sections with clear headings.<p class="p">At Zendesk, we
recently broke up a long article about "users."
Specifically, customers were having a hard time
figuring out how to change their account owner.
The info was in this long article, but when users
found the article in search, they didn't know the
info they needed was buried somewhere in there.
Breaking up the long article into shorter topics
helped solve the problem.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Use clear, action-based titles.</strong> Users tend
to look for articles in your KB when they want to
accomplish a task. Be sure your articles are
clearly titled with the action or task that is
documented. Vague and general titles make it hard
to users to know if the task they need is
covered.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Use bullets and numbered lists.</strong> List items
and steps are much easier to scan and follow when
they are broken into bullets or numbered lists.
And be sure to use the right kind of list--use
bullets for lists that don't have an order and use
numbered lists for steps that have to be completed
in order.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Define terms and jargon.</strong> Make sure you define
terms in your articles, or point users to a
resource, such as a glossary, that defines key terms
for your product or business. <p class="p">For advanced
concepts, consider linking to an article that
explains the concept. You don't want to include a
lengthy explanation for a concept if users don't
need it. But for those who might need it, point to
reusable content that provides more information.
</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Link articles to show relationships.</strong> Be sure to
link related articles. This will help users find all
the information they need to solve their problem.
And it might help them answers some questions they
didn't know they had.<div class="p">
<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> In Zendesk, when you change an article's
title or move it, you don't have to update links.
When you make those changes, the article ID
remains the same, so the links are still
valid.</div>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_k1q_jsm_1l">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Require technical reviews before content is published</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">
<div class="div">
<p class="p">Users trust that they are getting reliable information in a
company's knowledge base. But if they find too many
errors or inconsistencies, they won't trust the info
and they won't use the KB. So it's important to have
content reviewed before it's published.</p>
<p class="p">KB
authors should schedule a subject matter expert
(SME), to review articles for accuracy and
thoroughness. Multiple review cycles or multiple
reviewers might be necessary for complex topics.
</p>
<p class="p">On Suite Growth, Suite Professional, and
Knowledge Professional, you can work in draft mode,
and have others review your draft, until you are
ready to publish your new article in the KB, see
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408826796570" target="_blank">Working with
drafts</a>. </p>
<p class="p">On Suite Enterpise plans and
Knowledge Enterprise, <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832609562" target="_blank">Team
Publishing</a> makes it easy to get new and
existing content reviewed. You can create new
articles as a work in progress, then submit it for
review (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824595354" target="_blank">Creating new
content for review</a>), or you can stage
updates to existing articles and get them reviewed
before you publish, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832673818" target="_blank">Staging content
updates</a>.</p>
You might also consider a
review by one final person--someone responsible for
publishing. If you limit publishing to certain team members
(see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834435738" target="_blank">Setting agent editing
and publishing permissions</a>), they can review
and approve all KB content before publishing it. On Suite
Growth, Suite Professional, and Knowledge Professional,
publishers can review and publish all drafts. On Enterprise
plans, the publisher can review articles submitted for
review and approve and publish them, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829231770" target="_blank">Reviewing, approving,
and publishing articles</a>. </div>
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