Best practices for creating a successful knowledge base

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There’s nothing quite as empowering as solving a problem on your own. When it comes to customer support, 73% of consumers want to solve product or service issues on their own, and 90% of consumers now expect a brand or organization to offer a self-service customer support portal (source: Zendesk research 2023).

Self-service support equips customers with round-the-clock information without having to wait for a response. It is one of the lowest-cost channels for providing excellent customer service and high resolution rates. However, the success of online self-service depends on the quality, quantity, and accessibility of your company’s knowledge-base content. To provide helpful self-service, businesses need to build a knowledge base with relevant content that addresses customers’ biggest questions.

If you're using AI-powered features that draw information from your help center content, a strong knowledge base is even more critical, as it will improve the quality and accuracy of automated responses. A comprehensive help center with well-written, focused articles will lead to better results for your article suggestions and generative replies.

When it comes to launching and maintaining a help center, companies often have to weigh competing priorities, including the need for a quick launch, the importance of covering a wide range of topics, and the desire to free up agents to respond directly to customers. Whether you have a help center and are looking to quickly expand your content, or you are starting from the ground up, you can explore one or more of the following phases to help you build your knowledge base:

Phase 1: Concept and initiation - Consider the goals of your organization and identify primary users and key contributors.

Phase 2: Content planning and creation - Uncover common issues to populate the knowledge base and create high-quality, engaging content quickly and efficiently.

Phase 3: Launch - Boost awareness and promote your knowledge base, and leverage AI agents to boost automated resolutions.

Phase 4: Analyze and optimize - Monitor the performance of your knowledge base and ensure ongoing improvement.

Check out our visual guide for building a successful knowledge base:

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