Best practices for finding customer issues to start your knowledge base

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">When you want to start a knowledge base, it's essential to mine your tickets for common issues and customer pain points. This can be a fairly manual process. Think about the data you're capturing in tickets and how you can use it to determine where you need content.</p>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Use ticket data, macros, tags, one-touch tickets, existing content, and community feedback to find the customer issues worth documenting first in your knowledge base. Categorize tickets by issue, drill into high-volume groups, track recurring pain points, and prioritize topics that affect many customers, take time to resolve, or appear in common agent responses.</p>
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<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> Customers who are not on a Suite plan must have Support Professional or
Enterprise with any Knowledge plan to use this feature.</div>
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<div class="p">Starting your knowledge base can be a daunting task. You need to decide what topics to
document to help the most customers:<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_ay4_s1b_5qb">
<li class="li">Find common issues. "Users always struggle with X."</li>
<li class="li">Find frequently asked questions (FAQs). "Users always ask Y."</li>
<li class="li">Find known issues that impact a lot of customers. "Your website does not function
correctly on mobile devices."</li>
<li class="li">Find time-consuming issues. "It takes 30 minutes to set up."</li>
</ul>
The best way to do this is to analyze your tickets. They are the best record of your
customer issues and pain points. But don't forget about other resources that might also help
you pinpoint issues you should document in your knowledge base, including macros, tags,
existing content, and feedback in your community. This article contains the following sections:</div>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_awt_qmt_w2b">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_jzb_mvd_jj">Analyzing ticket data to determine customer issues</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_d13_lyd_jj">Looking at other sources to determine customer issues</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_jzb_mvd_jj">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Analyzing ticket data to determine customer issues</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">When you want to start a knowledge base, it's essential to mine your tickets for common
issues and customer pain points. This can be a fairly manual process. Think about the data
you're capturing in tickets and how you can use it to determine where you need content. </p>
<div class="p">
<strong class="ph b"> Here's one process for analyzing tickets:</strong><ol class="ol" id="topic_jzb_mvd_jj__ol_5w1_2vy_qj">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b"><a class="xref" href="#topic_gk5_2hk_lj">Categorize your tickets.</a></strong>
How you categorize your tickets depends on the information you're collecting in tickets.
Ideally, you'll want to categorize by issue, using a custom "about" field. Then you can
build an Insights report to see what you major ticket categories and issues are.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b"><a class="xref" href="#topic_j1d_ghk_lj">Drill-down into ticket groupings to
find common issues.</a></strong> After you organize your tickets into categories,
you'll want to create a view to dig in to the categories with the most tickets and find
the common, high frequency issues.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b"><a class="xref" href="#topic_nyy_ghk_lj">Determine what to document.</a></strong>
Keep a tracking document where you can record issues you find, then determine what you
want to document and set priorities for creating the content.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested2" id="topic_gk5_2hk_lj">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title3">Categorizing your tickets</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The first step in analyzing ticket data to determine content needs for your knowledge
base is to categorize your tickets.</p>
<p class="p">Your ticket categories depend on the data you're collecting in your tickets. Take a look
at the custom fields you've set up to collect extra information. Hopefully you're
capturing some data about your customers, product, or issues that will help you. The best
case scenario is that you have data about the major issue in each ticket so that you can
easily categorize tickets according to issue.</p>
<p class="p">For example, if you have multiple products (Game ABC, Game XYZ, and so on), or different
user segments (novice, professional, developer, and so on), do you have a custom field for
those items? Or do you have a custom field for selecting the feature related to the
problem, such as "Drawing tool" or "Exporting?"</p>
<p class="p">At Zendesk, we have a custom field called <strong class="ph b">About</strong> that contains common ticket topics
like "Multibranding" or "Salesforce." Agents use this field to indicate the issue for each
ticket. We also have a custom field called <strong class="ph b">Handle Time</strong> to track the amount of time
an agent spends handling a ticket. By comparing About and Handle Time, we identify topics
that require a lot of time for our agents to handle. Then we can drill down to find common
issues that we can document in our KB.</p>
<p class="p">Your ticket volume and the number of issues you have will determine how long you need to
wait before you have a statistically significant distribution of issues. Collect 500
tickets with the new custom field, then take a look. If some of the categories seem light
(fewer than 30 tickets), you might want to wait a little longer, until you have 500-1000
tickets maybe. Also, consider whether you really need those light categories (you might
rethink the options in your custom field.)</p>
<p class="p">If you are not currently capturing data that you can use to categorize tickets, set up a
custom field where agents can indicate the issue for each ticket (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408883152794" target="_blank">Adding custom fields to your tickets and support request forms</a>).
Then you can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824384538" target="_blank">use this custom field in your Explore reports</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_j1d_ghk_lj">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Drilling-down to find specific issues</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">After you categorize your tickets, you can drill-down into each major category to find
specific, common issues. To do this, you can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408888828570#topic_vcr_xfp_ec" target="_blank">create a view of each category</a>. If you have a
lot of categories, you might want to start with the ones with the most tickets.</p>
<p class="p">You
might be able to find recurring issues by scanning ticket subject lines, but you'll
probably have to dig in and read through tickets to pinpoint specifics. This will be a
manual process.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To create a view for your ticket categories</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_j1d_ghk_lj__ol_srr_nbb_5qb">
<li class="li"><span class="ph" id="topic_j1d_ghk_lj__views">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click
<img class="image" id="topic_j1d_ghk_lj__image_mbf_fyj_5wb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_workspaces_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Workspaces</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Agent tools &gt; Views</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Add view</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">In <strong class="ph b">Meet all of the following conditions</strong>, add conditions to show tickets
tagged with a specific issue.<ul class="ul" id="topic_j1d_ghk_lj__ul_urr_nbb_5qb">
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">Tags</strong> and <strong class="ph b">contains at least one of the following</strong>, then
enter one of the tags associated with an issue in your About field.</li>
<li class="li">Click the <strong class="ph b">Plus</strong> (+) to add another condition, then select <strong class="ph b">Status</strong>
and <strong class="ph b">less than Closed</strong>.<div class="note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> If you also want to review closed tickets, you can
create another view. There is no way to see all tickets of any status in the same
view.</div>
<p class="p"><img alt="Populating forums in Views" class="image img-screenshot" id="topic_j1d_ghk_lj__image_pdq_hcb_5qb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/forums_populating_view_lens.png" width="450"></p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">Preview match for the conditions above</strong> to test your conditions.</li>
<li class="li">Set <strong class="ph b">Formatting options</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">In the <strong class="ph b">Available for</strong> section, select <strong class="ph b">Me only</strong> to make this a personal
view.</li>
<li class="li">Click <strong class="ph b">Create view</strong>.</li>
</ol>
<p class="p">Now you are ready to dig in and find specific issues in this grouping that might
need to be documented in your KB.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_nyy_ghk_lj">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Determining what to document</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Establish a system for tracking the recurring issues you find during your ticket analysis.</p>
<p class="p">A google doc or a spreadsheet that you share with others who might helping with the
research, will probably work well. Later, you can use this document as a tracking sheet
that you can update as you add items to your knowledge base. And you can also use it to
make assignments where content needs to be developed.</p>
<p class="p">As you drill-down into tickets in the view for a particular issue, you might find that
some issues you thought were common are not actually common enough to document. And maybe
some recurring issues don't lend themselves to documentation because there are too many
variables in customer's environment. Your spreadsheet will evolve throughout your analysis
phase as you add and remove issues as needed. </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_d13_lyd_jj">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Looking at other sources to determine customer issues </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Your tickets will probably be your best resource for finding common customer issues and
determining what to put in your knowledge base. But don't overlook other valuable resources
that might not take as much time and analysis. Here are some things to consider.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested2" id="topic_mk1_mxy_qj">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title7">Review popular macros</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">If you use macros for common responses to tickets, you might want to take a look at your most
used macros. You will probably find some common customer pain points in those macros. And
you might be able to reduce tickets, and specifically tickets that get these popular
macros, if you document the topics covered in those macros in your knowledge base.</p>
<div class="p">
<strong class="ph b">To review your most-used macros</strong><ol class="ol" id="topic_mk1_mxy_qj__ol_lsb_pbz_qj">
<li class="li"><span class="ph" id="topic_mk1_mxy_qj__macros">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click
<img class="image" id="topic_mk1_mxy_qj__image_q5t_r3c_ksb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_workspaces_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Workspaces</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Agent tools &gt; Macros</strong>.</span></li>
<li class="li">Select <strong class="ph b">Sorted by usage over the last 7 days</strong> (or over the last 24 hours, if
you prefer).<p class="p"><img class="image img-screenshot" height="NaN" id="topic_mk1_mxy_qj__image_5qp_qcz_qj" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/forums_populating_macros.png" width="NaN"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Review the list of most used macros to find issues.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title8" class="topic nested2" id="topic_imp_phb_2fc">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title8">Review your one-touch tickets</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">One-touch tickets are tickets that were solved with only one agent reply. Reviewing your
one-touch tickets is a great way to identify issues to document in your knowledge base.</p>
<p class="p">To create a report that shows one-touch tickets, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843225370" target="_blank">Explore recipe: One-touch tickets</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title9" class="topic nested2" id="topic_1wg_g12_jj">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title9">Look at the most-used tags</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The tags on tickets can also help you categorize tickets and find common issues. We've
already talked about analyzing tags set by drop-down custom fields. You can also use
other tags to help pinpoint common issues.</p>
<p class="p">Take a look at your tag cloud to see the
100 tags that have been most applied to tickets in the last 30 days. This might give
you some ideas about different groupings or issues where you can drill-down.</p>
<p class="p">Or,
better yet, if you have a system for manually tagging items that need documentation,
then you can review those to find important items to document. But that's probably
something you will <em class="ph i">start</em> doing, but haven't been doing yet!</p>
<p class="p">At Zendesk,
when we set up our internal knowledge base, we relied on the tags set by our custom
fields. But we plan to start manually a tag for doc_needed as another way to surface
topics that need to be documented.</p>
<div class="p">
<strong class="ph b">To view the top 100 tag cloud</strong><ul class="ul" id="topic_1wg_g12_jj__ul_y5t_qst_rf">
<li class="li"><span class="ph" id="topic_1wg_g12_jj__tags">In <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581766374554#topic_hfg_dyz_1hb" target="_blank">Admin Center</a>, click
<img class="image" id="topic_1wg_g12_jj__image_s4n_y3c_ksb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/ac_objects_rules_icon.png">
<strong class="ph b">Objects and rules</strong> in the sidebar, then select <strong class="ph b">Tickets &gt;
Tags</strong>.</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title10" class="topic nested2" id="topic_rzy_w3r_jj">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title10">Review existing content</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">You should not overlook any existing content. This can be another source for determining issues
and seeding your knowledge base. And in most cases, it's ready-made content that can go
directly in the knowledge base with little or no editing. </p>
<p class="p">Consider the following:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_rzy_w3r_jj__ul_l2k_2gr_jj">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Informal documentation</strong> Support agents usually have "cheatsheets" or informal docs to help
them remember common issues and workarounds. They might be in the form of Word docs or
Google docs. Sometimes they are even shared or part of an informal documentation
process. Be sure to ask your agents about these docs, if you don't already know about
them.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Macros</strong> Any macros that cover known issues and workarounds can also be a good resource.
Leverage that content to create knowledge base topics. In most cases it's an easy win. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Help content</strong> If you have help documentation, review the topics that are covered and
consider features that might cause problems or confusion for users. Proactively
document those items. And don't forget to document known issues for features and
common workaround or tricks.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title11" class="topic nested2" id="topic_g3q_x3r_jj">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title11">Listen to your community</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Be sure to listen to your internal community of agents and your external community of
customers. It's a great way to directly learn about common customer issues and pain
points.</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic_g3q_x3r_jj__ul_wbh_c1t_ck">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Consult your agents.</strong> Your agents can probably tell you common issues or pain
points, and exactly what the doc needs are. Be sure to meet with them to solicit their
feedback on needed documentation. <p class="p">Ideally, this would become part of your regular
process for knowledge management. Encourage your team to suggest new documents and,
wherever possible, involve them in content creation as well.</p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Find out what users are saying in the community.</strong> The community can be a good
source of information for determining common issues and pain points.</p>
<p class="p">Check the most active threads for possible points of confusion. If customers are
commenting a lot, it might be a source of frustration that needs documentation. You
can also search, if you have an idea of what to search for. Maybe you have an issue
in mind and want to see how frequently customers discuss it in the community or
maybe you want to validate findings from your ticket analysis (or check your gut
instinct!). </p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">Check social media.</strong> Go everywhere your customers are and find out what they
are saying. You might hear about some common issues.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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