5 Steps to Building a Successful Knowledge Base

Your IT team accumulates knowledge with just about every resolved help desk issue. So why not transform those solutions into a knowledge base to save time when the issue arises again?

Who has time to repeatedly create solutions from scratch? Nobody. Besides, everyone makes fun of you when you wear that hat at work.

With a knowledge base, your end users can learn to resolve common support problems by themselves. Tagging solutions so that they become fully searchable empowers end users to reference these solutions without having to submit a service desk ticket.

A knowledge base is a contextual structure for facts, experiences, and insights that helps both the IT service desk and end users. With an extensive knowledge base that’s kept up to date, you increase the efficiency of IT service delivery, reduce call time, and improve the overall service desk experience. Here are 5 steps that will help you build a successful knowledge base.

1. Spend Time Beforehand Learning How End Users Search

Spending time up front learning how your organization’s end users search for information on common computer problems gives you information on which terms and phrases you should use when tagging your knowledge base elements. This will help their searches be more effective once the knowledge base is implemented. Speak with a handful of your more motivated end users and ask them questions like, “What kind of searches would you do if the printer wasn’t working?” Collect answers and you’ll have a better idea how to tag entries in your knowledge base.

2. Use Consistent Style Throughout Your Knowledge Base

Your IT service desk workers also need information on how to make knowledge base entries informative and how to tag them properly. Remember: the knowledge base is supposed to be helpful to end users who want to at least try to solve their problems before submitting a help desk ticket. Therefore, it needs to be written plainly, and with a minimum of jargon and “tech speak.”

3. Keep Building Beyond Basic Desktop Support

There’s no reason to stop building your knowledge base just because it covers the basics of common service issues. After all, service desk workers can use it too. The more incidents and solutions your knowledge base contains, the less often your service desk workers will have to develop solutions from scratch. They can quickly search for solutions in the knowledge base, and if one exists, implement it without delay. If no solution exists, service desk workers can put the solution they come up with into the knowledge base to save time next time the problem occurs.

4. Maintain and Update Your Knowledge Base Regularly

We’re not saying an asteroid will destroy Earth if you fail to maintain your knowledge base, but really, why take chances?

Content in your knowledge base should be refreshed regularly and perodically. If a service desk worker finds an error in a knowledge base entry, she may need to make a correction immediately. Other, less urgent changes can be done at regular intervals. You can even ask end users to offer suggestions on how to make knowledge base items more informative and helpful. This is one of those processes that should be planned, because it’s all too easy to put off. Yet keeping your knowledge base informative, accurate, and useful requires periodic maintenance.

5. Choose ITSM Software That Makes Knowledge Base Building Easier

When you choose IT service management software carefully, you make building your knowledge base significantly easier. Leading ITSM software Samanage contains knowledge base capability that makes it easy to document solutions to common incidents. The integrated knowledge base-service desk system reduces time to issue resolution and is easy to build into a knowledge sharing platform. The result is increased support efficiency and better IT service provision throughout your organization.

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