How to implement a knowledge management system
Now that you know all about KMS, you can work on your knowledge management strategy to decide the right knowledge to share, whom the information is for, the best format to convey it, and the optimal way to organize the information.
Start capturing the information you want to document
Decide what information you want to record in your knowledge management system. It could be product information, onboarding guides, how-to tutorials, FAQs, or troubleshooting instructions for common issues. Find out common customer inquiries that are submitted at your support helpdesk and build your knowledge repository based on customer needs.
Arrange the information with your audience in mind
You need to start by thinking about who will be searching for the information and when. You can do this by analyzing your customer journey and figuring out the information that’s required at each state, and identifying the best way to efficiently convey that. For example, as you move down the customer journey, you’ll want to restrict some content like information on referral or loyalty programs to logged-in customers. Or, for an internal KMS, you can set your support agents up for success with deeper product details and pricing specifics.
Track and analyze feedback
In order to measure the success of your KMS, you need to tap into user feedback. Add feedback surveys at the end of each article and guide to understand if the information was useful or not. For example, Freshdesk articles offer an option for readers to vote Yes or No to “Did you find it helpful?” at the bottom of each article. If many customers report that an article is not helpful, it’s almost certainly time for an update.
Modern knowledge management software have built-in analytics in them that tracks and projects the article feedback and article view count on intuitive dashboards. Integrating your online knowledge management system with Google Analytics gives deeper insights into how users navigate within your KMS and how relevant your content is.
Update your KMS regularly
Rarely is any knowledge static. You need to include a process that constantly revises your knowledge base as the product expands, as customers express confusion or dissatisfaction, or as your offerings change. Invite multiple stakeholders within your organization like the customer support team or the sales department to collaborate, contribute, and update the knowledge shared periodically.