Knowledge base: Answering challenging questions

Frequently Asked Questions

• Should customer service agents or knowledge base moderators engage in every conversation?

  No, there’s no need for your representatives to engage in every conversation or discussion on customer forums or within a knowledge base. A knowledge base is referred to as a “customer self-service tool” for a reason. It should be organized in a way that empowers customers to look for information and educate themselves mostly independently. When they want to consult about something or ask for someone else’s opinion, they can start a thread and interact with other customers or users. Your representatives should facilitate these processes and engage only when they notice that customers can’t find the information they are looking for, other customers are providing wrong or misleading answers, or if a discussion goes in the wrong direction.

• Is it worth creating basic rules for using a knowledge base?

  Yes, it’s always a good idea to write down rules or conditions that knowledge base users must follow in order to use the resources and information gathered there. Transparent rules will make it easier for your agents to manage the knowledge base and react to unwanted behavior. And remember that, without proper moderation, a knowledge base or customer portal, like any other resource co-created by users, may quickly become chaotic and turn into an unorganized mass of different threads and discussions. Clear do’s and don’ts will eliminate the number of cases where your representatives don’t know how to react or are unsure whether they should engage in a discussion, intervene, or not. As a result, your knowledge base will be better organized and easier to use for your customers. You own your company’s knowledge repository, which is why you have the right to impose some regulations and expect customers to obey them.

• Is it acceptable to remove a user or customer who breaks the knowledge base rules multiple times?

  As mentioned above, you own the knowledge base and let your customers use it, but everything that takes place there should be on your terms. To prevent situations when some customers constantly act in a socially unacceptable way, are rude, or start arguments, create a list of behaviors that won’t be tolerated. When creating knowledge base terms and conditions (or however you will name that list of do’s and don’ts), highlight specific actions that will result in moderators intervening and, in the most difficult situations, in temporary bans or customers being removed from the forum. Do everything you can to communicate these rules to customers before they start using your knowledge base, then just make sure users follow the rules.