According to Deloitte Insights, knowledge management is one of the three key issues affecting a company’s success (or lack of it). Unfortunately, according to the same survey, only 9% of surveyed organizations feel ready to step up their game and effectively address knowledge management.
Creating and maintaining a knowledge base — an organization's central repository of information — is essential for streamlining information-sharing processes. It is also vital for problem-solving, decision-making and, ultimately, customer satisfaction. So, don’t make the same mistake those organizations are making.
Implementing an effective knowledge base comes with some challenges, but there’s no room for worry. We’re here to show you just how to do it, so read on.
9 knowledge base best practices
Whether the goal is to improve internal operations, provide better customer support or facilitate training and development, following these nine knowledge base best practices is the way to go. They’ll allow you to create a repository that is relevant, informative, user-friendly and engaging for employees.
Identify your goals and audience
Before writing knowledge base articles, determine what you want to achieve with them and who your audience is, and then tailor the tone, content and complexity to that.
For instance, you may be building a call center knowledge base with the goal of eliminating repeat calls. In this case, you will equip the support team with FAQs, scripts for various scenarios or quick-reference materials for policies.
The language you use will also depend on your audience and their level of expertise. For example, creating how-to articles for technical experts will differ greatly from those aimed at beginners in their line of work.
Use process documentation software
Selecting just the right process documentation tool for documenting how various processes are carried out will greatly help handle knowledge base management. Such software must allow for easy content creation, organization and editing.
With MagicHow, you can automate the creation of step-by-step guides to add to your knowledge base through an easy-to-use interface. These how-to articles will show employees how to handle literally any of the software tools you’re using at your organization.
You don't need any prior experience — just start the process of using a tool you want documented, and MagicHow will create step-by-step instructions with screenshots. The AI-powered knowledge base software will split the process into logical steps and automatically create a guide.
MagicHow’s use cases are spread across many industries, so whether you need to create an HR SOP, customer service training manual or a salesman guide, we got you covered.
So, sign up now to test the app for free. And if you scroll to the bottom of this post, you’ll find the exact steps on how to use it.
Make it skimmable
Especially in our busy world, users don't have much time and are looking to get the information they need quickly so that they can invest their working hours into improving customer experience instead.
Apart from being conveniently accessible and having a simple-to-use interface, your knowledge base must also be easily skimmable. To make this happen, you'll need proper formatting for each knowledge base article, including:
- Properly descriptive headers
- Bullet points/numbered lists
- Short paragraphs that are easy to scan
For more clarity, you can add infoboxes throughout the sections, including the one you'll use to introduce the section's topic at the beginning. Having summary boxes/key takeaways at the end of each section will make it even easier to skim knowledge base articles.
It's a good idea to ensure consistency in formatting by adhering to standardized style guidelines. Being consistent in terms of fonts, sizes and colors (both for headings and text) makes the knowledge base easier to skim but also gives it a more professional vibe.
And when it comes to consistent colors, you can use color coding to distinguish between different types of information (tips, warnings etc.), making them convenient to spot.
Keep it simple and concise
To make a knowledge base even more accessible, clarity and brevity are essential. Create content with clear, straightforward language, especially when you need to create a training manual or address someone who isn't proficient in the given field.
In such cases, avoid jargon or overly technical terms, or if you do use them, include definitions. Generally speaking, simple explanations do a better job than lengthy ones.
Compare these two examples:
DON’T: To utilize the CRM software properly, first log in with your credentials, then navigate to the customer database section and carefully input or update customer details, ensuring accuracy. Use the filtering tools to segment data for targeted communication. Regularly update the records post any customer interaction, but remember to always log out after completing your session for security purposes.
DO: Log in to the CRM, update customer data, use filters for segmentation, maintain records post-interaction and log out for security.
While we’re at examples, keep in mind that providing relevant examples and real-life scenarios will make the guide more relatable and easier to understand. This particularly applies when you need to convey complex information.
Another helpful tip: always try to use active voice instead of passive voice, which will make the writing more conversational and more likely to capture the readers' attention while learning. The sentence you’ve just read is more engaging than, “And another helpful tip: active voice should always be used by writers instead of passive voice…”
Organize it logically and include a search functionality
Again, making the information easy to find is crucial when creating knowledge bases. One of the best practices for process documentation is having a well-structured knowledge base, including a hierarchical structure with a clear top-down approach, from general to specific topics.
In other words, include categories and subcategories that reflect common queries and topics and make a self-service knowledge base effortless to navigate. Implement a structured layout and easy-to-use menus, and consider adding a tagging system to group related articles.
The key to navigating through your base is a handy search function. Use tags, keywords and filters to help users quickly locate specific information.
Overall, the user experience with searching the knowledge base should be intuitive, with support even for common misspellings and synonyms.
Add visuals and interactive elements
Documents such as the ones that are part of efficient process standardization can be complicated, so add visual aids to your knowledge base article format to enhance user understanding. Many people are visual learners, and adding visuals simplifies complex information and breaks the monotony of text-heavy content.
These are visual aids such as:
- Screenshots
- Infographics
- Diagrams
- Tables
- Icons
Also, adding video tutorials when designing your SOP manual can make it much simpler. As an alternative learning method, you may go as far as embedding a webinar to create a comprehensive resource and make a complex topic more manageable to digest.
Moreover, including interactive elements in a knowledge base will enhance user engagement. Here are some examples:
- Hyperlinks
- FAQs
- Forum
- Chatbot
- Quizzes
Keep in mind that it is one of the best practices for all design and interactive elements to be branded. Doing so will maintain a consistent appearance, projecting a sense of professionalism and high standards.
Optimize for mobile
According to Statista, people using mobile devices generated 58.3% of overall web traffic in Q1 2023, so plan that many users will browse your knowledge base on the go. Therefore, it is vital to have knowledge management and viewing that is accessible and user-friendly on mobile devices.
Your knowledge base must be responsive, and its layout and features must work well on smaller screens, with adaptive content that reformats text and visuals according to screen size. Ensure the following:
- Fast loading times
- Readable fonts
- Touch-friendly interface
To make this happen, test your knowledge base on various browsers and devices (including tablets) to provide maximum compatibility and a seamless user experience. Regularly conduct user testing to learn valuable insights and adapt the guide layout accordingly.
Define control accesses
Imagine you've carefully prepared your business process documentation, only to have someone delete a vital section, change the content so it's no longer accurate or even add a "clever" or inappropriate joke or two. To avoid this, you'll need to set up control accesses to determine who can view, edit or administer the knowledge base.
Such user roles and permissions are essential in maintaining the security and integrity of your knowledge base. This could include read-only rights for general users, internal knowledge base editing access for subject matter experts and administrative rights for the IT crowd on your staff.
Sensitive areas should be specially protected with multi-factor authentication. In addition, it's best to regularly review access logs to detect any unusual activity.
Ask for feedback and regularly update
A knowledge base is not a static resource. Update and revise on a regular basis (best according to a prepared schedule), and encourage feedback from users to understand what works and what needs improving, what's valuable and clear and what's not.
To get such feedback, implement:
- Surveys
- Feedback forms
- Comment sections
User surveys and data analysis may provide essential insights to build knowledge bases. Data such as which articles are most read or which search terms are most used should guide your content strategy. Data analysis might also reveal topics frequently searched but not in your base yet.
The content of the knowledge base must always remain accurate and relevant. This involves regularly archiving outdated information and adding new content as needed.
For both feedback and updates, it's useful to foster a company culture where employees contribute by providing insights and updates from their areas of expertise or general experiences they've had.
How to create step-by-step instructions with MagicHow
Knowing how to use software tools relevant to their jobs is vital for many employees and their respective companies. MagicHow will come in useful as an SOP software for using various tools, allowing you to create content for your knowledge base hassle-free.
Here is how it works:
Install the software
The process of installing MagicHow is quick and intuitive. Keep in mind that you can choose between a desktop version and a browser extension (both are free for the basic suite of features).
If you opt for the browser version, you'll be able to add an extension to your Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Safari browser.
Record the process you want to teach
Now, it's time to manually perform and record the process you want a guide for, whether that’s for a step-by-step guide for an employee training manual or a technical procedure for IT troubleshooting.
As you go, MagicHow will create screenshots and structure the guide into logical steps. You don’t need to think about how you want to organize the instructions; just hit the button to start recording.
Congrats, you’ve got yourself a guide that you can now additionally customize.
Customize your guide
MagicHow offers a variety of customization options that will enable you to end up with just the guide you need. It’s possible to:
- Add titles and descriptions of each step: Whatever you deem relevant in terms of text, you can add.
- Blur sensitive data: Whether it’s passwords, personal data or proprietary content, you may need to protect sensitive or confidential data.
- Crop a picture: Remove anything from the screenshots that is distracting or irrelevant to your guide.
- Add logos to your screenshots: We’ve mentioned earlier in the article the importance of visual branding in your guides, and logos are a perfect example.
- Change the visual style: Customizing the guide’s style, including colors and fonts, allows for increased attractiveness, higher readability and branding consistency.
- Replace or merge the slides: If you see an opportunity to streamline the guide further or eliminate any possible redundancies, you can do so.
Share your guide
We’ve made sure that the guide you’ve created with MagicHow is easy to share. To do so, you may:
- Send the guide by means of a direct link or an email invitation after configuring access settings — just like when using Google Docs
- Export the guide in PDF format
- Get the guide in HTML or Markdown formats for posting on third-party websites
- Embed it in Notion, Confluence, Zendesk, Webflow or another knowledge repository by simply copying and pasting a piece of code
Conclusion
As discussed, proper knowledge base management provides essential benefits you shouldn’t miss. By implementing these nine knowledge base best practices, you can significantly improve information accessibility, employee efficiency and overall organizational performance.
And MagicHow can be your ally on this path. Sign up now and enjoy the benefits and ease this tool brings to filling your knowledge base with valuable content and helping you avoid the pitfalls companies face in knowledge management.
