“By 2022, we’ll be talking to bots more than our own spouses.” – Deloitte Rapid technological advancements have pushed businesses to make all information available at customers’ fingertips to deliver a seamless digital experience. Customers today prefer to be self-sufficient. 40% of consumers1 now prefer self-service over human contact.

Knowledge sharing within an agency has never been easier—as long as you have the tools and the will to tell others what you know. The problem is that research shows more information generally leads to less knowledge sharing within a team. A phenomenon called “knowledge hoarding” may be to blame, or something less sinister, like employees not having the necessary tools to share what they know. So, what does that mean for your workplace?

Instead of making your customers wander through the pages of Google, optimizing your knowledge base will help them find information fast – a huge advantage when it comes to meeting your customers’ needs. If your knowledge base isn't optimized for search engines, you’re losing a large number of potential new customers. Moreover, you’re missing out on the opportunity of enabling your existing customers to self-serve.

A knowledge base is a self-service centralized repository of readily available information about your business, its products or services, and industry-relevant topics. From the customer’s perspective, an external (or public) knowledge base is a go-to resource for them to learn everything they want about your company. For instance, your external knowledge base may incorporate FAQs, getting-started guides, how-to articles, feature updates, and so on meant for instant self-help.

A Knowledge Base, sometimes abbreviated to ‘KB’, is a core tenant of a successful service desk operation. This is a quick guide on the basics of Knowledge Base functionality, and how to integrate it’s features into your support desk team.