Staying Smart with an Internal Knowledge Base

What is an internal knowledge base?

An internal knowledge base or internal KB is a knowledge base setup by a company that is strictly for internal use. An internal knowledge base is a great way for companies to provide employees with important, easy to find information, but since it’s internal only, there is no risk of sharing private or sensitive information with the general public.

A good internal knowledge base streamlines communication across teams, saving time and energy. Zendesk Help Center is intuitive and easy to use, and is built for employees on both sides of an interaction.

A different approach

It’s an all too common scenario: a customer is on hold with a support agent because the agent is hunting down the answer to a question. As the seconds tick by, customer satisfaction plummets.

Likewise, an employee has a question about an HR policy or commuter benefits. Not only can they not find the answer, but they don’t even know where to look. So they stop working and start emailing people until they get what they need.

Both scenarios involve a waste of time and productivity, not to mention dissatisfied customers, all of which could have been prevented with an internal knowledge base: a simple, easy to navigate resource that provides employees with relevant information not available to the outside world.

Did you know?

The ad hoc approach to providing internal information, where each team or individual uses the system of their choice, simply does not work. Efforts are duplicated, important information becomes impossible to find, and making updates in an organized way becomes impossible. It’s bad enough when employees can’t find what they need, but forcing a customer to wait while a support agent looks for information that should be readily available is unacceptable.

While many companies already employ a knowledge base for their customers, some information, particularly things like HR and payroll articles, are not suitable for an externally facing resource.

Providing an internal knowledge base solves many of these issues:
  • Faster, better customer service. Whether an agent is helping a customer in real-time—over the phone or IM—or responding to a support ticket, all customers want quick resolutions to their problems. Good internal KB management is the best way to give support agents the information they need to quickly resolve these issues.
  • Increased productivity. Every minute an employee spends looking for information about vacation policies or health benefits is a minute they could have spent working. Not to mention the strain it puts on internal teams like HR to respond to these questions. An internal knowledge base reduces this downtime considerably.

Time for a solution

Companies that care about customer satisfaction and employee productivity—which is to say all companies—should invest in internal knowledge base software and build an internal KB. Doing so will ensure quicker resolutions to customer support requests and employees having easy access to the information they need.
Camera Obscura's help center example of an internal knowledge base through Zendesk.

How Zendesk helps

A good internal knowledge base streamlines communication across teams, saving time and energy. Zendesk Help Center is intuitive and easy to use, and is built for employees on both sides of an interaction.

Zendesk gives you the power to give your employees the same great self-service experiences you give your customers. Zendesk helps companies manage and streamline all employee support interactions in a single, organized location. Zendesk’s analytics and dashboards enable internal teams like HR and IT to measure how efficient and productive they are and how satisfied other employees are with their service so they can make better decisions.

Likewise, Zendesk allows support teams to create a robust internal knowledge base that grows and improves over time, making sure support agents always have quick access to the information they need.

Stay smart with an internal knowledge base

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