#5 Knowledge Base Benefits Entrepreneurs can Reap for their Startup Not only that, customer support directly affects your revenue and the rapport of your organization.

Customer service is the most crucial factor between success and epic failure for a business. Not only that, customer support directly affects your revenue and the rapport of your organization.

"In the world of Internet Customer Service, it's important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away."
-Doug Warner

When it comes to a startup, these two factors are pivotal which is why young entrepreneurs need to pay extra attention in devising the best customer support strategies.

Why do you think it affects startups so much?

Well, there is a reason why Nike sells more shoes than any startup you can think of - Brand value!

I think the ultimate goal for any startup is to become that brand which can even sell rocks if they have its label on it. Pardon my exaggerated analogy, but you get what I am trying to say here.

So, it is quite evident that customer support can be that factor in turning your startup into a brand.

The next question that follows is how can a startup compete to these giants whose roots go deep in the business? What can be done to overthrow them and capture the market?

To be honest, you can't compete with such giants and the reason is they have already given all the efforts which you are ready to give right now.

So, your focus should not be to compete with such companies, rather to provide that quintessential brand feeling to your customers from day 1, which these organizations are providing now.

And this quintessential brand feeling mostly depends on your customer support strategies. There are many support methods available in the market, from call, live chat to ticketing tools. But for a startup, which is in a transitional phase, I would suggest to go for a knowledge base.

Why?

Because a startup has budget constraints and knowledge base is perfect in keeping your pockets heavy. You don't need staff like the way you need for a call, chat or help desk support.

Wait, there's a lot more! Check these benefits of implementing knowledge base for your startup:

A self service platform for your customers

Like I mentioned above, with a knowledge base you don't need any staff as the channel is a self service system. Knowledge base is an online repository where you can store all the frequently asked questions as a help site and offer it to your customers.

This way customers don't have to contact to you directly and can easily find out the information they need. Knowledge base is considered the best support tool in terms of efficiency. A lot of people have this notion that if you provide personalized support to customers, they will be more happy with it. But in reality, the facts speak something else:

• A study conducted by Nuance Enterprise showed that over 67% people prefer a self service system than talking to a representative on call.
• 75% people agreed on the fact that self service is the best method to address customer issues as it is more convenient.

So, when the mass wants a self service platform to resolve their issues then providing them with exactly what they want can result in happy delighted customers!

Reduce overall support expenses

When you offer a self service system, then you are bound reduce your support expenses. By offering a repository of FAQs, user guides and more, the frequency of inbound calls, chats and tickets would decrease.

This may not reflect in your bank statements soon but in a long run you can save a lot of money by reducing the frequency of your other support channels.

It also saves a lot of time of your support reps as they can quickly pull the relevant information for customers from the knowledge base. So, even when the customers are coming on other support channels, a support rep can be more quick and efficient in providing information to customers and that can easily build a rapport with your customers.

Here's what Coleman Parkes study says about knowledge base in comparison to other support channels:

• 40% of the people who were surveyed said that they only contact call support if they cannot find the answers in a knowledge base.
• 91% survey respondents said that they would use a knowledge base if it is designed to their needs.

Reduction in overall costs of support channels can really boost the growth of a startup and let's not forget the happy customers who would be pleased by the quick responses and precise support.

Seamless internal coordination

Apart from being an exceptional customer support tool, a knowledge base can be used in other ways. And one of the best ways is to use it as an internal wiki for your team.

An organization consists a lot of teams which are required to work in collaboration and share information. In a startup, maintaining that collaboration is difficult and a knowledge base can easily provide that platform which offers a central repository where all the team members can access and share information.

And because knowledge base has features like roles, permissions and member manger, it becomes easier to keep sensitive information secure, while offering the relevant information to relevant team members.

• Offer a central channel to share information.
• Provide cloud access from anywhere on any device.
• Keep sensitive information secure with roles and permissions.

Keep company data safe

For a startup, keeping information organized is very important as its only going to grow with business. Every piece of information, whether it is prospect details or product information, all needs to be stored at a place where it is easily accessible and moreover, easily searchable.

This is where a knowledge base comes handy. As a knowledge base is cloud based and generally have data backup options, it is the best place to keep the company data. It can be used as the repository to store all the important files, docs and media.

• Keep company data on the cloud and access from anywhere.
• Import docs, files and media with a simple click.
• Set conditions to keep data hidden from specific team members.

Integrate with other tools for a smooth workflow

Customer support operations require a lot of tools and a dedicated team. Even for a startup, certain tools such as helpdesk, live chat and CRM are really important to keep a record of all the customers and also the captured leads.

When you integrate a knowledge base with such tools, it fills that void which you may have been experiencing in your customer support. ProProfs, a cloud based and SAAS company, provides manysoftware products include a quiz, survey, online course creation tool as well as a knowledge base software. For example, a live chat rep can assist a customer by providing relevant knowledge base article right from live chat.

• Raise tickets from knowledge base.
• Access knowledge base while chatting with customers
• Share information and collect feedback from knowledge base.

Final Thoughts

In a startup, it is all about investing the least and gaining the most. This is the only way a startup can grow from a company to a gigantic brand. It requires a lot of calibre to do that but at the same time you also need smart tools to assist you in this process. A knowledge base is needed to manage and provide knowledge where it is needed the most.

"Knowledge should be freely available to people from all walks of life"

Sameer Bhatia, CEO, ProProfs Knowledgebase

Whether it is an employee or a manager, each and everyone in an organization should have the access to knowledge equally. If implemented right, it can boost your customer support in an exceptional way. It can give your business that brand status and at the same time offers a lot of other use case for internal purposes.