10 Ways Your IT Service Desk Will Benefit from a Knowledge Base

In this article, you will learn What is IT Help Desk? A knowledgebase is, without doubt, one of the most important tools your IT service desk needs. Without a knowledge base, the organization runs the risk of inconsistent support, long phone calls, and unhappy customers to name a few.

A knowledgebase also contains articles that help end users/customers solve their problems, lists of frequently asked questions (FAQs) and technical documentation that support staff can access to answer more specialized questions.

If you are still not convinced and fully integrated - or if you need to convince the powers worth investing - I have compiled this list for you! You're welcome.

Here are 10 benefits for your IT service center and IT support and IT service management (ITSM) activities in a broad sense, thanks to the implementation of a knowledge base.

1. Improve your customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

A knowledgebase contains articles that an end-user or customer can use to solve their problem. They simply research their problem, select the object that will help them and follow the instructions to solve it. The customer immediately gets what he needs, solves his problem and does not have to pick up the phone or register a ticket.

Happy days!

If he needs to call the IT help desk for assistance, the help desk agent can then use the knowledge base to: direct the customer to the correct article so that he can help himself or refer to an article for solving the problem directly, resulting in a closed ticket with minimal time on the phone.

A customer who solved the problem in minutes or didn't have to contact IT support is probably a satisfied customer.

2. Conservation of knowledge

You will often find that companies have a computer support center hero, someone who knows all the fixes for each incident or at least knows who to go for the job. Although these people are wonderful people, they can also cause a lack of urgency in documenting knowledge.

Colleagues will ask the hero difficult questions instead of learning what to do, thinking, "Documentation can wait because the office has someone who knows what to do and there are more urgent tasks to deal with. Anyway."

It will be fine until ... the hero leaves. Now you're stuck. All knowledge available for the IT help desk has disappeared. That's right. Overnight Disappeared. Not anymore

A knowledgebase ensures that this does not happen: everything is documented, classified and carefully organized in a single knowledge sharing solution.

This time your hero is gone, but not knowledge. In fact, you now have a team of heroes because they all have the same knowledge at hand.

3. Improve SLA statistics

Having trouble reaching your Service Level Agreement (SLA) goals? A knowledgebase can help you because it helps your service desk agents resolve incidents quickly. A ticket arrives, the agent checks the knowledge base to find the information he needs, follows the steps of the document, the problem is solved and the ticket is closed.

Also, if they can't solve it, the document tells them which team should help later so that the ticket arrives with the right team of solvers and doesn't bounce around looking for a house.

4. Improve the first time correction rate (FTF)

Service desk agents may not know how to resolve an incident that occurs with them. Without reference articles, your agents will waste time asking questions and wondering where to go for resolution.

It is much faster, much simpler and much less stressful for staff if they have a place to find what they need, when they need it, that is, a knowledge base.

5. Adapt quickly to changes

When the IT helpdesk has a knowledge base, you have space to store new documentation immediately. This means that when your organization is asked to support new technology or service, you can quickly recover it and provide quality assistance from day one.

There is not too much time taken to train officers and hope that they can remember what needs to be done. The documentation is simply classified and inserted into the knowledge base ready to be put into service.

6. Reduce the volumes of incoming tickets

When customers use the organization's knowledge base to solve their problems, there is no need to register a support ticket with IT support.

The knowledgebase can be made available for research in the self-service portal before the customer can access the area to register a ticket. If the document found helps them, just click to exit and resume normal daily activities. Work is done!

7. Reduce call waiting times

Since your service desk agents have the knowledge necessary to resolve incidents in an easy-to-find the solution, the duration of their telephone communication with end users / customers are reduced. Instead of putting the customer on hold while asking questions (to colleagues) or rummaging through the training notes, simply Search for the document he needs, solve the problem and go straight to the next call.

Faster resolution means more calls answered so customers spend less time waiting in line for help.

8. Reduce your training time

It's always nice to see a new agent comes into your IT service center, but at the beginning, it can be a burden: someone else in the office is out of daily work (answering calls and solving tickets) because he has to show the new block what it must be done.

Depending on the extent of IT organization support and the number of tickets managed by the IT help desk, the training period for new employees can take weeks and team statistics maybe affected.

If you have a knowledge base, this training time can be drastically reduced: your new agent gets the essence of what's going on and how it should work, so he takes care of himself and learns about the job by using the knowledge they need it for.

It also encourages new staff to get up and running quickly, rather than relying too much on more experienced officials.

9. Avoid duplicates (and associated costs)

A knowledgebase can prevent service desk agents from answering the same questions over and over again. You can archive an FAQ document that is made available to all customers so that they can browse at their convenience.

Since the knowledge base can also be used by customers to solve their problems, it prevents agents from repeatedly making simple corrections.

Not only does a knowledge base enables your customers, but it also allows your agents to engage in a more interesting and varied workload.

10. Cost reduction (without lowering quality)

By saving time to service desk agents, reducing incoming ticket volumes and reducing the duration of support calls, it is likely that a knowledge base will also help your IT organization saves money. money for support costs. In addition to reducing costs, you can be sure not to reduce the quality of the support (if you improve it), as the support is consistent, fast and efficient.

A 24/7 knowledge base is also available, so if the IT support center is closed overnight or for a holiday or weekend, the customer can always step in and find the solution he needs.

Finally, a knowledge the base has the power to create a more pleasant working environment for staff and end-users/customers, speeding up resolution times and removing the stress of agents helping their support. In addition to saving money for the organization in terms of operating costs, it also guarantees a constant level of support and quality.

How to Meet Three Key Responsibilities of the IT Help Desk

Deliver Great Outcomes 

First of all, at the moment employees are experiencing a superior customer experience in their personal life (and they carry the same expectations in the workplace), the number one responsibility for any IT Help Desk Support should be to meet the needs of end-users while providing excellent customer service.

That being said, it is easy for IT organizations to overcome this obstacle because they are overly focused within, the help desk policies and processes (and the way in which they are implemented) serve the first customer technical teams.

We hope, however, that your help desk exists to serve the end-users of your organization and the roles they play. It is, therefore, their needs that you place in front of those of others. This should include providing your customers with the information they need, effectively solving their tickets, communicating with them about problems and changes affecting the company and generally being easily accessible when they need them. at your place

End users will ultimately want to be treated as human beings, rather than as custodians of IT resources and ideally as customers (of IT support).

How Can you do this?

Search for end-user habits: for example, what types of tickets do they record? What are they complaining about? What common questions do they ask? What information based on the aid are you looking for? This research will help your help desk better understand your customers' needs, which means you can better meet their needs.

Periodically review customer satisfaction levels: there is no better way to find out what your customers need, desires, sympathy and dislike than to ask them. This could take the form of online surveys, post-appeal surveys or even face-to-face interviews. Customer feedback is essential as it will tell you what works and what doesn't, so you can adapt operations and even policies accordingly. It is finally free advice!

Communicate according to the needs and expectations of end-users: whether it is an individual ticket, a serious accident or scheduled maintenance, it is necessary to make sure to communicate with the end-users as they wish. If you need to submit a saved ticket, inform the affected end-users. If a serious accident destroys a critical system, update the affected parties regularly until resolution. And if you plan maintenance, it warns end users well in advance so they can make the necessary arrangements. Communication with customers is one of the simplest things to do, but it is often put aside because other activities stand in the way. And the lack of communication will eventually lead to disgruntled customers and more long-term work when dealing with complaints, emails, and calls.

Fix as many problems as possible on the first contact: ideally, if possible, IT Help Desk Support agents should avoid calling end-users or forwarding the ticket. The more the helpdesk can provide resolutions on the first call - thanks to the agents' collective knowledge levels - the happier your customers will be.

Provide a self-service portal to support self-help: modern customers love being able to quickly find the help they need and a self-help IT support portal can act as a one-stop-shop they can visit for find answers to the most common questions, documentation to help them solve their problems and space to save their tickets if they need them. A self-service portal will allow end-users, which in turn will lead to more satisfied customers. It also has the potential to save money on your organization's support costs - and the more end users can do to help themselves, the less it costs to help them.

Provide accurate reports that demonstrate performance, promote improvement and prevent problems

Reporting is an essential activity for any IT supports service.

Reports can show the performance of help desk personnel (both individually and collectively), the number of incoming incidents and requests from the company faces, whether service level agreements (SLAs) are respected or not, which resolving teams do not return enough tickets quickly, etc. They can also highlight problems that cause repeated accidents, identify ticket trends and display ongoing escalations.

Reports are also useful for tracking data and performance over time and you should use it to show how IT support levels are improving.

How Can You Do This?

Always present numbers consistently: weekly and monthly reports must be shared with the IT department and, if necessary, more broadly, so that everyone has an idea of ​​what is happening. Performance data should not be kept secret even if it is not exceptional at the moment. And you can always combine it with a performance improvement plan if necessary.

Use real-time reports to promote proactivity: real-time reports and dashboards must be used whenever possible, so you always know where your help desk is. Also, if someone urgently needs information, you can provide them on the spot. Dashboards must be created for all statistics that are frequently viewed and can be shared with other IT managers who need the data. Real-time reports will also save you a lot of time because when it comes to collecting the monthly report package, the required data is immediately available.

Analyze and visualize your data: the reports must be used to identify models, highlight trends and identify anomalies. This is even easier when visualizations are used to present your data because of graphs and the like, are much easier to consume than raw data in an Excel spreadsheet.

Advise teams, if necessary, using report data: use reports to alert IT managers and teams to potential problems. This highlights where the problems are or will be and allows you (or others) to anticipate the game, which can mean you can get a solution before the disaster.

Share and use your collective knowledge

Having knowledge management and knowledgebase capability is a great way to share the knowledge gathered by the IT Help Desk Support, both individually and collectively. A knowledgebase will provide relevant information to end-users and technical teams. Knowledgebase articles in the knowledge base can also be role-based, which means that they are accessible only to those in need and may be allowed to use them. By sharing knowledge, the helpdesk will be able to prevent incoming calls, reducing ticket volumes and workloads and simplifying the lives of customers and agents.

How Can You Do This?

Implement an FAQ area: your knowledge management capability should include a space where end users can find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). This will not only make them happier because they can quickly get the information they need, but they will also prevent your IT Help Desk Support agents from handling the same requests over and over again.

Review and evaluate the documentation on a regular basis: your knowledge base will be relatively useless if you do not regularly check the documentation stored inside. This may be due to the fact that articles cannot be found, are difficult to understand and use or have become obsolete. For the latter, it is necessary to add revision dates to each document to avoid obsolete content. You can update it if necessary, or remove the document if it is no longer needed. For the first two numbers, estimate the number of tickets created for which knowledge articles already exist. So try to understand why relevant knowledge articles are not used.

Provide simple solutions: you can use your knowledge base to provide information to end-users that will help them solve their problems. These simple fixes should be able to work without the need for administrator credentials and will free your agents to deal with more complex problems.