In today's digital age, help centers have become an essential part of many companies. It is an important channel for customers to communicate and interact with the company, helping customers solve problems and get support. This article explains how to build an effective help center to increase customer satisfaction and company efficiency.
1. Clarify the goal of the help center
Before building a help center, the goals of the help center must be clarified first, so that corresponding strategies can be formulated according to the goals. These goals may include:
- Improve customer satisfaction: Helping customers solve problems and providing support is one of the main goals of a help center.
- Improve company efficiency: By providing features such as self-service and FAQs, the workload of customer service personnel can be reduced, thereby improving company efficiency.
- Improve brand image: An efficient help center can enhance customers' trust and loyalty to the company and improve brand image.
- Collect feedback and data: Help centers can also be used to collect customer feedback and data so that companies can better understand customer needs and behavior.
2. Choose the right help center software
Choosing the right help center software is key to building an effective help center. Here are some common help desk software:
Zendesk: Zendesk is a full-featured customer service and support platform, including help center, email, chat, phone and other channels. It is easy to use, customizable and extensible.
Freshdesk: Freshdesk is a cloud-based customer service software that includes a help center, email support, social media support, and more. It is easy to use, has a user-friendly interface, and can respond quickly to customer needs.
Salesforce Service Cloud: Salesforce Service Cloud is the world's leading customer service solution. It includes multiple channels such as help center, social media support, phone support, etc., to provide comprehensive customer service and support.
Help Scout: Help Scout is an easy-to-use cloud-based help center software that includes features such as email support, knowledge base, and chat to quickly respond to customer needs.
Desk.com: Desk.com is an easy-to-use customer service and support platform, including help center, email, telephone and other channels. It helps businesses improve customer satisfaction and efficiency.
Baklib: Baklib is presented in the form of a webpage. On this webpage, documents can be edited online. Many users use it to build help centers, product manuals, FAQs, and corporate knowledge bases.
Baklib features:
- Support rich text and Markdown editing , you can upload pictures, videos, files, etc. to the article, edit and save directly inside the article, and you can change and adjust the content at any time;
- Full-text search , search similar to Baidu, keyword highlighting, give users a good search experience, there is an article feedback button under the question, to understand the visitor's attitude towards this article;
- Multi-level column classification management content , when editing content, you can directly select the column to save to, and the display is clear and organized;
- The page theme templates are all free to use. One-click switching can be seen in the foreground, that is, the product manual, and the content in the background and the content in the foreground are synchronized;
- Visitor data statistics , through keywords and customer search feedback, can understand the content that customers are most concerned about, and optimize the display;
- Multi-terminal adaptation , support mobile phone and computer display, product manuals can not only be linked to the official website, but also embedded in apps, WeChat public accounts, etc.;
- The product manual has a lot of content, and data security must be guaranteed. Baklib supports data backup and download.
- Permission setting, support for team collaboration: Baklib supports multi-person online collaborative editing of documents, bid farewell to the complexity of emails and traditional office software for multiple file transfers, and multi-person collaborative work can maximize team work efficiency and complete production efficiently.
3. Build a knowledge base
The knowledge base is one of the most important parts of the help center, it includes the problems that customers may encounter and the solutions that need to be solved. Here are the steps to build a knowledge base:
Collect frequently asked questions: By collecting customer feedback and data, understand the most frequently encountered problems and needs of customers.
Categorize and organize questions: Categorize and organize frequently asked questions so customers can quickly find the information they need.
Write answers: write detailed answers and steps according to the questions, and provide various forms of help such as pictures and videos.
Testing and Revision: The knowledge base is tested and continually revised and updated to ensure its accuracy and usefulness.
4. Provide self-service and support
Providing self-service and support is another important part of the Help Center. Here are some common self-service and support options:
Search Engine: Provide a search engine so that customers can quickly find the information they need.
Self-Service: Provides self-service and support, such as submitting questions online, live chat, social media support, and more.
FAQ: Provide frequently asked questions (FAQs) so customers can quickly find the information they need.
Videos and Tutorials: Provide videos and tutorials so customers can better understand products and services.
5. Provide a variety of contact methods
In addition to self-service and support, the help center should offer multiple contact methods so customers can choose the method that works best for them. Here are some common ways to get in touch:
Email: Provide email support so customers can send questions to customer service anytime, anywhere.
Telephone: Provide telephone support so that customers can communicate directly with an agent.
Live chat: Provide live chat support so that customers can communicate with customer service anytime, anywhere.
Social Media: Provide social media support so that customers can communicate with customer service through social media platforms.
6. Optimize the help center
Building an effective help center is not a one-time task, but requires continuous optimization and improvement. Here are some suggestions for optimizing your help center:
Collect Feedback and Data: Regularly collect customer feedback and data to understand customer needs and behaviors to optimize and improve the Help Center.
Constant Updates and Revisions: The content of the Knowledge Base and other Help Centers is regularly updated and revised to ensure their accuracy and usefulness.
Provide multilingual support: If a company has international clients, it should provide multilingual support so that clients can communicate in the language and culture they are most familiar with.
Search engine optimization: Continuously optimize the search engine of the help center so that customers can find the information they need more quickly.
Analyzing Data and Metrics: Regularly analyze Help Center data and metrics to understand Help Center usage and performance, and to optimize and improve it.
In conclusion, building an effective help center can help businesses improve customer satisfaction and efficiency, enhance brand image, and gather feedback and data. By choosing the right help center software, build a knowledge base, provide self-service and support, provide multiple contact methods, and optimize the way and means of the help center.