Help Desk Knowledge Base

The help desk knowledge base is a database of information and knowledge about the company for which it is compiled. This knowledge base is what most end-users will search through to find answers to commonly asked questions about a company, its people, or its products. Many companies refer to the helpdesk knowledge base as a list of FAQ's (frequently asked questions), but in the help desk world it goes much deeper than that. It is also sometimes referred to as K-base.

When a company introduces a product, they try to anticipate all the methods and uses for their product. However a knowledge base is a 'living' document--a collection of insights and uses for a product--which is compiled over the lifecycle of the product.

Knowledge base is a necessary tool for allowing help desk agents to access the compiled knowledge about the product. When help desk support tickets are opened, help desk agents will query the knowledge base to determine if the problem has been solved previously, before escalating the ticket to a higher 'tier' of support.

As the knowledge base is a component of all help desk systems, several help desk applications provide a web search interface for customers searching through the knowledge base. This special feature can provide the customer with greater access to the information they need, while lowering the quantity of person-to-person interactions.

Customer-driven knowledge base can also come in the format of a company-sponsored customer forum. In some cases, these knowledge based forums can allow customers to support each other, where problems and solutions are posted by customers, thus creating highly dynamic content which is published much faster then the formal knowledge base publication process--the process where new information is appended into the formal product knowledge base.

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