10 unavoidable queries to ask prior to implementing Salesforce Knowledge

Organizations can easily share and manage information that they want to share with their internal staffs or external users using Salesforce Knowledge. Companies should introspect on several questions before going ahead with Salesforce development services and implementation. Here are some of the most relevant questions that need to be reviewed before Salesforce knowledge implementation.  

How far your organization needs command over the article lifecycle?

There can be instances wherein you will have to create, edit, review and publish articles so as to satisfy the customer issues, but at the same time organizations might not be too much interested in giving much space during the publishing process. However the articles can be effectively managed with flexible solutions on offer from Salesforce Knowledge. Companies can select article managers as per their requirements and a proper approval process can be kept in place for specific article types that demands legal or management review before publication.

Does your business wish to provide articles to agents in varying formats?

Salesforce knowledge offers immense customization abilities while creating the articles and there is no other alternative to Salesforce which provides the quality and power that Salesforce Knowledge offers to organizational support articles. Businesses can ask Salesforce development partners to create custom article-template types and article-type layouts for their business with Salesforce Knowledge.

Is your brand focusing more on specific audience with certain types of articles?

You can provide the right information to the desirable audience by leveraging Data Categories feature within Salesforce Knowledge. Data categories are nothing but a set of criteria which can be further organized in to a hierarchy of groups. Once the groups are defined by your enterprise, the articles can be classified based on the groups being defined. Thus users will be able to find the articles of their choice easily based on the categories they prefer.

Whether detailed reports and metrics to the support articles have to be accessed by your company?

Salesforce Knowledge is a useful tool that provides users with detailed reports regarding how the support articles are being used which would help businesses to enhance their knowledge base significantly. Custom article reports can be created as well as the Knowledge Base Dashboards and Reports app from the AppExchange can be downloaded and installed using Salesforce Knowledge. Thus businesses can have an overview of the article usage, ratings and search statistics based on channels.

Does your business utilize more than one channel for support?

Salesforce Knowledge offers four different channels using which brands can share their articles and the four different channels include their own website too. The customers and clients can view the articles through Customer or Partner communities. Internal users however will have direct access to the articles in Salesforce. Furthermore the articles can be made public by utilizing the Public Knowledge Base for Salesforce Knowledge app from the AppExchange.

Is it possible for your agents to rate the articles?

The article rating system in Salesforce helps businesses to identify which of the articles are popular and useful for users where as the articles that are unhelpful can be removed. The articles can be rated from 1 to 5. The ratings are based on how recently the votes have been submitted by the users. Thus it helps businesses to figure out the content that is outdated and the content that is generating enhanced interest among users.

Whether the agents can find, create and send articles?

The agents can locate the articles with a one-click search feature. Moreover agents can also create and draft an article while closing out a case and thereby empowering them to contribute to the knowledge base. Instead of copying and pasting the details and sending it for the customers, Salesforce Knowledge enables agents to send PDF of the support articles directly from the case records and thereby saving considerable time.

Do agents require Chatter for collaborating on Support Articles?

Chatter is a very useful feature in Salesforce and is a favourite among both sales reps and agents. It helps sales reps to easily collaborate on a deal where as agents can seamlessly deal with the cases by collaborating in real-time with the customers with Chatter.

Is it essential for agents to have improved search functionality while locating the articles?

Agents are provided with improved search functionality using Salesforce Knowledge with the ability to search articles based on language, status, ratings and reviews etc. The auto-complete functionality while searching provides users with the suggested article titles whenever users type in the search bar.

Do the agents make use of the Service Console View?

Customers can be provided with a smoother, faster and convenient experience by utilizing the power of Service Consoles by the support agents. Agents can filter or expand their article results or can even remove the articles from the Knowledge Sidebar which would be comprised of the articles that have been updated for the last 30 days. The sidebar would be displayed whenever an agent types in the subject of a case. Once the search for the articles is completed, the agents can hide the sidebar with just a single click.