Knowledge Base Types
You can use knowledge base types to define the nature of the knowledge entry in ASM Core.
Before you start
You must have Knowledge Bank Set Up enabled within your General Access Security Role to work with knowledge base types.
Knowledge Base Types are standard in Knowledge Management. They include; Abstracts, Knowledge Centered Support (KCS), Calls, FAQ, and Known issues.
These are the Knowledge Base Types that deliver explicit knowledge to customers and Analysts:
KCS
FAQ
Abstracts (sometimes)
Typically, the following Knowledge Base Types are precursors to a published article as outlined above, in other words, they are the Knowledge Base Types that capture the tacit knowledge and it is the job of the Knowledge Management Team to form it into KCS and FAQ's:
Audience = Editors, Moderators, Contributors, and the Knowledge Management Team
Known Issues
Calls
Abstracts
You can rename these Knowledge Base Types types, or use them to define your own Knowledge Base Types types.
Abstract
An abstract in a Knowledge Base (KB) serves as a concise summary that outlines the key aspects of an issue, including its root cause or its workaround. Its primary purpose is informative, aimed at providing a quick overview of the capabilities, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and general information relevant to a particular subject matter. Being the default KB type in ASM, abstracts are pivotal in capturing both tacit (undocumented, personal knowledge) and explicit (documented, accessible knowledge) information, facilitating a streamlined knowledge sharing process within organizations. This format is especially useful for disseminating broad or general insights without delving into exhaustive details.
KCS
Knowledge-Centered Support (KCS) is an essential knowledge type that emphasizes the creation and maintenance of knowledge through the resolution of problems and inquiries. This dynamic approach allows for:
Quick Answers: KCS enables teams to answer questions rapidly, enhancing customer and employee satisfaction.
Accessibility: It ensures answers are delivered directly where they are sought, improving operational efficiency.
Speedy Training: New employees can be trained more efficiently by leveraging existing, well-organized knowledge bases.
Insightful Analytics: KCS helps in identifying frequently asked questions and recurring problems, allowing for strategic problem elimination.
Unlike traditional methods that primarily focus on capturing explicit knowledge post-resolution, KCS articles emerge from problem management and the aggregation of related KB articles, embodying broader concepts and principles. This proactive and inclusive approach to knowledge encourages continuous improvement and learning within organizations.
KCS provides insight into which questions are being asked the most, and identifies recurring problems so we can remove them from the environment.
Many organizations choose to only enable this particular Knowledge Base Type.
Call
Call is a knowledge type in the Knowledge Management (KM) process, which is crucial for capturing tacit knowledge from customer support agents and making it explicit. It serves as the initial step in transforming real-time problem-solving insights into structured, accessible knowledge. This transformation is achieved by:
Aggregating similar calls into a unified knowledge entry rather than creating separate entries for each call. This approach focuses on identifying and documenting common or recurring issues that represent a significant topic or problem area.
Reviewing and refining these call entries through a draft process, where the knowledge management team evaluates, edits, and eventually integrates them into broader Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) articles.
This method ensures that valuable, on-the-ground experiences are captured and made available to the wider organization, assisting in rapid issue resolution, reducing repetitive queries, and feeding into a cycle of continuous learning and improvement.
For this reason, most organizations make this a draft process and Calls are reviewed by the knowledge management team and eventually included in or published as a "Live" knowledge type. e.g., KCS, or FAQ.
It is recommended that calls on similar topics be aggregated into a single entry (KCS) by the KM team.
Ensure you remove all Call attachments that may have been linked unless they are necessary to support the KB Article and if the finished article will be customer facing - no information relating to a specific customer should ever be left attached to a KB article.
FAQ
FAQs, or Frequently Asked Questions, are an essential component of an organization's knowledge base, aiming to address common questions, clarify doubts, and provide quick solutions. These questions are typically derived from customer inquiries, support tickets, and internal feedback, ensuring that they address real and current issues.
Purpose: The primary goal is to help users find answers to common questions quickly and reduce the workload on customer support teams.
Creation: When creating FAQs, it’s crucial to:
Aggregation: Combine calls or inquiries on similar topics into a single FAQ entry to avoid redundancy and make information easier to find.
Title Formatting: Craft titles as questions, incorporating likely customer keywords to improve searchability.
Content Relevance: Ensure that the answers are accurate, concise, and up-to-date. The content should directly address the question and provide a clear solution.
Customer Privacy: Exclude any customer-specific references or attachments unless they are sanitized and necessary to support the content.
Maintenance: FAQs should be regularly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in products, services, or procedures. This iterative process ensures that FAQs remain a valuable resource for both customers and the organization.
Usage: Encourage both customers and employees to utilize the FAQ section as a first point of reference for support queries. Integrating FAQs with search tools and customer service platforms can significantly improve access and utilization.
By effectively managing FAQ knowledge types, organizations can enhance self-service options, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce support costs.
Known Issue
The Known Issue Knowledge Type is a critical resource for documenting and managing problematic areas within an organization's products, services, or processes. These documents capture issues that have been identified but not yet resolved, providing users and support agents with a clear understanding of current challenges and potential workarounds. The purposes and benefits of maintaining a Known Issue knowledge base include:
Documentation of Identified Problems: Clearly outlining the details of known issues, including symptoms, conditions, and impacts on users.
Communication Channel: Acting as a primary medium to communicate ongoing issues and their status to users, reducing confusion and support queries.
Efficiency in Support: Empowering support teams by providing them with quick access to known issues, possible causes, and temporary fixes, which can significantly speed up response times.
User Self-service: Enabling users to diagnose and possibly mitigate or workaround issues on their own, which can enhance user satisfaction and reduce the volume of support requests.
Impact Measurement: Facilitating a better understanding of the severity and breadth of known issues, which helps in prioritizing resolutions based on user impact.
To make the most out of Known Issue Knowledge, it is advisable to:
Publish a List with Links: Create a comprehensive list of known issues, providing detailed descriptions and status updates, along with links for more information, ensuring users and agents have easy access to the latest data.
Incorporate into Self-Service Tools: Utilize platforms like the Major Incident Widget in self-service portals, allowing users to report their encounters with known issues, thereby collecting valuable data on the issue’s prevalence and impact.
Integration with FAQs and KCS: Aggregate known issues into FAQs and Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) solutions, ensuring that workarounds or temporary fixes are readily available to both users and support agents.
For example:
You could setup Known Issues in the Add Me Widget (See "Add-Me") and allow users to Add themselves to it. This will give you a very good idea of the impact of the known issue and can help you focus on the ones that are most impactful first.
Things to remember when creating a Known Issue:
Format the title as synopsis of the issue, not the symptom, using the most likely key words so that it can be found in searches. For example, "Chrome Memory Leak"
You will describe the symptoms and related issues in the details.
Link the ticket to the Known Issue KB Entry.
Ensure you remove all Call attachments unless they are necessary to support the KB Article and if the article will be customer facing - no information relating to a specific customer should ever be left attached.
Renaming a Knowledge Base Type
Select Knowledge Base Types to display the Knowledge Base Types window. (You may like to adjust the column widths to see all of the columns.)
Select the base type you want to rename in the browse table.
Overwrite with the name you want to use.
Setting the Visibility of a Knowledge Base Type
You can set each knowledge base type to be hidden or visible throughout the system, such as when adding knowledge entry types, creating a new knowledge entry, and also on the search criteria panel in a knowledge search. All base types are set to visible by default.
Select Knowledge Base Types to display the Knowledge Base Types window.
Select or clear the Visible checkbox for the base type(s) you want to hide/display. (You may like to adjust the column widths to see all of the columns.)
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