What is a knowledge base? How to build & manage in 2025
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Businesses often struggle with managing information scattered across emails, social media, forums, and even within the minds of team members. This data fragmentation complicates knowledge management, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. The knowledge base consolidates all this fragmented information into a single, centralized location.
In this blog, we’ll explore how a self-service knowledge base can significantly impact today’s business environment and how this indispensable tool can optimize operations, enhance team collaboration, and facilitate customer success.
What is a knowledge base?
A knowledge base is a customer self-service tool that provides on-demand support by solving common queries with product or service details. To reduce the risk of misinformation and get the best results, this customer support resource should follow best practices by being thorough, accurate, easy to use, and always updated.
There are two types of knowledge bases: internal and external
Aspect | Internal Knowledge Base | External Knowledge Base |
|---|---|---|
Purpose | Aids employees with access to company policies, processes, and practices using knowledge base tools. | Provides on-demand self-service support and product information through a customer support knowledge base. |
Key Focus Areas | Designed for employees and internal teams by providing process documentation, onboarding materials and internal reports. | Designed for customers and external stakeholders by providing FAQs, troubleshooting and product data |
Benefits | Streamlines internal processes by leveraging effective knowledge base solutions and software, ensuring consistency and efficiency. | Empowers customers with easy-to-navigate knowledge base best practices for quick answers, improving engagement and informed decision-making. |
Benefits of a knowledge base
A knowledge base is like a holy grail. It provides answers to customers, guidance and direction to the customer service team, and invaluable data to the companies.
As per statistics published by Gartner, 74% of customers who experience easy transitions to a customer service rep say they’ll return to self-service next time. Also, seamless transitions save an average of 4 minutes of agent time per customer journey because they do not have to ask customers to repeat information they have already provided.
1. Benefits for customers
A self-service knowledge base allows them to find answers to their queries at any time, thus eliminating the need to wait for support availability or response. This access empowers users, enabling them to troubleshoot issues, explore features and access resources independently at their own pace. With a well-implemented customer support knowledge base, customers benefit from reduced response times, as they can immediately find assistance, leading to improved problem-resolution efficiency.
2. Benefits for customer service teams
A robust knowledge base, like Turing AI, significantly reduces support workload by efficiently handling common queries, freeing agents for complex issues. AI-powered deflection and in-app guidance further streamline support and improve response times. With up-to-date resources and natural language processing, the knowledge base ensures consistent, accurate agent responses and faster resolutions. Customizable interactions and 24/7 availability enhance the customer experience while boosting operational efficiency, providing data-driven insights for effective support from the first interaction.
3. Benefits for businesses
A well-implemented knowledge base delivers significant cost savings by reducing reliance on costly live agent interactions and phone calls. It enables scalable support operations as businesses grow, minimizing the need for proportional staff increases. Furthermore, it gathers valuable customer data, providing insights for data-driven decisions that refine business strategies, enhance product development, and improve customer engagement. Leveraging advanced knowledge base software optimizes these benefits, boosting support efficiency and overall business performance.
How to build a knowledge base?
Building a knowledge base is an art as much as it is a science and it requires a structured approach that combines the organization of information, effective data collection, and user-friendly access methods. It also requires a deep understanding of customers, their requirements and expectations from the product and the company.
According to DeskU, 70% of customers expect companies to offer a self-service portal on their website and 91% of customers would use an online knowledge base if it was available and tailored to their needs.
Many companies still do not possess a well-developed knowledge base and building one is sure to provide a company a major competitive advantage. In 2025, it becomes absolutely necessary to have a cutting-edge knowledge base to retain customers as well as drive organic traffic to your website.
Here are the steps to create a robust knowledge base:
1. Define your objectives
Start by clarifying your goals. Are you creating a knowledge base for customer support, employee training, or something else? Understanding your objectives will guide the entire process.
2. Identify common issues
Before creating content, pinpoint the most frequently encountered issues or questions from your audience. Create knowledge base content to address these common concerns, ensuring that users can quickly find solutions to their primary challenges. This proactive approach enhances the knowledge base’s effectiveness in resolving issues and improving user satisfaction.
3. Select knowledge base software
Choose the right platform or software to host your knowledge base. Options include custom websites and dedicated knowledge base software like DevRev or a self-hosted knowledge base.
4. Plan content structure
Organize your content into logical categories and subcategories. It helps users find information efficiently. You can create easy-to-navigate and easy-to-follow knowledge base content so that your customers can solve their problems quickly and easily.
5. Create high-quality content
Start populating your knowledge base with informative, accurate, and user-friendly content. Use clear and concise language, and consider including visuals like images and videos.
6. Review and update
Regularly review and update your content to ensure that it remains current and accurate. Outdated information can lead to user frustration.
- Set a clear update schedule.
- Assign content ownership to subject matter experts.
- Encourage user feedback for improvements.
- Implement version control for tracking changes.
- Automate updates when possible.
3 ways to enhance your knowledge base
Implement search functionality
An efficient search feature is crucial. It enables users to swiftly locate the information they need, enhancing their experience and minimizing the necessity for manual navigation.
Promote user engagement
Encourage users to provide feedback and suggest additional content. It can help you continuously improve your knowledge base.
Train your team
Ensure your team knows how to use the knowledge base effectively. Train them to contribute, update, and maintain the content and to assist users when necessary.
By following the aforementioned steps and tips, you can create a comprehensive and effective knowledge base that serves its purpose and benefits both your users, your customer service team, and your organization.
9 ways to increase your business potential with knowledge base software
Knowledge-based software is a specialized platform that helps create, collect, store, manage, and share knowledge in an efficient manner. It primarily serves as a centralized repository of information that can be easily accessed by employees, customers, or other stakeholders.
Companies use knowledge-base software to store a wide range of content, including articles, FAQs, manuals, documents, tutorials, videos, and more. Here are some key features.
1. Content management
Content can be categorized, tagged, and formatted to ensure easy retrieval and navigation. You can also create and add content creation guidelines to ensure that your brand remains consistent across platforms.
2. User access control
Knowledge-based software often provides role-based access control, allowing organizations to define who can view, edit, or contribute to specific content. It is crucial for maintaining security and data integrity.
3.Collaboration tools
Some knowledge-based software includes collaboration features that enable multiple team members to work together on creating and updating content. This can include version control, comments, and approval workflows.
4. Reporting and analytics
Analytics tools within knowledge base software help organizations monitor user engagement, track popular content, and identify areas that may need improvement.
5. Integration
Users can integrate with other software and services, such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems, help desk software, or project management tools.
6. User feedback and ratings
Users can provide feedback, ask questions, or rate the usefulness of content. It helps organizations identify areas for improvement.
7. Documentation and training
Knowledge-based software can be used for creating product manuals, onboarding materials, training resources, and internal documentation for internal and external purposes.
8. Customer and employee onboarding
Knowledge-based software can support the onboarding process by providing new employees or customers with access to essential information and training materials.
9. FAQ and help centers
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sections and help centers are commonly used for knowledge base software, helping users find answers to common queries.
How to choose the right knowledge base software?
Just like bringing in any other internal or external systems, you must consider three elements: people, including your customers and customer support and service teams, technology, and budget.
Here’s a quick checklist for you:
- Identify your specific needs, whether it’s a basic FAQ system or more advanced information management.
- Consider your budget, as options vary from free to paid.
- Check for user-friendliness, an intuitive interface, and good customer support.
- Ensure scalability to accommodate growth.
- Verify integration with existing tools and systems.
- Prioritize security with robust features.
- Read reviews and seek recommendations for an informed decision
With AI-enabled platforms such as DevRev, you can streamline your CRM and content management systems and cater to your customers all through the same platform effortlessly.
Create an intelligent knowledge base
Embrace advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and natural language processing for their three remarkable features: efficiency, personalization, and adaptability.
They enable more accurate and relevant responses, resulting in superior user experiences by continually refining the understanding of user inquiries.
Their adaptability and personalization capabilities will give your business a competitive edge in today’s dynamic marketplace.
Explore the AI-native platform DevRev to build an advanced knowledge base system.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, they are different. A database is more of a representation of raw facts, while a knowledge base stores information as answers to questions that customers face while using a service or a product. This enables a faster and more accurate issue resolution.
AI constructs knowledge bases by collecting data from diverse sources, extracting relevant information through natural language processing, structuring it, and verifying facts. This structured repository enables AI to access and utilize organized knowledge for various applications, such as answering questions, making decisions, or providing insights.
Common challenges that most businesses encounter when implementing a knowledge base are content quality, organization, user adoption, search functionality, security, integration, scalability, measuring success, and content ownership.
The process starts by gathering essential company information, like policies and procedures, and systematically organizing it within the internal knowledge base. During onboarding, new employees access this central hub to quickly familiarize themselves with critical documents. As they navigate the system, they efficiently search for specific information using robust search features, minimizing time spent on manual inquiries. Continuously updated training modules and resources ensure all staff have access to the latest information, promoting a culture of continuous learning and informed decision-making.
