​As a business owner, you know how important it is for customers to be able to contact you. Did you know that the most valuable member of your customer service team is your website? Over ¾ of customers prefer to serve themselves online.

That said, it is important that you have a strong knowledge base. Located on your website, this is a collection of articles that answer any questions that your customers may have regarding your product or service.

Here are four questions to consider when building your knowledge base:

1. What information should I include?
You know your products and services better than anyone. While information about your offerings is important, you need to be able to answer common questions customers may have. To determine this, consider involving your customers and those who work with them daily.

Ask your customer service representatives what questions or concerns they commonly encounter in their interactions with customers. They will likely come up with more information than you could ever use.

Also, consider surveying customers about their experience with your products or services. You can use this information to create a buyer persona or a representation of your ideal customer that you can use to inform the content you create for your knowledge base.

2. How should I write my knowledge base articles?
Your knowledge base articles should consistently represent your brand’s voice, along with any other content you create. They should also be written using language that your customers can understand without a lot of industry jargon.

Unlike a blog post, they can be more stipped down. All these articles need to include is basic information that customers are looking for regarding your product or service. However, you still want to include images and visual elements to enhance their understanding.

3. Where can my customers find this information?
Once you’ve created your knowledge base, the next step is to direct customers towards it. Like other content on your website, there should be a link to it on the homepage that customers can easily access.

When communicating with customers directly, consider sharing links to the knowledge base in email interactions or mentioning it in conversations that happen by phone or in person. That way, customers know where they can go if they have any questions or concerns.

For example, in a purchase confirmation email, you could include a link to a knowledge base article regarding returns. Although the buyer may not intend to return their purchase, they will know what they need to do if they decide to.

4. How should I maintain my knowledge base?
Like any content you create, your knowledge base needs to be updated over time as the needs of your business and its customers change. If you no longer offer a certain product or service, you can remove articles relate to that product or service.

You can also add information to the knowledge base as needed. For example, if you receive a lot of inquiries regarding new service, you can create more articles about that service. That way, customers get the most relevant information possible about your products and services.

Links Web Design is a content marketing agency in Bangor, ME, and Fruitland Park, FL.
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