itSMF Bulletin February 2020 | Page 12

About the Author

Aprill Allan, Knowledge Bird

Like many of you, my career started in technical support. I’ve worked in customer-facing support teams, specialist escalation teams, corporate support functions; and I’ve been the single, remote customer support person.

Once or twice, I was under my desk crying from stress. Other times, there was so much repetition, I was out of my mind with boredom. In 2010, I found a way of working that empowered anyone in a problem-solving role to help customers be successful and productive with neither stress or boredom.

Small teams will get down-to earth advice and support that’s relevant to where you are on your journey to scaling support and service operations.

For service management teams in complex environments with competing demands, you’ll appreciate my pragmatic approach to improving outcomes with knowledge management in service delivery, preparing you for successful automation and more project delivery throughput.

Add Feedback Options

When it comes to business, there is no failure, only feedback. Making it easy for customers to leave feedback on your self-service process will make it possible for you to continue to improve your knowledge base. Collecting this feedback can be done in multiple ways. It can be as simple as adding a “Was this article helpful?” widget at the end of the page with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down sign; or more technical, like triggering a feedback pop-up if they’ve been browsing the knowledge base for more than a few minutes. With this invaluable feedback, you’ll know exactly where to concentrate your self-service improvement efforts.

With these five tips under your belt, you’ll be more equipped to improve your knowledge base and make your business renowned for its effective self-service process.