We live in a knowledge economy. Knowledge is one of the most valuable assets of modern companies.

How important is this? These statistics might be of interest to you: According to estimates, Fortune 500 companies lose at most $31.5 million per year due to poor knowledge-sharing practices. 74% of organizations believe that knowledge management practices can increase their productivity by 10% to 40%.

Companies must have a system to effectively harness the power of knowledge in order to increase productivity and efficiency.

We’re here to help you save time and money.

Let’s explore!

What is knowledge management?

A knowledge management system (KMS), is any software that manages and stores information and knowledge.

Although a knowledge management system can also be called a knowledge base, it is also a holistic system that allows you to present your information in many different ways. Your knowledge management system may contain:

•  FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) content
• Tutorials and articles on how-to
• Forum or community feature
• Training programs, academies and education
•  Case studies
• Webinars

Although knowledge management systems are useful for internal teams and organizations, they can also be used to centralize your knowledge base for customers or other audiences. A knowledge management system can help you quickly deliver the information you need, no matter whether you are a SaaS company supporting customers, a shipping company for consumer products, or a helpdesk manager handling customer issues.

There are two types of knowledge management

Although knowledge management may take many forms within an organization, they generally fall under the following two categories:

Management of internal knowledge

Internal knowledge management is a method used to improve the efficiency of knowledge sharing within a company, increase team collaboration, support employees to do their jobs well, and improve organizational performance.

Internal knowledge management plays the following roles:

• Encourage learning culture

• Initiate institutional learning processes within an organization

• Do not reinvent the wheel

• Inspire innovative ideas within your internal teams

• Share best practices from different programs and sites to strengthen an organization’s services, operations, campaigns, and marketing.

Management of external knowledge

External knowledge management, on the other hand, is the sharing of relevant knowledge to prospects and customers to improve their experience. This extends the company’s knowledge beyond its four walls and helps to impact its industry or sector.

External knowledge management plays:

• Disseminate best practices

• You can influence the industry through your critical insights via blogs, conferences, presentations, articles, and websites.

• Collaborate with peers for cross-sector and cross-organization insight

• Positions and policies that support advocacy

Here are some examples of external knowledge management:

• Knowledge base
• FAQs
• Articles
• Videos that are informative

Some examples of knowledge management systems

A reliable knowledge management system can make it easier to communicate information across your company.

Geisinger Medical Group is an excellent example of a simple, yet effective, practice. The cost per patient for surgery fell to $2,000. After creating checklists for doctors, Geisinger Medical Group was able to lower the cost. Patients also experienced fewer complications following surgery.

Checklists are not the only examples of knowledge management systems.

• Cross-training programs. Employees can gain business knowledge through shadowing, mentoring, or other training programs. Toyota’s new employees shadow for several months experienced employees before they start their job.

• Document management systems. Some systems, such as Box or Google Drive, allow companies to store company documents in the cloud and access them.

• Content management system (CMSs. These systems are similar to document management systems but can also store audio and video in addition to documents. SharePoint and Bloomfire allow teams and individuals to access, update, and publish information on an intranet.

• Social networking tools. Social networking allows users to connect with others, share information, and discuss the issues that interest them. Knowledge management systems can use social networking tools to document, identify and transfer knowledge.

• Chatbots. Chatbots make use of AI and machine learning to respond quickly to customer requests as well as employee questions. Companies can save significant time in customer service.

A knowledge management system has many benefits

Knowledge management systems have been proven to be more effective at building efficient teams and a competent organization. How effective are knowledge management systems and should you look into implementing them?

It will benefit your customers

A knowledge management system can have many benefits, including improved customer service. Customers don’t need to wait for long lines if they can search online for the answers they seek.

40% of customers think self-service customer service is better than talking to a person. Self-service, or customers helping each other through documentation, is the best way to help your customers. There are many options available to help your customers solve their problems quickly. These include videos, tutorials and publications as well as FAQs.

These systems are not perfect and some problems may be more complex than we expected. A friendly and well-trained customer support team is a great option for customers.

It will benefit your employees

Knowledge management systems can improve the productivity and confidence of your employees. Your staff will be able to reflect on past experiences and use that knowledge in the future when there is a solid knowledge management system.

Gallup’s State and Global Workforce report estimates that disengagement can cost businesses approximately $7 trillion annually in lost productivity. Employees can feel discouraged if there isn’t a system that allows them to shine. The bottom line is that employee retention rates increase when employees have a better experience and are able to find the information they need quickly.

It will help your business.

A knowledge management system that works efficiently can bring many benefits to a company. It will help customers better understand the product’s value, improve employee retention and advocate for your company.

Knowledge is power. Taking advantage of this knowledge will only increase your competitive edge.

Four steps to create an effective knowledge management system

1. All the data and information you need to build your knowledge management system

The first step to developing a knowledge management system that works is to identify what knowledge you want to document.

How can you identify the most common issues, questions and problems people face and what are the best ways to document them? These are the things you need to know in order to align knowledge management systems with business goals and objectives.

These are just a few methods to help you determine the factors.

• Take a look at your support ticket system. What are the most frequently asked questions? Are there any questions that are repeated over and over again? These are the first issues you need to address.

• Talk to your support team. Have a meeting with your support team to discuss ideas and suggestions for your knowledge management system. These repetitive issues can be frustrating for support staff so prioritize them immediately. Google Analytics. You can use Google Analytics to find out what people are searching for most often on your website. To see rising trends over time, it would be a better idea to compare time periods and sort “absolute Change”

• Social listening and social tools are essential. 89% of customer service professionals believe customers are more likely to share their experiences about brands on social media. You should be aware of what people are saying about your products and business online.

2. Segment the information and arrange it

Next, what should you do to segment and organize knowledge management systems? These are the best practices:

• It is important to classify articles into topic categories.

• The most frequently-used resources and blog posts should be highlighted

• In your article content, include links to videos and tutorials that are related. ( Internal links can improve your site’s search engine optimization tremendously!)

• You can use a variety of media, including images, videos and text. Remember, people learn in different ways.

• Add a sidebar with links to additional resources such as chat, courses, or community

• You can use a feedback system to measure each response to articles.

Although your system’s structure may vary, it is important that users are able to navigate it easily and without any confusion. You may have multiple features in your knowledge management system, including a user forum, instructional videos and FAQs section. Depending on your beliefs about helping customers reach their goals, what features you choose to include will determine the content.

3. Optimize your knowledge management system by analyzing and optimizing it

It’s a completely different matter to manage a knowledge management program. It is difficult to keep track of metrics that aren’t intuitive. This is different from measuring landing pages where you can use conversion rates and leads generated.

How do you determine if a knowledge article is successful? It isn’t an easy question to answer. It is a good idea to have a conversation with your team about your goals and how you can track them.

It is possible for bounce rate and time on page to be misleading. This could mean readers were engaged. However, it could also indicate that the article was confusing.

The best way to get feedback is to use a binary feedback system at the end of each article. Ask them “Was this article successful?” You can then establish a baseline to determine which articles are most helpful and which ones are not. Then, you can optimize the articles by using better information.

4. Continuously improve and measure your knowledge management system

You don’t have to be satisfied with the knowledge management system you have created. You must be vigilant about metrics and any emerging issues when developing a knowledge management program.

Keep looking for the things customers are looking for on your website, identify bottlenecks in your product, or website, and update your knowledge management system. A feedback form can be added to your site where customers can ask questions that they don’t find answers.

Five Best Knowledge Management Software

There are many knowledge management systems available, but we want you to choose the best one to help build knowledge bases. Here are our top picks.

Bloomfire

Bloomfire is a platform that can help you share your knowledge. Bloomfire is a cloud-based software that allows employees and customers to collaborate and share business information.

The software is fast and reliable for teams, departments, and organizations that are looking to centralize and democratize data. Bloomfire allows you to store WiFi passwords and competitive insights in a safe place.

Bloomfire, however, is not designed to be an all-purpose software. To ensure that Bloomfire is a good fit for your company, it’s important to thoroughly review the pros and cons.

Pros:

• Interface is simple, clean, and easy to use

• Mobile-responsive

• It is easy to centralize your organization knowledge

• Search terms are automatically optimized for AI-generated tags

• Secure and reliable security system

• Analytics and reporting module for in-depth analysis

• You can connect to Slack, Dropbox and Google Drive from your central database via a variety of integrations

Con: Minor issues with user management (especially password changes) and customizability

Bloomfire pricing plan: Bloomfire charges per user per month and includes implementation as well as any other services required. Prices start at $15,000/year for up to 50 users. All agreements are either 1-3 years or multi-year.

• Basic ($25/user/month)
• Enterprise (custom)

HelpJuice

Helpjuice, a cloud-based knowledge management tool that can be used by organizations to build and maintain knowledge bases, is another great option. Remote teams can use the software because you can invite others and set permissions. You can also monitor their contributions.

The platform also helps companies reduce their customer support costs as customers can resolve any issues themselves using the knowledge base. Helpjuice is a preferred choice for many companies across a variety of industries. Some of their most prominent customers include Walmart, MoneyGram and Bench, BitPay, Gumroad and Stanford University.

Pros:

• Interface is simple and intuitive

• It is easy to set up, and it is simple to manage.

• Unique customization tools

• Powerful content editor

• Integrations with third-party companies like Zendesk, Salesforce and Slack

Con: There is no way to export PDF files or download them.

Pricing plans for HelpJuice: Helpjuice offers a 14-day trial and four pricing packages

• Starter ($120/month): Up to 4 Users
• Up to 16 users can run-up for $200 per month
• Premium limited (from 289/month): Up to 60 users
• Premium unlimited ($499/ month): unlimited users

Zendesk

Zendesk is a well-known software that manages customer service. It can also handle support tickets and live chat.

Zendesk Guide is a knowledge management system that Zendesk offers. It can be used to create private and public knowledge bases in order to serve customers and employees.

This module is designed to help you create an online community, help center, and customer portal. This portal can be used to direct questions and low-touch tickets, while agents handle high-value leads and customers. An AI Answered Bot can direct questions to the right articles or tutorials in your database, increasing your ROI (Return On Investment) and reducing your content marketing budget.

Pros:

• Built-in CRM, such as Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM

• All your tasks in one place

• More than 100 integrations with third party apps

• Multi-channel support: chat, email, chat, and social media

• Advanced analytics and robust reporting

Con: Users who aren’t tech-savvy may find it difficult to learn.

Pricing plans for Zendesk Guide: Zendesk Guide has three pricing tiers:

• Lite (free).
• Professional ($15/month/agent)
• Enterprise ($29/ agent/ month)

Zendesk also offers a variety of products that you can choose from. You can find more information about pricing by clicking here.

Zoho Wiki

Zoho is known for its affordability and business tools. Zoho Wiki, like most of their software, is a knowledge management tool with basic features. It includes everything you need for a wiki-like knowledge base.

It allows users to create three different wikis (information repositories) with their own URLs and unlimited pages. It offers entrepreneurs and business owners a platform ready for collaboration and content management.

Zoho Wiki is best suited for creating private knowledge bases that can be used by small businesses and teams. Security is a top concern. Zoho Wiki allows you to set permissions for each workspace and page. It’s easy to determine which information should be kept confidential and which information can be made public. It also allows multiple owners to share the responsibility.

Pros:

• Simple content management

• Categorization of nice content

• Permission control for users

• Data security that is trustworthy

• Integrations with third-party services, including many Zoho products. Awesome branding and customization options

• Con: There are limited features and functionality

Zoho Wiki pricing plans: Choose from the following pricing options:

• Up to 3 Users: Free Plan

• Unlimited workspace with the Business Plan ($3/user/month)

WordPress

WordPress is a content management system that you may have used before. However, WordPress can be used to create any type of knowledge management system.

WordPress allows you to select from thousands of plugins and themes to create a customized knowledge base. The KnowAll WordPress theme, for example, has a cleaner front-end user interface and a modern-looking knowledge base than the other themes.

Theme by KnowAll WordPress

Pros:

• Cost-efficient. WordPress is completely free to use. You only need to pay for your domain name, web hosting and themes

• There are thousands of themes to choose from. These themes can be customized to fit your branding.

• Plugins allow you to extend your knowledge base. Plugins allow you to add additional features such as user registration and live chat to your knowledge base.

• Reports and analytics that go beyond the basics. To collect detailed analytics and third-party plugins, you can integrate Google Analytics into your knowledge base.

• Supercharge SEO plugins. Each knowledge article can be optimized to rank higher in search engines.

Cons:

• Complete beginners may find it difficult to set up.
• Maintenance. Maintenance is your responsibility. You are responsible for maintaining the WordPress system and updating plugins.

WordPress pricing plans: You don’t pay anything to download and use WordPress. Hosting, a theme and a plugin are still required to create a knowledge base. Here is an estimate of the cost for a WordPress installation:

• Domain name: $10
• Kinsta Hosting: $30/month
• Theme: KnowAll $149
• Heroic KB plugin: $129
• Total: $318

This is only the initial cost. After your site goes live, you will need to pay the monthly fee for web hosting.

The bottom line

This article is over. Knowledge management can have a huge impact on the customer experience, employee experience, and overall business performance.

Knowledge management systems, if done right, can make customers happier, increase revenues and lower support costs. Although it is difficult, knowledge management systems can pay huge dividends in the long-term.