The rise of similar brands across industries, offering comparable products and services, has changed how businesses compete. A swift and memorable customer service experience has increased as one of the deciding factors for a customer to continue doing business with a brand. In a HubSpot survey, 93% of the survey takers reportedly said they would likely make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service.
In the midst of this, knowledge management has emerged as a beneficial solution to strengthen the customer service arm of a company. And companies are rushing to equip themselves with the correct KM solution to help them actualize their vision. However, with the presence of multitudes of SaaS-based KM platforms, selecting the right solution can be a bit tricky. So let’s look at the top 8 trailblazing KM solutions in the industry and how they can impact a company’s operations.
What is knowledge management?
Knowledge management is strategically creating, curating, disseminating, and utilizing knowledge possessed by a company. Usually, in a company, information is scattered across different storage mediums like Excel, documents, reports, etc., or is restricted in knowledge silos. A knowledge management software aids in collaboratively combining all the scattered information and optimizes processes to store and retrieve the knowledge pieces.
5 Benefits of a SaaS-based KM platform
1. Organized product and process information
KM platforms organize data storage by providing unique solutions to store the data optimally in one place. So, instead of data being scattered in excel, documents, or dynamic formats like graphs or videos, a company-wide knowledge base takes its place.
2. Quick and accurate information retrieval
Instead of looking for information in different folders and relying on colleagues, customer executives can quickly access accurate information maintained in the knowledge base. Quick information retrieval results in faster resolutions and reduces the average handling time.
3. Single source of truth
KM eliminates outdated and redundant information. KM-powered knowledge base ensures the presence of updated information accessible across all channels. So, the customer always finds similar and relevant information, whether on a call with a customer agent or using any self-service portal.
4. Extends to self-service portals
Self-service portals like chatbots, FAQs, and articles have relevant and updated information through a knowledge management system. Also, optimized self-service channels encourage customers to solve their issues themselves, leading to ticket deflection and reduction in operational costs.
5. Enhanced productivity
Customer agents can quickly resolve issues with the correct information via different KM tools like decision tree softwares & call center agent scripting software. They can also handle more calls simultaneously, driving up overall productivity. Similarly, employees can quickly find relevant work-related details by accessing the knowledge base.
Let’s look at the top 8 SaaS-based KM platforms
1. Knowmax
Knowmax is a new-generation multi-purpose KM platform that elevates knowledge management on a single platform. It offers enterprise-grade KM solutions to drive up customer satisfaction. Knowmax helps create actionable workflows to support customer advisors.
Knowmax ensures omnichannel knowledge solutions across all customer interaction points. It empowers content creators and managers to better curate content via a multi-functional editor. Customers seeking answers in self-service platforms find crisp, updated information via Knowmax’s self-help solutions.
Notable features:
- Easy to create no-code DIY decision trees for SOP adherence.
- Concurrent customer chat feature through chrome extension
- Visual guides and device simulations for troubleshooting support internally & for self-service.
- Semantic search with metatags for easy findability
- Actionable insights through micro-segmented analytics to better curate data.
2. Zendesk
Zendesk is a CRM software aimed at creating a pleasurable customer service experience. It offers a platform for companies to unite their workforce and align the customer experience with the company’s vision. It impacts key domains like the ticketing system, reporting, and analytics.
Zendesk offers services to customize its platform per a client’s individual needs via its Sunshine platform service. Additionally, Zendesk software provides solutions for streamlining service and sales processes through KM.
Notable features:
- One unified agent workspace to track, respond, and prioritize customer communications
- Automatic intelligent assignment of customer issues based on agent expertise.
- Analyze data interaction by the workforce to optimize content relevancy and accessibility.
- Integrated help-center and community forums for customers to solve their problems at their pace.
3. HubSpot
HubSpot is a knowledge base software focused to categorizes company knowledge for external and internal use. It empowers the customer service team to update and diversify the information shared via articles to promote self-help channels.
HubSpot aims at streamlining the information shared via articles and FAQs so that the customer agents are more focused on complex client issues. Likewise, the analytics services analyze the relevancy and demand of each page in the library to efficiently manage the content.
Notable features:
- Ticket routing, escalation, and task creation service to assign cases to the agents
- Recognizes the most asked questions to select the topics for writing informative articles
- Analytics on customer service operations with features like ticket volume, response time, etc
- Surveys to gather feedback.
4. Helpjuice
Helpjuice is a SaaS-based KM platform famous for its customizable software interface. The technical team at Helpjuice collaborates with companies to design their KMS interface and curates a theme that best suits the company’s needs.
Helpjuice offers solutions to optimize the self-service channels and strengthen the knowledge requirements for internal company use. It helps elevate the content management by advanced analytics on the content regarding its use and relevancy.
Notable features:
- Google-like search bar to locate relevant information.
- Analytics of the content interaction and individuals accessing the data.
- Simple and easy-to-navigate content creation interface.
- Multi-language customer support.
5. Zoho Wiki
Zoho Wiki is a liked SaaS-based KM platform that allows users to create workspaces, housing pages, and sub-pages that function as a knowledge base. This enables employees to develop and store existing and new knowledge in an organized manner. Users can access the workspaces’ content via searching phrases, pages, or workspace titles.
Zoho Wiki caters to a diverse group of professionals, such as educators, HR professionals, and small creative teams, and can also function as an online manual. The easy-to-use editor allows the user to modify any page as they want.
Notable features:
- Tags for better organization and accessibility.
- Customize logos, banners, and layouts in the software as per needs.
- Workspaces have their administration control.
- Ability to assign distinct user identities based on authority.
6. ProProfs
ProProfs is a knowledge management software that helps contact centers deflect tickets and enhances customer experience. It offers ready-to-use page templates to help contact centers organize their information. The content administrators can use the templates to build their information repository.
ProProfs is a SaaS-based KM platform that offers a corporate wiki to help the workforce access relevant information they need. Also, companies can use it as an online documentation platform or create user manuals. It can also be a customizable internal knowledge base to keep employees updated on the company’s knowledge.
Notable features:
- Free templates to create a customizable knowledge base.
- Multi-purpose documentation software for different domains like IT, training, HR, etc.
- Protection against accidental data loss.
- MS Word-like editor for creating knowledge pages.
7. Document 360
Document 360 simplifies creating a knowledge base that can be made publicly and privately available. Content creators and managers can create streamlined content to help contact center agents to resolve issues smoothly. The content analytics presents crucial insights for the content team to keep the information updated, fresh, and relevant.
Document 360 offers a customer knowledge base solution to support the creation of FAQs, product documentation, and user manuals. Another solution, an internal knowledge base aids in keeping track of ongoing projects, campaigns, and information on company policies.
Notable features:
- Different editing options to create optimal content
- A simplified search process.
- Customization options to design a suitable KM interface.
- Content can be rolled back to the previous version without any data loss.
8. Guru
Guru is another popular SaaS-based KM platform that helps companies organize data that can be accessed anytime and anywhere by the workforce. Information sharing within remote teams can be challenging, and Guru overcomes the information barrier to share information company-wide. It also offers adequate facilities for content administrators to review and approve the knowledge added to the base.
Guru works as a company wiki on whom the workforce can rely on answering their questions. Employees can access Guru from multiple platforms that increase productivity.
Notable features:
- Knowledge alerts to keep the team updated about new information
- Advanced analytics for content creation and management.
- A simple and powerful editor to create content from scratch.
- AI-suggested content tags.
Analyze Your KM Needs
The SaaS KM domain is filled with multi-functionality KM platforms that offer out-of-the-box features to entice companies. However, it is essential to determine if these solutions can effectively combat your knowledge management problems. A company needs first to introspect and define shortcomings in its knowledge management. The result will help them select a better KM platform that not only empowers their internal knowledge base and streamlines their self-service channel for a holistic customer service experience.