Knowledge Base is a vast database of information that an organization houses for its employees, customers, partners, and various stakeholders to refer to and understand what they offer. These information can be in the form of blogs, user manuals, eBooks, newsletters, product updates, FAQs and more.
Organizations that often deal with more than one product or service, or provide their customers with the option to mix and match services according to their needs must also deliver a well-structured KB to ensure ease of access and relatability of the content. Some ideas that can help businesses truly empower their users to use the KB as a self-service tool include:
- A well-structured KB that displays relevant categories and sections.
- Common, industry or business standard terminologies to represent the categories and sections.
- Grouping relevant topics for easy understanding and unhindered access.
- Associating the KB categories with the right department.
Structure of KB in Desk
In Zoho Desk, the KB follows this tree structure: Category > Sections > Sub-sections > Sub-subsection > Articles. A maximum of three hierarchies can be created under a category.
Adding a category
A category is the top-level folder in the knowledge base, and it is linked to a department. For example, an electronic retail outlet that sells various electronic items can host user manuals, FAQs, and troubleshooting tips for home appliances under the category "Home Appliances", and associate it with the "Electronics" department. Likewise, they can create more categories for other electronic products such as "Entertainment" or "Smart Devices", etc. and associate them with the Electronics department.
A category must be associated with a department, which is referred to as the primary department. It can also be associated with secondary or other departments to ensure the agents can access the articles of that category from the other departments. Consider an agent resolving a ticket that requires information about subscription plans, pricing, and refund policies of two different services. If the KB is readily accessible from either of the departments, he can easily refer to it without switching between the departments. Articles for both the services will be displayed in the left panel in the KB for easy access.
Points to remember
- Agents from the associated departments will only be able to view the articles of a shared category. They will not be allowed to create, edit, or update an article that is under the primary department.
- Article feedback can be auto-converted to tickets. These tickets will be created ONLY under the primary department and will be assigned to an agent from the primary department.
Adding a category involves the following steps:
Basic details
- Display image - The category can be identified with an image that best suits the purpose and content within.
- Language - Admins can select a language in which the KB content will be created and displayed.
- Category name - The category name should reflect the product, service, or facility on which the articles will be such as "Home Appliances", "Tour Booking", "Refund and cancellations".
- Description - Brief description about the category.
Selecting primary and associated departments
- Primary department - The department to which the category belongs is the primary department. In the above example, the category "Home Appliances" is associated with the "Electronics" department because home appliances belong to the electronics department. By default, all the departments that were created in the Desk account will be displayed. When a department is created in the Desk account, a default category is created as well. Users can add more categories to the KB as needed. The default category can be renamed.
- Associated departments - Sometimes, a category could be related to several other departments. For example, "Home Appliances" also cater to broader groups or departments like "Technology and Entertainment" and "Home Services," so it can be associated with these two departments. This will facilitate the agents to view the articles on home appliances from the Electronics, Technology and Entertainment, and Home Services departments.
Setting visibility of a category
Based on the visibility defined here, a category is either visible to all help center users and agents, only agents, or specific users. The visibility of the category determines the user's access to the articles that are published under the category. There are five visibility options to choose from:
- None - Open access. Categories with a 'none' visibility will be accessible to all the help center users and agents. Both registered and non-registered (non Zoho Desk users) users can view the articles. When the visibility is set as none, while adding articles, the writers can select to whom the it will be visible.
- Agents only
- Registered Users
- All users
- Groups - Categories can be made accessible to a selected set of users or groups. If the groups visibility is selected, the articles created under this category will be accessible only to the registered or Zoho Desk users.
- Public - If the 'public' visibility is selected, the KB articles will be visible to both registered users and all users, however articles cannot be published only for agents
- Agents - Categories with 'agent' visibility will be accessible only to the agents. These are similar to private articles that can be used only by the employees or internal users and cannot be published in the help center.
- Custom IP - Categories will be visible only to the registered users from the allowed IP addresses. For example, to ensure articles that exclusively cater to US employees or customers from US data centers can have the IP address mentioned in the category. This will prevent unauthorized access and ensure the category is not viewed by others. Multiple IP addresses can be mentioned separately using comma.
- A network can have multiple IPs, to prevent issues while accessing from other IPs within the same network it is recommended to use static IPs instead.
- All IP addresses within a network should be whitelisted to prevent issues during access. For example, if IP addresses are like this 192.158.*.*, 192.158.20.20, 192.158.25.35. You must whitelist them all.
If the category visibility permission is changed later, then the display permission of KB articles within this category will be set to "Registered users" until you change it manually. Selecting article display
KB articles can displayed in two formats:
- List view: Articles will be listed down in an order that has been set during configuration such as created time, modified time or custom order. Also read Sorting articles in KB
- Quick navigation: Articles can be arranged in a sequence to guide readers to the next article and helping them navigate to the previous article. It allows to set an orderly format of the reading material with navigation bars.
Auto-create tickets from feedback
Readers can share their feedback by downvoting an article. In the feedback form they can mention the details and submit. This feedback can be viewed within the article under the Feedback tab. However, its best to convert them into tickets to ensure customers are answered promptly and their requests are not missed. You can assign an agent to whom all these feedback will be assigned in the form of a ticket.
Read moreAdding reviewers
Every category can be assigned a set of reviewers who will review the article before its published. This allows to maintain a standard format and consistency in the content structurization. Once the reviewing is set the writer can submit the article for review who will in turn publish the article.
Read moreTo add a category
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB from the left menu.
- Click Organize Category under the Manage KB sub-menu.
- Click Create Category in the top-right corner of the page.
The Add Category window slides open from the right.
- In the Add Category page, do the following:
- Select a Display Picture from the library.
You can also upload a picture from your computer. - Enter Category name and Description.
- Select the Primary Department from the drop-down.
- Select Associated Departments as needed.
- Under Visibility, select None, Groups, Public, Agents, or Custom IP.
- In Article View, select List or Quick navigation.
- Select an Agent to assign the article feedback tickets from the drop-down.
- Toggle Auto-create Tickets from Feedback.
- Toggle Review Article and select the Reviewers.
- Click Add.
Editing and deleting categories
You can edit or delete the categories to make changes and completely removing the unused categories from the KB.
To edit a category
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB and Organize Category.
- Hover over the desired category and click Edit or Delete.
The Edit Category window slides open from the right.
- Make the changes and click Save.
Adding Sections
Users can add maximum of 700 (including the root category) sections under a category and they can create up to 699 sections within a root category, with a maximum of four hierarchical levels. The sections will help you to group your articles on a common theme.
To add a section
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB from the left menu.
- Click Organize Category under the Manage KB sub-menu.
Select the desired category to add the section.
- Click the Add link displayed alongside Section.
The Add Section window slides open from the right. - Select a Display Picture from the library.
You can upload a picture from your computer. - Enter a name and description for the new section.
- Select a visibility setting for the section.
Note: If the category's visibility is none then you can choose from None, Groups, Public, Agents, or Custom IP. If not, the section's visibility permission is inherited from its parent category. - Click Save.
Repeat the steps to add more sections or sub-sections.
A new section is added, and the articles that were existing in the category are moved to this section. You can also follow the above steps to add child sections linked to a section. Moreover, you can use the breadcrumb navigation to find your way around the categories and sections in your KBase.
Editing Sections
You can edit the sections, child, or parent as and when required in your KBase.
To edit a section
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB from the left menu.
- Click Organize Category under the Manage KB sub-menu.
- Select a category and then navigate to the desired section to edit.
- Hover over the section and click the More Actions icon ( ).
- Select Edit from the More Actions menu.
- Make the required changes to the section and click Save.
Deleting Sections
You can also delete the sections added underneath a category.
To delete a section
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB from the left menu.
- Click Organize Category under the Manage KB sub-menu.
- Select a category and then navigate to the desired section to delete.
- Hover over the section and click the Delete icon ( ).
Note: If the section contains articles, you will be prompted to move or delete them.
You can follow the above steps to delete the child sections linked to a parent section. Please keep in mind that you must delete the child sections before you delete its parent.
Reordering Categories and Sections
Reordering your knowledge base folders is important because a casual reader rarely gets to the bottom. You can manually reorder the categories and their respective parent and child sections so that the most relevant and useful topics stay at the top.
To reorder categories and sections
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB from the left menu.
- Click Organize Category under the Manage KB sub-menu.
- Grab the category by the Reorder icon ( ) and drag-drop it, where required.
Besides, manual reordering, you can leave it for the system to automatically sort and order your categories and sections alphabetically. Here is how you could do it:
- Click the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB from the left menu.
- Toggle Sort categories/sections alphabetically option.
The knowledge base folders will be sorted alphabetically from A-Z. Please note that this option applies only to the folders and not to their articles.
Moving Sections
You can move the articles in a KBase folder to a different section within a category. For example, let's consider that you have 2 sections namely, Zylker Tablets and Zylker Handhelds. You can move the articles under Zylker Tablets to Zylker Handhelds. In such case, the section Zylker Tablets will be added as a sub-section to Zylker Handhelds and the articles will be moved underneath it.
To move folders within a category
- Navigate to the KBase folder you want to move.
It can be either a section, sub-section, or sub-subsection. - Hover over the desired section and click the More Actions icon ( ).
- Select Move from the More Actions menu.
- In the pop window that appears, specify the category, section, and/or sub-section from the drop-down menu.
- Click Move.
Category
The category is a top-level folder in your knowledge base, and it is linked to a department. When you add a new department, it creates its default category and section in your KBase. You can add additional sections underneath the category to further organize your articles.
Adding Categories
Besides the default categories, you can add custom categories that are linked to one or more of your departments. Such categories can be added with articles at the root-level or can include a nesting of sections to organize articles as per your needs.
To add a new category
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB from the left menu.
- Click Organize Category under the Manage KB sub-menu.
- Click Create Category in the top right corner of the page.
The Add Category window slides open from the right.
- On the Add Category window, do the following:
- Select a Display Picture from the library.
You can also upload a picture from your computer. - Enter a name and description for your category.
- Select the department(s) with which you want to associate the category.
- Select a visibility setting. You can choose from None, Groups, Public, Agents, or Custom IP.
Note: You can also refer to the category visibility and display permission settings section for more details. - Specify how you want your customers to read through the articles. You can choose between list or quick navigation. With quick navigation, you can group related articles and guide customers sequentially from one article to another.
- Turn on the Auto-create Tickets from Feedback option, if required. When you do, you must select the department where you would like to create tickets and the agent it should be assigned to automatically. Learn more
- Specify Reviewers.
- Click Save.
Editing Categories
You can edit the default categories that are created for departments for their display picture, description, etc., according to your preference.
To edit an existing category
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB from the left menu.
- Click Organize Category under the Manage KB sub-menu.
- Hover over the desired category and click Edit.
The Edit Category window slides open from the right.
- Make the necessary edits to the category.
Deleting Categories
You can delete both the default (i.e., created for a department) and custom categories created in your KBase.
To delete a category
- Navigate to the Knowledge Base (KB) module.
- Click Manage KB from the left menu.
- Click Organize Category under the Manage KB sub-menu.
- Hover over the desired category and click the Delete icon ( ).
Category Visibility and Display Permission Settings
To make a category visible in the help center, you must define its visibility in the Zoho Desk interface. The visibility of a category determines the user's access to the articles that are published under a category.
There are five visibility options to choose from:
1) None
Categories with a 'none' visibility will be accessible to both registered and non-registered users.
If the none visibility option is selected, the KB articles created under this category will have all the visibility options to pick from the list.
- Agents only
- Registered Users
- All users
2) Groups
Categories with 'groups' visibility will be accessible only to certain user groups. If the groups visibility option is selected, the KB articles created under this category will be accessible only to the registered users.
3) Public
If the 'public' visibility option is selected, the KB articles created under this category will have Registered users and All users options to pick from the list.
4) Agents
Categories with 'agent' visibility will be accessible only to the agents of the Desk portal. Agents can access the articles published under this category within the Desk interface.
5) Custom IP
Categories with 'Custom IP' visibility will be accessible only to the registered users within the given IP addresses. The registered users must visit the help center by logging into their account with the same IP address mentioned in the category. You can specify the desired custom IP addresses separately for which the category must be visible in the IP Addresses field.