Manage Knowledge Base Permission - Access Settings, Organizing Category, and Sort Order
The customer service landscape has evolved from the traditional agent-centric service to more dynamic and empowering self-service options. Businesses are more focused on enabling their customers to find answers on their own, as it greatly impacts the company's overall performance and significantly reduces the load on the customer support teams. There are multiple platforms through which businesses deliver a robust self service system to their customers, such as a community, chat-based conversations, a help center, and so on.
Knowledge Base is one such self-service platform that allows businesses to make essential resources in the form of videos, FAQs, user manuals, and so on, readily accessible to the customers to onboard, implement, resolve queries, and find solutions for common problems.
While it's useful to keep the knowledge base accessible for all , it's crucial to weigh the potential risks that may occur due to unauthorized access, spam, phishing attacks, and more. which could compromise the company's data security. Businesses can set access permissions to ensure the KB is secure, and can also monitor who accessed the KB.
To access manage KB
- Log in to the Desk account with administrative privileges.
- Go to the Knowledge Base module,
- From the left panel, click Manage KB.
- Select the desired option to set the preferences:
Managing access settings
Access Settings allows you to set visibility parameters of the KB content for all the help center users. Depending on the settings here, the help center users can view, access, and perform certain actions.
Displaying KB in the Help Center
The knowledge base serves as a self-service resource for customers and employees, offering them valuable information and assistance. However, administrators can choose whether the knowledge base should be visible to the help center users.
Some organizations would want the KB resources to be referred or accessed only by their employees. They can toggle the option off so that the KB is not displayed in the help center.
Sort categories or sections alphabetically
Each time a new department is added to the help desk, a default category is automatically generated in the Knowledge Base.This category acts as the primary folder for the articles, and sections within this category act as sub-folders. The sort option allows you to display these categories and sections in an alphabetical order.
For instance, a user needing help with billing can easily locate the "Billing" category and find relevant articles like "Payment Methods" or "Refund Policy" when arranged alphabetically in the help center. This improves the user experience by making information more accessible and organized.
Allow users to comment on articles
Comments allows readers to have direct interaction with the article. By enabling comments, you open a two-way communication where the readers can raise their doubts, clarifications, questions, and share feedback for the article, which in turn helps the team to understand the areas of improvement. This interaction is also helpful for other readers, as they can go through the comments and clear similar doubts.
For example, a bank successfully kick started a program exclusively for students without investing much on a dedicated support team. The program allowed students to open a high interest savings account, if their parents are an account holder in the bank. For a seamless experience for the parents and students, they published a detailed document about the program, its benefits, eligibility criteria, and other details. Enabling comment on the article gave the interested students and their parents to raise questions like whether parents open an account and enroll their child for the scheme later, what type of account the parent needs to hold, and so on. They also updated the article by adding the common queries into the article. Publicly addressing these doubts not only encouraged more engagement, but also provided clarity to new readers exploring similar questions.
Display tags in Articles
Tags are labels that can be used to categorize or group articles on a similar topic together. Displaying tags in articles improves the user experience. They help you organize articles better and allow viewers to browse articles by topic or category.
For example, if the user wants assistance in installing a software, the user can search the KB using tags like 'Installation Guide' 'Software name' to find the relevant articles.
Display author info
Displaying author information in each article adds credibility and accountability to the content. This setting allows orgs to show the author name in every article.
Display last updated time stamp
Displaying the last updated timestamp on Knowledge Base articles is a vital step in maintaining transparency and content credibility. Additionally, it enables us to track when articles are updated, facilitating cross-checking and ensuring the accuracy and relevance of the content. Each time there is a feature enhancement or release of a new feature, the user can cross-check the time stamp to ensure if the article information is updated and relevant.
Show feedback form on down-voting article
Down-voting serves as a feedback mechanism that enable readers to express their concerns about the article. It allows the team to identify the areas of improvement.
With this setting, the org can collect the reason for down-voting the article by showing a feedback form. Readers can enter the reason for down-voting. The feedback automatically converts to a ticket, so the agents can respond to the customer's concern.
Display table of contents (TOC) for Articles
A Table of Contents (TOC) is a structured list that gives an organized overview of the content of an article. It allows readers to navigate easily through the content, and even skim to the required section in the article.
For example, if a customer wants to know how to find tickets by searching for tags, they do not have to go through the entire article, and can directly click on the TOC item to reach the exact section. This setting allows to show or hide the TOC for articles and decide whether to display it on top or on the side bar.
Setting article sorting method
Enabling this setting allows admins to organize the articles in three ways:
- Created time - Articles are displayed in chronological format with the recently created one on the top. For example, during a software launch, the getting started articles can help users with quick implementation.
- Modified time - Article that was edited and recently published will be placed on the top of the list. For example, when a major software update occurs, the admin can ensure that articles that were recently updated with the new information are placed on the top.
- Custom order - This provides flexibility to arrange articles according to specific organizational needs or user preferences. For example, a few months after the software launch troubleshooting tips, best practices can be placed on the top using custom order to allow self-service to the users.
Organizing Categories
Cateogries are the first level folder that are created in the KB. When a department is created in Desk, a default category is also created in the KB for the business to add their readable resources to facilitate self-help for their customers.
Assume Zylker electronics sells multiples products, instead of cluttering the KB with user manuals, FAQs, and pricing details of all products in one place, they can create category for each product and arrange the relevant articles under each folder. This improves accessibility and promotes organized database.
The organize category option allows admins to reposition the categories by dragging and dropping them to the most appropriate position. See Also Organizing KB category and articles
Sorting articles
Depending on the article sorting method that is configured in the KB, users can sort the articles based on created time, modified time, or drag and drop them according to their preference.
In case the admin has opted for custom order sorting, they can simply drag and place the articles to arrange them as required.
In Zylker Electronics' help center, one of the most recurring question is how customers can obtain an online replacement for their products. Using the custom order sorting feature, they prioritized the 'Online Replacement Process' article by placing it at the top of the list. This placement ensures that users can easily locate and access the relevant information.
Note: By default, the articles will be listed in the order in which they are added to the KB. If the sorting method is set as Custom order, and a user manually changes the order of articles the display will change, overriding the original listing preference. 
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