As Helpdesks build article recommendation tools that work with an integrated help center, it has become more important to ensure that it’s efficient and user-friendly. Here are some simple tips to ensure that your Help Center is serving your customers as well as it should:
Simplify Navigation
Make sure your help center is easy to navigate with intuitive categories. Your search bar should be simple to get to so that customers who don’t want to dig can easily find the answers they’re looking for. Simple titles with keywords are the best. You should also add navigation back to your website so that customers can go back to your products and other content. Add social media links and other channels so your customers can reach you if they still have questions.
Visuals and Multimedia
Your articles should have visuals such as images, videos, and infographics. They can break down complex info using step-by-step guides in a way that words cannot. This will be especially useful if your product requires troubleshooting in any way.
Optimize for Mobile
Test your help center and make sure it works for mobile as well as desktop-viewing. You should be able to preview before publishing so that you understand the experience for whatever device a customer decides to use. This is also another reason to keep titles and articles simple.
Self-Service Options
Empower your customers by providing self-service options. If it’s possible, you should enable self-service options there that also live on your website. This will save you and your customers time and improve overall satisfaction.
Monitor and Analyze Metrics
These metrics are going to be important, especially if your help center is new:
Search queries – Most built-in reports will tell you what end-users are searching for and how many times it’s yielding results. Start with the queries with no responses and starting writing!
Quantity of tickets created from help center – This provides insights into what your customers are trying to solve from your help center. You can create automations or use a 3rd party AI tool to lower resolution times for the most popular issues.
Feedback – Look at the articles that customers mark as useful v not useful. The articles that aren’t useful should be rewritten. Then, monitor the performance, and edit again if necessary. Get feedback from your customers as well if you see they started off at your help center and still needed to write in.
Optimizing your help center is an ongoing process that requires regular analysis and maintenance. We recommend that you continuously iterate on your help center to ensure its effectiveness in meeting customer expectations.
