Knowledge Base - The Pursuit of the Best Support
Larger commitments and more support hours from the client are, of course, desirable from an agency's perspective. For Electrolux, however, Bombayworks thought differently and proactively built a knowledge base on their own initiative.
– The idea is that we should spend less time on simple questions and have more time to solve the more complex and interesting problems, says Karl Löfdahl, Head of Applications at Bombayworks.
In 2016, Bombayworks began working with website support for Electrolux's markets in Europe. At the time, all cases were handled via email and ended up in an Outlook inbox.
- It was very chaotic. We had to use flags to maintain some sort of order in all the cases, says Karl Löfdahl, who was then part of the support team.
- It has made things much easier for us. When someone new starts and needs to be trained, there’s a wealth of knowledge to draw from here. This makes the onboarding process faster and smoother, says Klara Sjöström, Head of Support at Bombayworks’ Stockholm office.
Support for 106 Sites in 34 Countries
With a total of 106 different sites across 34 countries, the support team often had to answer the same questions repeatedly—a time-consuming and occasionally frustrating task for the agency's employees.
- We needed to document the knowledge, both for ourselves and for the markets, explains Karl Löfdahl.
In February 2018, the internal database for Bombayworks employees was made accessible to everyone at Electrolux who works with the sites. Today, it contains over 300 articles with answers to questions, guides, and references. It also features integrations with other project management systems, enabling the team to be transparent about the real-time status of almost everything they are working on that impacts the markets, such as rollouts and campaign activities.
Over 1,600 Article Views Last Month
Since June 2019, it has no longer been possible to send emails with questions; all cases must now be created as tickets in The Digital Hub – the name of the help center today.
– We are closing emails to create even better support, says Klara Sjöström.
When a ticket is created, suggested articles are immediately presented based on the text entered so far.
– If the case is still submitted and the answer already exists in the documentation, we can refer back to existing articles, which allows us to provide help much faster. Last month alone, the articles were viewed over 1,600 times, says Klara Sjöström.
The Hub also serves as a news portal.
– We can reach out with information to multiple markets faster than before. For example, if something is broken, we can be proactive in our communication by posting it in the hub. This way, we avoid filling everyone’s inboxes with emails and also prevent multiple markets from creating tickets for the same issue, says Klara Sjöström.
More Time to Work Broadly with Content and Contribute More Qualitatively.
The database means a bit more work for Electrolux, and a bit less for Bombayworks.
– We don't make more money, quite the opposite. But the goal of the hub is not to get more hours from the client – it’s about improving the quality of each market's site. If we can make it easy to access information and track the status of issues, we reduce the number of simple support tickets. But then we can also spend more time working broadly with content and contribute more qualitatively, says Karl Löfdahl.
– This way, we can also focus on tasks that are more interesting for us, and in the long run, we hope it makes the job more stimulating for Bombayworks employees and helps them stay longer, says Klara Sjöström.
For future clients, a similar setup would be a great advantage, according to Karl.
– The agreement should specify that all support questions are documented in articles to build a future help center. This makes things easier for both the client and us.
Tips for Easier Support:
Think long-term: Work proactively instead of just alleviating symptoms.
Look for patterns: Are there recurring questions or answers, specific problem areas, or times when needs are greater?
Focus on speeding up the handling of small issues and completely eliminating the need for regular information exchange. Ideally, you shouldn’t need support to find information.
Use technology properly. Forms, automated responses, and macros are the best friends of support.
Dare to implement change, but account for the audience’s differences. And be patient.
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