How to build a small knowledge base your team will use

Start with the top ten

List the ten questions customers ask most and the ten tasks new staff ask about most. Write a short article for each. That’s your first knowledge base.

Keep each article short and practical

• One question or task per article
• A clear title written how people would search
• Steps in order, with screenshots where useful
• Who owns it and when it was last checked

Decide who can see each article

Some articles are for customers, some only for staff, and some are drafts. Keep those states separate so internal know-how isn’t published by accident.

How to write a good help article

1. Title it as the question people ask, such as “How do I reset my password?”.
2. Answer it in the first sentence.
3. Give the steps in order, one action per step.
4. Add a screenshot where a step is easy to get wrong.
5. Say what to do if it doesn’t work.

Using articles in support replies

When answering a common question, link to the article rather than rewriting the answer. It saves time, keeps answers consistent and teaches customers where to look next time. If you find yourself editing the article’s answer in a reply, update the article.

Internal articles worth writing first

• How to set up a new customer
• How to raise and send a quote
• What to do when a job runs late
• Who to call for supplier or system problems
• End-of-month tasks

These protect the business when someone is away and make training new staff faster.

Keeping articles up to date

Set a review date on each article, such as every six months, and give it an owner. When a process or product changes, update the related articles the same week. Encourage staff to flag outdated articles when they spot them, and fix them quickly. An article that is wrong does more damage than a missing one.

A worked example

A small software reseller answers the same question about password resets several times a week. They write one clear article with screenshots, share it with customers and link it from the support email template. Repeat questions drop sharply, and new staff use the internal version of the article in their first week.

Quick checklist

• Write articles for your ten most common questions and tasks.
• Title each article as the question people ask.
• Keep one topic per article, with steps in order.
• Set an audience for each article: staff or customers.
• Give each article an owner and a review date.
• Link to articles from support replies.

Keep it current

Give each article an owner and a review date. Outdated instructions are worse than none, because people trust them.

NovaSoft One’s knowledge base supports drafts, published articles, owners, review dates and separate staff and customer visibility, and response snippets turn common answers into reusable replies.

Common questions

This guide is general information for Australian businesses, not legal, tax or financial advice. Check anything specific to your situation with a qualified adviser or the relevant government agency.