E-business is not just about making money online; it’s also about saving money online. If your business receives a lot of customer service and support calls, one way to save a great deal of money is to put your support information online.

Putting a knowledge base online has several benefits. It can:

1. Reduce phone calls to your support line
2. Reduce the volume of emails answered manually
3. Handle routine questions, leaving customer service reps to handle more complicated issues
4. Help customers find information and answers to questions quickly and easily
5. Serve as a resource for customer service reps as they provide support to customers over–the-counter or by phone
6. Provide 24/7 assistance.

   How does Web-based self-service support work?

   Usually, a core set of data is entered into an online knowledge base.

   As customer support personnel respond to additional support questions by e-mail, the questions and answers are automatically added to the database. As time goes by, a large knowledge base of frequently asked questions, and their answers, is developed.

   As new customers come to the Web looking for answers, they can search the knowledge base for the information they need, eliminating the need to call customer service. If an answer is not found, the customer is encouraged to e-mail customer support – and eventually this Q & A is added to the knowledge base as well.

   In addition to simple questions and answers, knowledge base items can include product screenshots, user manuals, software patches, white papers, and audio or media files. The more sophisticated systems can measure customer satisfaction with particular answers, rank popular questions, and manage the support history of contacts and accounts.

   - Article by Wale Bello