Metrics of performance are the lifeblood of business success - without them how would you measure if a project is actually successful or not? It's basically like trying to climb a mountain blindfolded – it may be an adventure, but you're almost certainly never going to make it to the top.
Performance metrics provide a useful compass that keeps businesses from taking wrong turns, instead allowing them to course-correct and stick to their desired objectives. Plus, measurements of performance help teams to stay on top of their progress - without these you’ll just be blindly stumbling along in the dark.
So if you want to succeed in business – especially in this challenging world – make sure you have your measuring cups ready.
Knowledge base metrics
Knowledge base metrics are the measurement tools used to assess an organization's various knowledge base assets. They enable teams to analyze customer service efficiency, knowledge management performance, customer satisfaction levels, product quality information, and customer feedback.
Metrics allow for a snapshot of help center performance, enabling businesses and organizations to make tweaks and take action based on their knowledge base data.
Put simply: knowledge base metrics put the data-driven knowledge base views your organization already possesses at its fingertips.
Examples
When we talk about help center metrics, it’s important to familiarize ourselves with the different measurements used to gauge knowledge management’s success.
Through gaining an understanding of these flairs of metrics, businesses can be sure that their knowledge bases perform optimally and making customers' lives easier.
Common metrics include:
- Knowledge base views
- Most popular reads
- Missed queries
- Organic traffic
- Customer feedback
- New vs returning customers
- Customer service efficiency
- Average age of the last update
- Number of support requests
These metrics can provide you with a granular understanding of how customers are interacting with your knowledge base content, and how well it is performing.
Let's now have a closer look at each of them.
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Page views
Tracking article page views, or knowledge base traffic, can be a great way to measure the effectiveness of your content. If you publish an article and nobody looks at it, does it still do any good? Yes, of course! But why not try to maximize the potential of self service? After all, what good is an article if nobody is seeing it?
That’s why tracking the number of page views in your company’s knowledge base is so important. Knowing which topics are being viewed most often gives you a better understanding of what customers are looking for, allowing you to give them the best possible support and information.
Additionally, it helps you track which topics need more in-depth coverage or updating. Keeping track of these numbers also lets you take a proactive approach to ensuring your customers are getting the help they need when they most need it.
This will contribute to improved customer satisfaction, as well as an overall boost to their satisfaction with your services.
Organic traffic
The knowledge base is the heart of any website, so knowledge base SEO should never be neglected.
A huge part of a knowledge base’s success comes from its organic search traffic, and a lot of thought should go into optimizing the knowledge base for better visibility on SERPs. While there are many ways to do this, a great starting point is to create informative content that uses the right keywords in relevant places.
If done correctly, knowledge base SEO will increase organic search traffic and ensure quality engagement with knowledge resources.
Most popular reads
Tracking the most popular articles in a knowledge base provides helpful insights into user preferences and trends.
It keeps tabs on which topics are of the most interest at any given time, allowing administrators to make modifications or highlight content as necessary. Knowing what customers are looking for also expedites their search by providing quick access to frequently-used information. This reduces overall customer service times, leading to improved customer service satisfaction.
Tracking popular knowledge base articles through a knowledge base also allows for better content curation and optimization of article formats to improve usability and discoverability.
Missed queries
Tracking missed search queries in a knowledge base can be extremely beneficial for a customer support team.
It saves time by allowing companies to quickly identify what users are looking for and how to better organize their knowledge base. In many cases, understanding which queries people are not able to find the answers to is even more important than identifying those they can.
Analyzing the data from missed search queries reveals key insights that help improve content in the knowledge base, enabling more efficient issue resolution and fostering enhanced customer satisfaction.
Customer feedback
To ensure customer support teams are always up to date, tracking feedback in help articles is an absolute must.
Not only does it allow a support team to have a finger on the pulse of customer expectations and needs, but it can also provide support team with invaluable insight into areas where further training or support may be necessary.
Tracking customer feedback in help articles offers support teams a comprehensive look at how customers are interacting with their content, across various platforms, which can be used in the creation of better support experiences and more successful support strategies.
Average age of last update
Keeping tabs on the age of the last help article update is a critical task for any customer service-based business.
Without accurate documentation and tracking of when help articles have been updated, customers may find themselves scouring out-of-date information for solutions to their problems.
As we all know, nothing hurts worse than finding yourself in a fruitless search for answers when you need them most!
Monitoring this important detail can not only save customers from frustration, but it will also maintain your company's overall efficiency and enable you to provide customers with the best experience possible.
So, don't neglect the issue of tracking your help articles' updates - that can spell disaster!
Number of tickets
Tracking customer support tickets and requests is a must for any business that’s serious about using knowledge base analytics to their advantage.
After all, how can you provide accurate customer support requests or service without knowing
which areas of your product or service your customers need help in? Lack of knowledge resources forces users to contacting support.
With customer support tickets tracking, companies have an inside look into where customer pain points are and with this invaluable data, they can make improvements or create educational materials self service support such as tutorials, FAQs and infographics.
Knowing exactly what customers need assistance on is the key to success - it pays to track support requests!
Customer service efficiency
Have you ever been frustrated trying to find answers on an app or website? It can be hard to figure out how to submit a question, and even if you do, it can sometimes take weeks for a reply.
That’s why self service score is such an important metric when it comes to customer service efficiency. This metric measures just how quickly customers can find solutions to their queries without needing the assistance of customer service reps.
A good self service score ensures that your customers have access to the help they need right away and increases their satisfaction with your business – making them more likely to purchase from you again in the future.
New and returning visitors
When it comes to uncovering the ways in which knowledge base analytics can impact a business, tracking your knowledge base website traffic is essential, particularly the number of new and returning visitors is paramount.
Without understanding the website traffic and who's visiting and how often, we would be completely flying blind when it comes to making informed decisions about our website and customer service. It helps us know whether our content is resonating with people or if they keep coming back for more.
That’s kind of like the feedback loop that tells you that your strategy is working — or maybe not so much.
Having this data makes decision-making about a knowledge base far easier and gives all stakeholders involved confidence in the efficacy of their plans.
Knowledge base adoption
Tracking the knowledge base adoption is an important in any organization that wants to increase self service support and lower the number of average ticket requests. It's an important part of knowledge management.
It helps to see how employees and customers are engaging with it and where changes or improvements could be made - and then adopting them! With such data, organizations can refine their self service and solutions for greater accuracy, all while providing great self service support.
Trust us, when it comes to getting the most out of a knowledge base, tracking adoption is key. Keeping your finger on the pulse of self service score will surely make you think and optimize your knowledge management base for better performance.
Over to you
Tracking knowledge base metrics may not seem like the most exciting activity, but in reality it can be a valuable tool for businesses to get ahead. Having up-to-date knowledge base metrics and analytics allows companies to customize and improve their customer service offerings.
Furthermore, tracking metrics informs businesses with valuable insights about their documents, allowing them to determine which may need updates or changes.
Taking the time to track these metrics is essential for staying competitive in the ever-evolving customer service industry, so if you haven't started yet, you should jump on board fast and embrace your knowledge management.
If you want to start your knowledge base, here's a guide to building a knowledge base.
