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How to Get Under the Umbrella of Knowledge Management Systems

written by

Emily Randolph

last updated

March 08, 2021

There are many different types of knowledge management systems, and that’s why there’s a whole umbrella to encompass them. Under the umbrella, you’ve got many ways to share knowledge, including knowledge base systems, forums, and chatbots.

With knowledge management, you’ll get a full behind the scenes start to customer support that allows you to:

• Waste less time recreating knowledge – all the knowledge/resources you’ve ever created can live in the system
• Make fewer mistakes – the system is automated and can help you create
• Save money – allows you to put all your eggs in one basket

When it feels like it’s raining, you can direct customers to whichever knowledge management system best suits their needs as well as your own. It might seem too vast to choose from, but we’ve got recommendations and solutions to make those rainy days go away.

A knowledge management system lives on your website and customers and employees utilize company knowledge and information to get things done.

It is also a proactive form of customer success.

You want to put information and knowledge out there before problems arise. This helps customers have a better understanding and a seat at the table in solving problems.

Knowledge Management helps anyone on your site find the information they need about your company.

While knowledge management is mostly behind the scenes, it does all the necessary preparations for when your users will need to find knowledge.

• Waste less time recreating knowledge — all the knowledge/resources you’ve ever created can live in the system
• Make fewer mistakes — the system is automated and can help you create
• Save money — allows you to put all your eggs in one basket
• Faster solutions — a KMS solves problems quickly and easily
• Provides self-service customer support
• Personal interactions — customers feel like they are interacting with your company in a personal and customized way

Knowledge management is the big umbrella of knowledge sharing.

A lot of systems, like knowledge bases or help desks, use knowledge management with added customer support.

The system manages the knowledge provided by categorizing and automating services.  Then you can decide how to push it out to your customers.

You may be confused as to why knowledge management is helpful if it is not customer-facing, but being behind the scenes doesn’t mean there isn’t customer support.

Knowledge management has many knowledge-sharing systems under its umbrella. That software is what will allow you to have a knowledge management system for the people.

While the strategic aspects of a knowledge management system differ from system to system, the purpose is the same. Give your customers the education they need. That way, they will have success in the use and interaction with your product.

If you’re looking for a knowledge management system that has an array of features and benefits for your website with added customer support, take a look at these three:

is a knowledge base software in the form of a help bot. The bot operates on every page of your website for maximum support. It collects questions, reuses your past answers, and provides an array of extra self-service help features.

The bot is completely interactive and self-service for users. It is automatic, so it contains all the support your customers need 24/7. 

ChipBot integrates with any webpage and appears on every page of your website. It encompasses all the benefits listed above and there is an advanced search functionality that allows you to search over multiple types of content.

Users can book meetings, get directions, and give feedback—all in the bot in the corner of your screen. 

As a knowledge base, it contains FAQ content, articles & tutorials, and case studies. It is not a chatbot, but it has similar (and better) functionality. ChipBot even has actionable data. That way it can improve itself as it interacts with your customers.

To top it all off, ChipBot has a free version, and you can upgrade to a paid plan at only $10 per month.

is a cloud-based customer service software providing helpdesk support with smart automation. With it, you can streamline all your customer conversations in one place.

You can then automate repetitive tasks to save time. And you can even collaborate with other teams to resolve issues faster. You can bring all your support requests to Freshdesk from anywhere.

Email, chat, phone, or social media can all be uploaded. You can then prioritize, categorize, and assign tickets automatically.

There are many options to help guide customers to find help faster. One example could be showing solution articles on your website.

You can also monitor your teams and make data-driven decisions. That way you can hit your support targets with the customizable Team Dashboard.

However, Helpjuice is very expensive. It starts at $120 per month, with up to 4 users; you can upgrade to 16 users for $200 per month, and unlimited for $499.

A knowledge management system can be an umbrella term for many other types of information systems. It can exist within your organization or it can be used to centralize your knowledge base for your customers.

With so much information, there are a lot of ways you can put it out there. These are knowledge solutions that can find themselves under the umbrella of a knowledge management system:

A knowledge base is a library of information or data. It is available for employees, users, and customers to draw on. Software like ChipBot lives on your page and is ready to help customers when questions arise.

Frequently asked question pages are a helpful self-service tool. They are needed for customers looking to answer their own questions. Questions and concerns can be a large part of a knowledge management system.

Articles and tutorials can be extremely helpful in educating customers about your product. They can read through or watch videos to better understand what you’re selling.

And they have the opportunity to gain more knowledge. This is important to customer success. They will be better equipped and more likely to spread the word.

Case studies are helpful in gaining the trust of a customer. When they see the success of the product with other customers, they will see that they can have the same success.

Customers respond well to this type of content–seeing people like them succeed. They want to see that you’ve done the work to make them feel comfortable.

A community forum can build rapport among your customers and employees. It gives them an opportunity to interact with each other. These interactions can lead to a community of supporters for your company. Users can ask and answer questions.

They can also get honest reviews from other people using the same product. A forum is also a space where people can leave feedback. This feedback will be really helpful in keeping everything updated and customer friendly.

Chatbots are quick and readily available. They are evolving and showing up more and more on company websites. These software applications mimic human speech for the purpose of simulating conversation.

If you are a larger corporation, document management systems will be helpful. You can publish, store, index, and retrieve documents.

Keeping knowledge safe and accessible is right at your fingertips. And there are extra features that will aid in this as well. Some features include capturing, classifying, indexing, search & retrieval, and administration & security.

Groupware is a technology designed to help people collaborate. It includes a wide range of applications. This is another system that is more relevant to larger corporations.

While some systems may be very desirable for one business, that same system may not work well for another. For a small business, providing self-service support is extremely important. Your team won’t always have extra time.

Regardless of how many people you have on your team, a knowledge management system can help you share information and get your company on the map.

Choose what you think will best serve your customers, give you the best value, and do the job right.

You should implement a knowledge management system immediately.