Knowledge Base Overview

The knowledge base is a tool companies can use to share information with employees, customers and partners. In its simplest form, SmarterTrack's knowledge base is an online repository of articles that helps agents and customers solve issues quickly and efficiently. A well-organized knowledge base can save organizations money by decreasing the amount of employee time spent trying to find information about company products, policies, and/or procedures. As a customer service tool, a knowledge base can give customers easy access to information that would otherwise require a phone call, live chat or email ticket.

To access the knowledge base, log into the management interface with your agent account. Then select Knowledge Base from the Navigator.

By default, SmarterTrack will display knowledge base articles for all brands. However, agents can review articles for a specific brand by selecting it from the brands dropdown at the top of the navigation menu. Articles can be edited from the preview pane by selecting the Edit button. Alternatively, they can be opened in separate pop-out windows by double-clicking the article in the content pane.

Navigating the Knowledge Base

In the navigation pane, you can select articles that then display in the preview pane. The following views are available under the Knowledge Base area of the navigation pane:

All Items - Managers and administrators will be able to see all articles in the knowledge base, regardless of their status or to whom they're assigned.
Drafts - Lists all articles flagged as drafts.
Review - Lists all articles flagged for review.
Moderation - Lists all articles that have unmoderated user feedback.
Stale - Lists all articles that have reached their stale date. The timeframe for when articles become stale is set in the Management Interface settings.
Broken Links - SmarterTrack scans articles for any broken internal or external links. This lists all articles that contain broken links.
Advanced Search - Allows for a more advanced search of all knowledge base articles.
By Agent - Lists all agents who have articles assigned to them.

In the Folders area of the navigation pane, a list of all existing folders will be available. Folders can be created for products, issue types or in any other way to keep your articles organized and easy to access, both for customers and for agents. Click on the folder or subfolder and the articles within that folder will load in the content pane. For more information on organizing articles by folder, please see Managing Knowledge Base Folders.

In the content pane, the list of articles can be found. In general, the following details can be seen for each article in the list:

Article Title - The title of the article.
Folder - The location of the article.
Language - The language(s) assigned to the article. When portal visitors select a different language for the portal, the articles that have been assigned to that language will appear in the knowledge base.
Flags - Whether the article is flagged as draft, private or for review.

Performing Knowledge Base Actions

Article Organization

There are two (2) tabs at the top of the content pane: "All" and "Assigned to Me".

Selecting "All" displays all of the articles, regardless of folder, that you, as an agent or manager, are able to see. Selecting "Assigned to Me" displays just those articles that have been actually assigned to you, as an agent or manager. When creating articles, they can be assigned to individuals as needed. Generally, articles are left unassigned so that they are available to all agents within the brand. However, agents can create articles and assign them to themselves, so that they "own" the article and are responsible for its content and keeping it updated. Agents are also notified if new feedback is generated on the article they're responsible for.

Actions

In general, the following options are available from the content pane toolbar:

Search - Allows you to perform a basic search on the articles listed in the content pane.
Sort - Sorts the list of articles in ascending or descending order based on the selected option, such as subject, helpfulness, last reviewed, etc. Clicking on Reset Sort Order will return the sort order to its default status.
Actions (…) - Click this button and select the appropriate option to select all articles, move articles, copy articles or change the status of articles.

Select All - Selects all knowledge base articles in the content pane.
Mark - Click this button and select the appropriate option to change the status of the selected article(s).

Public - Marks the article as public so tha it's visible in the Knowledge Base area of the portal.
Private - Marks the article as private. Private articles are only visible to administrators and managers/agents and are great for internal guidelines, policies, troubleshooting steps or any other information needed by agents and managers.
Draft - Marks the article as a draft. Drafts are only visible to administrators and agents. Draft articles are those that are essentially finished but are still awaiting review and/or revision prior to making them public or private.
Review - Marks the article for review. Agents typically flag an article for review when they want the article edited for content, clarity, or grammatical errors.
Reviewed - Marks the article as reviewed and clears the "Review" flag.

Move - Moves the selected article(s) to another folder.
Copy - Copies the selected article(s) to another folder.
Transfer - Transfers responsibility for the article to a new agent.
Rescan All for Broken Links - Initiates a scan of all articles for any broken URLs or links to external and/or internal content.
Delete - Deletes the article. See Deleting Knowledge Base Articles.