If you’re running a SaaS business, one of the biggest challenges you face is educating your customer base. You need to teach each user how to use your software and they’re likely to have some questions along the way. One of the best ways to assist your customers, while simultaneously helping your SaaS business grow, is through the use of a knowledge management system.
What Is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge management is the practice of compiling essential documents and information in one centralized location. This centralized location is known as a SaaS knowledge base. Through this knowledge base, customers and employees can quickly find the information they are looking for related to your product.
For example, your knowledge base may contain written tutorials on how to use your software. To find out how to use certain aspects of the software, both employees and customers can use the search function of the knowledge base to find their answers. There are several benefits that come from using a centralized knowledge management system within your SaaS business.
Simpler Customer Onboarding
For starters, a knowledge management system makes it easier to onboard your customers. Teach your customers how to use your service is an important element when bringing in new customers and you likely don’t have the time or manpower to sit down with each one of them individually.
Within your knowledge base, you can have detailed tutorials that outline how to use your service. Then, you can also include information answering the most common questions customers have when learning to use the service. By making the onboarding process more efficient, you will be able to reduce the number of employees needed to train your new clients, resulting in happier customers.
Reduction in Customer Service Time
Another key benefit of using a SaaS knowledge base is that it can reduce the number of customer service requests you receive. By providing easy-to-find information for your customers, they won’t need to contact your customer support team as often. They’ll be able to find their answer much faster than waiting for one of your service representatives to help them.
For the questions that do reach your employees, they’ll also be able to use the knowledge base to quickly find answers. The knowledge base can not only help your employees if they need information about your software but they can direct the customer to the information.
By reducing the number of requests, and speeding up the process for the requests they do receive, your employees will be able to save a lot of time and work much faster.
Maintain Smaller Support Staff
Since you’re reducing the amount of customer service requests, this typically means you can have a smaller support staff. You won’t need to grow your team as soon, allowing you to save money on employee costs.
Paying your employees is one of the biggest expenses for any growing business. The smaller you can keep your team in the beginning, the easier it will be to grow your SaaS business.
Protect Your Essential Information
Finally, a knowledge management system protects your essential information. You may not want all your important “how-to” documents available to the public. Instead, you’d rather restrict them to invited members, such as paying customers or your employees.
This is a little harder to do if you just post all the information online in the form of a blog post. But with a knowledge management system, you can securely protect your information and ensure that it’s only viewable by those invited.
Start Researching Knowledge Management Systems to Help Your SaaS Business Grow
There’s a lot of things you can do to help your SaaS business grow. But at the core, you need to deliver a better experience to your customers while also reigning in costs. While there are other ways to accomplish this, one of the simplest and most effective is to integrate a knowledge management system.
If you don’t already have a centralized, secure location for your business’s key information, now is the time to start considering one. Once you integrate a knowledge management system into your SaaS business, you can begin to reduce customer support time, make your employees more efficient and cut costs. Start by exploring the different knowledge management systems available, then choose one that works best with your existing software tools and budget.
