Rebecca Lane

By: Rebecca Lane on July 3rd, 2022

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Top 13 Mistakes People Make With Their Knowledge Base (+ How to Avoid Them)

Mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of. A mistake is an unintentional error. You don’t mean for them to happen. But, with that being said, we would like to prevent them if we could.

One horrible mistake I’ve shamefully made not once, but twice in my life is mixing up cumin for cinnamon. And, while I’m all for being adventurous with food, I don’t recommend cumin crumble muffins.

Now when I reach for a brown spice in my cupboard, I slow down and triple -check my label. I know my ill-fated cumin recipes are preventable since I’m aware of how the mistake is made.

It’s the same with your knowledge base. You don’t want to make mistakes, but they happen. If your know what mistakes are bound to happen, you can prevent them. That is where this article comes in.

Through research and talking to knowledge base managers while working for ScreenSteps — a knowledge base software company — I’ve learned about common mistakes that hinder the success of a company’s knowledge base.

Here are 13 common mistakes companies make in managing their knowledge base. We also include tips on how to fix those mistakes. That way, you don’t have to live with the equivalent of cumin crumble muffins.

1. Having no one own the knowledge base

It takes a lot of work to maintain a knowledge base. There are permissions to manage, knowledge base articles to write, procedural changes to update in your guides, and more. In short, managing a knowledge base is a full-time job.

You need to appoint someone to manage the knowledge base. Often, businesses call this role the knowledge manager. At ScreenSteps, we call this person the Knowledge Champion.

Without a knowledge manager, your knowledge base eventually becomes outdated and inaccurate. Your employees are less likely to use your knowledge base because it isn’t reliable.

Need help choosing someone to own your knowledge base? Read this article to learn more about the role of a knowledge manager and who you should hire to own your knowledge base.

2. Only having one content author

Having one person write all of your knowledge base articles only works if you are a small company and don’t have a lot of policies and procedures.

If you are using your knowledge base in a large corporation across multiple departments, chances are you have hundreds of policies and procedures in your knowledge base. That is a lot for one person to handle. They can’t keep everything up-to-date on their own.

You need a team of content authors. Appoint subject matter experts in each department to oversee the knowledge base content for their department. Or simply hire employees who are dedicated to writing, editing, and updating knowledge base articles.

3. Not standardizing your articles

Do you ever read one website and switch to another and get confused about what you are reading because it is presented differently?

You want to keep your knowledge base articles consistent. Create a knowledge base style guide so your content authors know how to present information in your knowledge base articles.

For example, if you are going to use italics for things you say and bolding for things you do, you want that to be consistent. If one writer uses italics for what an employee should say while another uses italics for background information, that will confuse employees.

It makes it easier for employees to make mistakes when things are changing all the time. Your employees should be able to quickly follow or skim a guide while they are working with a customer.

4. Writing long and wordy knowledge base articles

Typically, you have your subject matter experts (SMEs) write your knowledge base articles. If not, your content author interviews your SMEs. In both situations, you end up with a lot of detailed information and it is tempting to include that information in your articles. But don’t!

Long and wordy knowledge base articles are confusing. These could be your standard operating procedures (SOPs), guides, job aids, etc.

Write guides that include just the right amount of information, meaning not too many details and not so little that the readers can’t do what they are supposed to. The role of your knowledge base articles is to help your end-users get something done.

Use short sentences. Leave out unnecessary descriptors and articles like “the,” “a/an,” etc.

Get a better idea of how long your procedures should be. Or use these six tips to help you improve and shorten your SOPs.

5. Not using separate articles for each question

Often, companies accidentally create manuals in their knowledge bases instead of articles. They piece together multiple procedures in one article instead of creating a new article for each procedure and linking to connecting SOPs.

One common area when businesses clump information together is their Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section. Sometimes people have one article called FAQs and it will list 20-50 FAQs.

Instead, each FAQ should be its own article. This will make it easier for your end-users to search your knowledge base and find the answer they need.

If you put all your FAQs in one article, then your end-users have to search and then skim through all the FAQs until they find the question they were actually looking for. That is time-consuming. Your end-users lose minutes instead of seconds searching when your knowledge base is set up that way.

6. Letting guides become outdated

Your processes and procedures are always changing. Grant it, most changes won’t be dramatic. It will be adding a new step for clarification or adding a new product option.

Your knowledge base needs to be agile with these changes. Often, companies will announce these changes and then take days, weeks, or even months to update their knowledge base articles with the changes.

What happens during the time between the announcement and the knowledge base articles being outdated? End-users continue to use outdated articles with outdated information. Employees make mistakes. Customers receive inaccurate information. And it’s not their fault!

You need to update knowledge base articles the minute you know about changes.

But, that’s impossible! I hear you. There is so much work to be done on a given day. Use these eight tips for keeping your knowledge base up-to-date and accurate.

7. Not keeping content fresh

Okay, mistake No. 7 goes along with mistake No. 8. But it is worth getting its own bullet point.

You need to keep your content fresh in your knowledge base. That means you need to regularly evaluate that your knowledge base articles are up-to-date. That includes both updating existing articles with accurate information and writing new articles to fill in learning gaps as well as for new company policies and procedures.

If you don’t keep your content fresh, readers will stop using your knowledge base. Readers lose trust when they start seeing inaccurate information.

Set aside some time to write and edit your knowledge base daily. Even if that is only 15 minutes, that is 15 minutes that helps you improve your knowledge base so that your end-users can continue to rely on your knowledge base for accurate information.

8. Not providing end-users a way to provide feedback

How do your end-users send you feedback?

Some of the best feedback you can get for your knowledge base is from your end-users. They are in your knowledge base. They know when things are out of date or confusing.

Whether it is a feedback tool within your knowledge base or an email that is clearly advertised, you need to provide your end-users with a way to send you feedback. It helps you keep your knowledge base accurate.

Then, once you’ve received feedback, make sure you listen to it. Have a plan for how to respond to feedback and incorporate it into your knowledge base. Who is in charge of managing and incorporating feedback?

9. Ignoring your analytics

How often do you check your knowledge base analytics?

Depending on the knowledge base software you use, the software service will offer different analytics and insights. Your knowledge base analytics and reports provide insights into your end-users’ behavior as well as the health of your knowledge base.

It can show you who is using your knowledge base, how often they are using it, which articles they are viewing, what words they are typing into the search bar, and more.

Using these insights, you can optimize your knowledge base articles for search as well as get an understanding of which articles are missing in your knowledge base. Read this article for more suggestions on how to use your knowledge base analytics.

10. Not using your knowledge base during training

Look at it this way: In sports, you train with the balls you are going to use in the game. You don’t hold a basketball practice with a volleyball. You don’t kick a football around at soccer practice. You use the equipment you’ll use in games during practice.

That is so that your players will be familiar with the equipment and have the muscle memory for your games.

Using your knowledge base and the guides in your knowledge base during training is like using the appropriate equipment. Your employees are getting used to your knowledge base. They are building muscle memory by turning to the knowledge base when they don’t know the answers. 

This prepares them when they are on the floor. Your employees will know how to use your knowledge base and how to read and follow your guides to accomplish tasks — even if they didn’t know that particular procedure beforehand.

If you aren’t using your knowledge base articles in your training, your employees aren’t building up that muscle memory. You hope they learn it once they hit the floor, but there is no guarantee.

11. Not using single sign-on (SSO)

Every employee has a collection of passwords that they need to memorize. Chances are that they forget passwords at different points. I don’t know about you, but I’m more likely to give up than dig around for the right password if I don’t desperately need the information.

Remove a barrier for your employees. Don’t make them memorize another login and password. With single sign-on, it uses their company email to log in to your employees. They don’t need to type anything.

This speeds up the signing-in process and encourages employees to use your knowledge base.

12. Not putting information in the knowledge base

If your company is announcing new procedures or changes on email or a messaging platform, that is information that needs to live in your knowledge base.

It is easy to send a chat message or email to pass on information, but it is difficult to find that information in the future. Take time to transfer and transpose that email information into your knowledge base.

Your knowledge base should be the home for all of your company’s knowledge. It should be where people turn when they have questions.

A knowledge base is meant to be a central hub for all your company’s information. It can’t be that if you have procedures in emails and chat channels.

13. Thinking your knowledge base needs to be perfect pre-launch

When you are initially building out your knowledge base, it can be tempting to push your knowledge base launch date until everything is perfect. You want to cover all of your policies and procedures before your employees and/or customers start using your knowledge base.

But, during that time, your end-users need those answers and have no place to access them. The reality is your knowledge base will always be a work in progress. Procedures will always need updating, policies will always need reviewing, etc.

Once the knowledge base can answer 80% of the questions people have, launch it. Then continue to fill it with your missing procedures. As long as you have a feedback function, you will receive end-user feedback to help you know how to improve your knowledge base.

Avoid mistakes and simply documentation with a powerful knowledge base

There is a lot to look out for when it comes to managing your company’s knowledge base. With your team relying on your knowledge base to be the single source of truth for your company, that can be overwhelming. And mistakes happen.

Luckily, when you are aware of the common mistakes, you can make a plan to prevent making those mistakes with your knowledge base.

A ScreenSteps knowledge base provides you with tools that make managing your knowledge base easier. The content creation tools make it fast and easy to create and update your knowledge base articles.

Plus, we have content workshops and coaching services to help train your knowledge base managers on best practices.

See how a ScreenSteps knowledge base would help simplify your knowledge base management. Watch the pre-recorded demos to see ScreenSteps in action.

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About Rebecca Lane

Content Marketing Manager