A knowledge base is a self-service portal and central repository of information for your customers and employees. They can use it to get answers to inquiries that are frequently posed about the good or service. The categories of knowledge base are as follows:
Public knowledge base is publicly available data, which can be used to write user documents for your products. It results in higher agent productivity, a drop in ticket issuance, and quicker problem resolution, which leads to happy customers.

Few use cases are:

1. Write how-to documents
2. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Internal knowledge base is private data for the employees within your organization. It helps to improve internal knowledge sharing and collaboration, which leads to serving the customer better.

Few use cases are,

1. Training materials for your onboard employees
2. Sharing knowledge within your team

Checkout this video for more details

Agent Portal

The BoldDesk Knowledge Base software helps to categorize, create, and manage the articles. In knowledge base, the contents are organized as follows:

• Category
• Template
• Section
• Article

Category

Category is the root level folder for organizing the articles which will be displayed on the knowledge base home page. To create a new category, navigate to Knowledge Base home page and click on create.

You will be required to fill the following details:

1. Category name and description (optional).

2. Category icon.

3. Article sorting criteria.

4. Select the brand to which the category should be visible.

5. Select the visibility to control public or private article. Once you are done, click on add and the new category will be created.
   

   
   
   

Template

Knowledge base templates in BoldDesk are prewritten outlines of content designed with a predetermined structure and sequence to simplify the development of articles. They assist in creating knowledge base articles with a standardized format, aimed at improving efficiency, consistency, scalability, and the overall user experience. These templates can be created from the Knowledge Base home page by clicking on create then selecting template. Explore more on How to Create and Use Knowledge Base Article Templates.

Section

1. You can create nested sections under each category by clicking the plus icon in the category as shown:
   

   
   
   

2. Click add New Section and the following details can be filled.

   • Name
   • Description

3. By clicking the Add button, the section will be added under the category. This helps to create hierarchical structures of folders to better organize your content. 4 levels of nested sections are supported.

To learn more about organizing your knowledge base, click Organizing Knowledge Base: Categories & Sections in BoldDesk.

View Permission

The categories and articles are assigned different levels of view permission. This helps to create public and private or internal knowledge bases. The following are the supported view permissions:

Article

An article can be added under categories and their sections. Hover over the category or section where you want to add an article, click on the plus option, and then click on New Article

When you click on New Article, the article creation page will open.

The following details can be filled:

1. Title
2. Description
3. Select category and section
4. Option to enable comments
5. Select visibility option
6. Select tags
7. Set the date when the article needs to stop showing in the portal
8. Set status indicator
9. SEO meta data

Users can create categories and sections based on their needs and place the articles accordingly. Under the manage article section, users can move sections and articles between categories or change the position of categories and sections.

Article Views

Under the Articles section, the predefined views are available. The supported filters are:

1. All Articles
2. My Articles
3. In Draft
4. My Review
5. In Review
6. Approved
7. Published
8. Expired
   
   
   
   
   

Using this, we can quickly navigate to the article list based on its status. Also, using the Filters option, we can filter based on assignee, author, tags, etc.

Workflow Process

Knowledge base supports the workflow process that helps in the review and approval of the articles. This helps multiple teams work together to create the article and make them publicly available to customers. The following are the possible statuses:

1. Draft

2. In Review

3. Approved

4. Publish

5. Unpublish
   

   
   
   

Customization of Self-Service Portal

When you sign up for BoldDesk, the customer view of the self-service portal will be disabled by default. You can enable the module under the Customer Portal knowledge section as shown below:

The following are the basic customizations of the knowledge base portal:

1. Banner color
2. Banner welcome text
3. Enable satisfaction feedback
4. Basic article configuration
5. SEO

Self-Service Portal (Customer Portal)

The self-service portal is the place where a user may search for and find the information they need. The articles will be accessible on this site after they have been published.

The categories will be displayed on the home page as shown:

Users can search all the published articles using the search bar and can directly navigate to the category by clicking the category card to view the articles under that category.

You can also click on the article to view the article details page and the article details screen as shown:

On this page, options to navigate to other articles under this section or category are:

1. Table of contents (lists the headers in this article for quick navigation)

2. Related articles (lists the related articles by matching tags)

3. Recent articles (list the recently created articles)

4. Add comment and feedback
   

   
   
   

You can view all categories and sections in the side menu on the knowledge base page. Additionally, when you select a specific article, all other articles within that section will also be displayed in the side menu for easy access.

Roles and Permission

The following are the knowledge base roles and permissions:

Troubleshooting

Knowledge Base is not visible to customers

• The customer-facing Knowledge Base portal is disabled by default in new accounts. Confirm the Knowledge Base module is enabled under the Customer Portal knowledge section.
• Confirm the article is Published (Draft/In Review/Approved content is not described as customer-visible in this article).
• Confirm the article visibility is set to a customer-accessible view permission (for example, Any Users or Logged-in Users).
• Confirm the category is assigned to the correct brand.

Article unexpectedly disappears from the portal

Check the article “stop showing” date (expiry). Expired articles appear in the Expired view.

Users report “Access denied” or cannot find internal articles

Verify the view permission is set to Any Agent, Specific Agent Group, or Specific Content Group, and that the user is assigned to the required group.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the difference between a public knowledge base and an internal knowledge base?
A public knowledge base is intended for public/customer visibility. An internal knowledge base is intended for employees only and is restricted using view permissions.

2. How many section levels can be created in BoldDesk Knowledge Base?
Up to 4 levels of nested sections are supported.

3. Can BoldDesk create a ticket from negative article feedback?
Yes. In category settings, enable Create a ticket for any negative feedback. You can select a ticket assignee; if no assignee is selected, the ticket is assigned to the article author.

4. What workflow statuses are supported for Knowledge Base articles?
Draft, In Review, Approved, Publish, and Unpublish.

5. How do I restrict who can see categories and articles?
Use view permissions such as Any Users, Logged-in Users, Any Agent, Specific Content Group, or Specific Agent Group. Use brand visibility in addition to view permissions when multiple brands are configured.

6. How do related articles work in the Self-Service Portal?
The article detail page shows Related articles by matching tags.

7. Can I remove an article expiry so it stays visible indefinitely?
Yes. Edit the article and clear the “Article Expires On / stop showing” date field, then save and publish the article.

8. Does BoldDesk Knowledge Base support Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager scripts?
No. BoldDesk Knowledge Base does not allow embedding external tracking scripts, including Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.

Related Article

1. Knowledge Base Self-Service Portal Overview
2. How to Configure the BoldDesk Customer Portal Knowledge Base