Online help tools have revolutionized the way companies do business. They boost the level of organization within the company, they are great for keeping track of assignments and processes, as well as sharing relevant information. In other words, anyone who is interested in a sudden spike of productivity at their workplace usually opts for implementing online helping tools.
However, there are a lot of providers of online help tools, and you need to find ways to make your product more desirable. At this point, it’s small details that count, and if you manage to outrank your competition even by a little, you can witness a positive spike in sales. So here are 7 great ways to improve the quality of your online help tools.
#1. Your database needs to be rooted in the cloud
One of the crucial selling points for online help tools is a higher level of security, combined with great accessibility. The cloud is one of the latest technological trends that has managed to combine these two aspects impeccably. Furthermore, you won’t have to invest tons of funds into developing hardware and protection, which is definitely a plus.
If you opt for cloud to be in charge of your knowledge database you will have an online tool with a high-security level, and people who have access to it will easily reach any desired document. Your worries will be reduced to a bare minimum, and you can look forward to a satisfying user experience and feedback. In other words, go with cloud and only with cloud.
#2. Promote Collaboration
In order to have an admirable help tool, you need to give the people what they crave the most, and that is flexibility in terms of location. If your software can enable people to collaborate on the project, even though they are not in the same room, or in the same country for that matter. The already mentioned cloud give users the ability to access data, but you need software that also permits synchronous communications. So, as long as the distance between coworkers is no longer a factor of concern, then it means you offer top quality software.
Of course, there are a great deal of online help tools that already offer this feature, so the best thing you can do to improve it is to offer software that allows groups of people to collaborate on a single project with a user interface that makes it easy for everyone to keep track of other people’s suggestion and contributions.
#3. Tracking progress
Milestones, achievements, success rates, goals etc. These are all elements that serve as a powerful force that drives motivation. Meaning, your software needs to enable access to all of the previous projects, so that everyone can have a clear overview of the work done in the past. In addition to motivation, it can be helpful to have everything stored in case someone needs it for future reference. It also gives everyone to learn from their past mistakes, you know what they say: “Fools learn from experience, whereas smart people learn from history.”
Moreover, people who worked on a particular project can leave comments and tips, which can be useful whenever someone else is assigned to do something similar in the future. Milestones, archives and references, these are the elements that need to exist within your online help software.
#4. Introduce a rating system
As mentioned monitoring progress yields positive results, but it is also useful to have software capable of incentivizing employee’s self-improvement. In other words, you need a feature that allows peer correction and peer evaluation. It is useful for people to have clear indicators of their strengths and flaws, and it is useful if it comes from their peers since it fosters collective growth. It will also be good for product or content since it can be upgraded and updated, and it will save you expenses on staff training, since your senior staff can guide junior staff. Long story short, make sure the software has features that allow evaluation and correction.
#5. Integration is essential
One thing you must never overlook when it comes to online documentation tools is its integration capabilities. Pay attention to the big services, and make sure your software can be integrated with those types of software solutions. As long as your tool plays well with other online documentation tools, you can look forward to increasing the number of sales, because you will have effectively expanded the scope of your audience.
A good example of this is TrackDuck, since it improves website production with its unique communication system created with the goal of improving the relationship between the customer and the web designer. However, none of this would be possible if the TrackDuck did not possess numerous integration features. Basically, more integration capabilities result in better communication and collaboration, and as mentioned these are your selling points.
Creating online help is one thing, but making it more accessible to the users is an entirely different story. It can be somewhat difficult to decentralize and adopt the mindset of the average user, so people might not know exactly how to use your online documentation tool to its full potential. Your FAQ section needs to immediately address the most common concerns, and at the same time help people find the answer to some of the more specific issues. The less you have to rely on customer support to solve the problems the better.
#7. Train your employees
In order for your staff to effectively sell the product and for your customer support to understand the issues of your customers, you need to make sure your staff members are experts in the use of your online documentation tool. Only then will they be able to create a compelling presentation and provide adequate help, should the need for it ever arise.
As you can see, improving your online help tools is not that hard. All you need to do is focus on some minor improvements, and, as a result, you will have a more compelling case. The tips provided above are the best way to achieve your selling goals, so make sure you follow them.
Images: ” 3D render image representing a colored text Help / Online Help / Shutterstock.com“
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