Why does your product need a Help Center? Is it really necessary to have one? I mean, if a customer has a problem, wouldn’t they just contact us via the Contact Us form? Why should we put effort and money into building and maintaining a Help Center?
Well, the answer is simple: Not everyone wants to wait for a person (or a bot) to help solve their problem. Many of us just want to solve the problem on our own, quickly! If that doesn’t seem like a good enough reason, okay, hear me out. Unless your product is built to perfection with Fairy’s touch🧚, your users are always going to have questions for you. And as your product grows, the volume of problems will only increase📈.
So, it is essential to design and build an effective Help Center to maintain a healthy user base and show your users that you care about them. Here are few things to consider while designing a Help Center for you product:
Easy-to-Understand Knowledge Base:
A well designed help center includes a knowledge base that has answers to all your customers need (well, most of the time! 😅).
1) The knowledge base must cover wide range of topics, including frequently asked questions, common issues, tutorials, and important updates.
2) The articles in the knowledge base should explain the steps to solve your users’ problems clearly. To make them even more helpful, you can include videos, pictures, and tutorials.
3) Here’s an important tip: always use simple language without any confusing jargon or complicated metaphors. By doing so, you’ll ensure that your knowledge base is easily understandable and accessible.
Search Bar and The Search Experience🔍 :
A search bar is an essential component of an effective help center. It allows users to quickly find the information they need. Here are some key points to consider:
1) Prominent Placement: Ensure that the search bar is easily visible and accessible on every page of the help center. Users should not have to hunt for it.
2) Intelligent Search Algorithm: Implement a search algorithm that understands common misspellings and provides relevant suggestions. This helps users find what they need, even if they make mistakes while typing.
3) Auto-Suggestions: Offer auto-suggestions as users type in the search bar. This feature can save time by providing quick options and guiding users towards relevant content.
Seamless Navigation🧭:
Your users are already facing a problem. Let’s not complicate the experience with a hard to understand navigation.
1) Clear and Logical Structure: Organize your help center with a clear and logical structure. Use categories and subcategories to group related topics and make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for.
2) Breadcrumbs: Make use of Breadcrumbs to provide users with a clear indication of their current position within the help center.
3) Consistent layout: Maintain a consistent design and layout throughout your help center. This helps users become familiar with the navigation patterns and reduces confusion when moving between different sections.
Gathering User Feedback:
To improve the quality of your Help Center, it is essential to collect feedback from the users. Here are a couple of approaches you can consider:
1) Yes/No Feedback: Start with a simple feedback mechanism, such as a “Yes” or “No” button, asking users if they found the article helpful. This provides a quick way for users to express their satisfaction with the content. Or better, go with the emojis 🙁 😐 😃.
2) Detailed Feedback Options: To gather more insightful feedback, offer users a few options to explain why they didn’t find the article helpful. This could include choices like “The information was unclear,” “The article didn’t address my issue,” or “I couldn’t find what I was looking for.” These options allow users to provide specific feedback, enabling you to identify areas of improvement.
3) Comment Section: Consider providing a comment section or an open text field where users can share additional comments or suggestions. This gives users the opportunity to provide detailed feedback, share their specific concerns, or suggest improvements.
Easy to Find: 🎣
Last but not least, the help center itself should be easy to spot for an user. Here are few things to consider to make it more accessible:
1) Prominent Placement: Place the link to your help center where users expect it the most. Consider positioning it in a prominent location, such as the main navigation menu, footer, or header of your app or website. This ensures that users can quickly spot and access the help center whenever they need assistance.
2) Help Center Widget: Consider incorporating a help center widget within your app or website. This widget can be strategically placed in a visible position, allowing users to access support and helpful resources without navigating away from their current page. It provides a convenient and quick way for users to find the assistance they need.
3) Clear Labelling: Use clear and descriptive labels for the link or widget that leads to your help center. Opt for phrases like “Help Center,” “Support,” or “FAQ” to ensure users instantly recognize the purpose of the link and know where to go for assistance.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, building a help center is just the beginning of an ongoing process. It requires regular maintenance, updates and improvements. As your user base grows, consider adding features like chat bots, AI assistance, and contextual support to enhance the support experience. Keep listening to user feedback, analyzing their behavior, and making necessary adjustments. Remember, building a help center is a continuous journey of improvement to meet user needs. Strive to provide exceptional assistance and create a help center that stands out.
Thanks for reading the blog! We hope you find it valuable and easy to understand. To learn more about our projects, visit our projects page.
