Implement the Marie Kondo method to optimize your Knowledge Base

Last Updated: May 16, 2022

A chaotic Knowledge Base is as good as not having a Knowledge Base. Your customers or employees will never be able to discover what they are seeking if it is not structured chronologically and hierarchically, which might easily frustrate them. To make your information architecture more accessible, sort it, organize it under sections, and tag it.

You’ve heard of Japanese organizing consultant Marie Kondo unless you’ve been living on Mars. Since the publication of her book ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,’ the Japanese tidying specialist has made it her mission to spark joy through the art of organization. In this blog, take a moment and reflect on your organization’s knowledge base and how you can implement the Konmari method to optimize your content. Think of a database as your own house and the data are nothing but your stuff. Let these bits and bobs be anything i.e;  from a pen that doesn’t work to clothes that don’t fit you. Even if you think you’ll need it someday, odds are you’ll end up upgrading it anyway. HappyFox Help Desk is a simple online knowledge base software that is appealing, searchable, social media ready, and mobile adaptable. 

“I recommend you dispose of anything that does not fall into one of three categories: currently in use, needed for a limited period of time, or must be kept indefinitely.” — Marie Kondo 

Five tips to Marie Kondo-ing your knowledge base

  1. Commit yourself to tidying up 

Top management commitment is required for a successful data cleanup strategy, which includes allocating the necessary resources and budget. When you take a more proactive approach, you can achieve an entire knowledge base transformation and heighten data privacy. Updating the knowledge base on a regular basis is a good idea. Establish a regular interval between updates. If it’s monthly, for example, make sure all of your product-level changes from the previous month are included in the knowledge base update. 

  1. Imagine your ideal lifestyle

Honestly, every challenge is worthwhile, but you must have a rough notion of your end goals. Do you want your team to make strategic decisions faster? How about being able to produce more visual data with less text? Your knowledge base software can be either internal or external or both. This eliminates the need for new support employees to receive separate training, while also improving the user experience. 

  1. Decluttering unnecessary data 

Make way for new data by deleting data from the previous year. Just like how we replace our thoughts of guilt with feelings of thankfulness, similarly, with a database, we must appreciate it for providing us with insights and serving our organization well when it was needed. However, if it is no longer relevant, it is time to wave goodbye. For instance: Remove out-of-date content as needed, and update old articles with new information to keep your Knowledge Base current. Improve search engine discoverability by including meta tags, titles, and keywords in your content. When consumers search for answers on Google, this will help you rank higher in the results.

  1. Follow the right order

It’s obvious that there will be a huge amount of content that has no purpose other than to provide information. Although with these less fascinating pages of text, your website visitors will implicitly detect the time and effort that goes into crafting high-quality text that speaks to them effectively, is well-structured, and is easy to read.

  1. Ask yourself if it sparks joy

Do you feel the spark of joy on a Friday knowing the weekend is just a few hours away? Similarly, your homepage should exude confidence and be something that you are happy about. Ask yourself if your self-service portal delights your audience. You’ll be in a better position to start generating solutions that provide joy to you and your customers if you implement a minimalist approach to knowledge management. 

Adapting Marie Kondo’s approach to Knowledge Base Management

Humans simply cannot categorize and manage each document individually due to the enormous volume of information present. Once you’ve mastered all of the above approaches, you’ll have a comprehensive knowledge base that will help you lower the number of inbound support requests, improving overall customer happiness and retention. HappyFox provides a robust knowledge base that is simple to manage and mobile-friendly. HappyFox knowledge base is filled with enough features to be a one-stop-shop self-service platform for your clients, from tags to auto-suggest to feedback management.

To know more about HappyFox Knowledge Base – Click here or speak to our knowledge base and help desk specialists. Get a one-on-one-demo tailored to your needs.