Knowledge bases and FAQs are a great way to relieve stress on unique customer support challenges . They empower customers to self-serve.
But today, static FAQ pages are no longer enough. This is especially true with the onset of a more sophisticated digital environment. To stay in line with modern needs, support teams are increasingly utilizing SOPs to automate daily tasks. This allows agents to dedicate time to more demanding issues.
It’s an ideal time to make the shift from static FAQs to well-defined SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). This post will help you make this move, offering all the information you need to get started.
Why FAQs Aren’t Enough Anymore
An FAQ page is the first thing that most businesses create. It’s easy to publish and update, and it gives customers a place to go before they contact support. But as customers’ expectations rise and the number of tickets grows, FAQs quickly reach their limit. Here’s why:
They Are Reactive, Not Proactive
FAQs passively exist on your website, waiting for customers to explore and find the one they’re looking for. This is based on the idea that customers know what to look for and are willing to read through multiple questions or articles. In reality, a lot of customers get frustrated, skip the FAQs, and go straight to support.
On the other hand, automation based on SOPs is proactive. It allows you to offer support before problems occur. This way, it helps reduce tickets and cuts the time your staff spends dealing with mundane issues. For example, by automating routing and tagging, one team handled 2,000 monthly tickets and cut average handling time by 39%.
They Don’t Have Any Context or Personalization
All customers and agents get the same answer to a specific FAQ. Whether the user is a free trial customer or a premium business client, they will get the same generic response.
You can overcome this limitation with an AI customer support knowledge base. The knowledge base will have a conversation AI chatbot, which shows the user how to follow the right steps. The result is fewer problems and more accurate, personalized solutions.
They Don’t Grow With Teams
As your customer base grows, different agents may interpret policies uniquely or deal with the same problem in different ways. This inconsistency is likely to impact customer trust. It also makes things less efficient internally, since it takes new hires longer to get up to speed.
A well-organized AI customer support knowledge base solves your problem. It becomes a single source of truth. In doing so, it ensures that the procedure to solve a specific problem remains the same, whether a new agent handles it or a chatbot.
A High Volume of Queries Can Overwhelm Human Agents
Every support leader knows the “80/20 rule,” which says that 20% of the same questions make up 80% of the tickets. Customers keep asking for password resets, account updates, and billing cycles.
FAQs don’t stop enough of this traffic because they can be hard to find, out of date, and lack execution power. Customers may still want to “just contact support,” which adds to the volume of tickets that agents must resolve.
From FAQ to SOP: Step-by-Step Transformation
- Start by Analyzing Your Most Common FAQs
Begin by gathering all your tickets and support chat transcripts. Sift through these for any questions and themes that are recurring. These are the major pain points your customers are dealing with. Put together a list of ranked queries or issues, and use this to decide what SOPs you need.
- Map Out the Ideal Resolution Workflow
There must be an end-to-end support process for each query. When an issue pops up, what are the specific steps that an agent or AI system must undertake in order to completely resolve it?
Lay out a flow, and include decision points. Is the customer a free or premium tier user? Does the query require escalation to Level 2?
Similarly, take note of everything involved in the process: from authentication and diagnostics to fixes and follow-ups. For example, an SOP for refunds might include verifying purchase history, restocking logic, refund methods, and customer messaging.
By the end of this exercise, you’ll have a rich flowchart for even the simplest FAQ.
- Turn Workflows into Actionable SOPs
Next, document all the workflows you’ve created as SOPs. An SOP is fundamentally just a very detailed, strict step-by-step guide. You can also use knowledge management software to create decision tree flowcharts. For teams that want a more user-friendly approach, it’s also possible to create interactive decision trees so agents can click through options and reach the right solution without confusion.
Whatever your chosen format, make sure to include conditions, examples, as well as references to tools at each stage. You can use screenshots or snippets of command lines if you need. Essentially, the SOP should very clearly state “If A is true, do X, otherwise do Y.”
- Integrate SOPs Into Your Support Stack
Now, you need to start embedding your SOPs into your team’s tools. For instance, if you have a centralized knowledge base, make sure the SOPs are easily accessible within it.
You can also link them to tickets for good measure. Many platforms let you set conditional automations. An extremely basic example: “If the ticket contains the Y word, send Step 1 and Step 2 of SOP ABC to the customer or agent.” Similarly, integrate SOP steps into internal ticket templates. You can do this even for a shared operations portal.
Lastly, make sure you index your SOP content properly. Retrieval of the right steps should be a quick and easy process through user searches or a knowledge base chatbot.
- Assign Ownership and Keep SOPs Updated
It’s best to appoint a “knowledge manager” for each SOP document. Their role is to manage updates and maintain the SOP’s efficiency as well as quality. A simple revision workflow, such as a comment thread or version control, can help keep track of updates.
Tools to Help Automate Your Support Using SOPs
Use Helpdesk Tools with Built-In Automation
Modern helpdesk platforms like Zendesk, Freshdesk, Hiver, and ServiceNow have built-in workflow automation. These tools can automatically assign tickets, tag problems with keywords, and send pre-written replies. They can also move tickets up the list based on priority.
Ideal features to have in helpdesk software are rule-based triggers, AI triage engines, and workflow builders. Simpler setups like autoresponses directing routine questions towards the knowledge base are also useful.
Choose a Strong SOP Platform
A high-quality knowledge base or documentation platform is essential to host your SOPs.It stores your SOPs and helps users follow them too, through its “ChatGPT-like” search.
Deploy Chatbots That Follow Your SOP Logic
You can put your SOPs to work in customer-facing chatbots by integrating your SOP with Chatbots. You can program a chatbot (or coach it via AI) to help a user follow the steps in any given SOP.
Let’s consider an example. To tackle a query, a bot can first ask important qualifying questions. Based on the responses, it can give you answers or take actions as per the process you’ve put down for each scenario. This is different from a simple FAQ bot, which cannot understand the search intent and context behind a user’s query or issue.
As per IBM, such an AI bot can handle up to 80% of routine questions. This means that customers can get answers right away at all times, without the intervention of an agent.
Conclusion
Choosing to transition from static FAQs to SOP-led automation is certainly a technical upgrade. However, this choice can also have a positive effect on customer satisfaction and workforce efficiency.
It’s primarily because, firstly, customers get help faster, with solutions tailored to their needs. Secondly, agents get to focus on other vital duties instead of performing the same support tasks in a repetitive fashion.
And here’s the best part: you don’t have to change everything at once. Just start by turning your most routine customer questions and support tasks into living SOPs today!
