Knowledge Base

Project Overview

Challenge

Customer Support metrics were slipping, particularly the rate of escalations on known issues. Despite having created support content in the past, agents were escalating cases unnecessarily, threatening to breach SLA agreements with clients.

Goal

Identify the root cause behind the increase in escalations, rebuild the missing knowledge base, and reduce the burden on customer support teams.

Role: User Experience Strategist and Knowledge Operations Designer

Team Size: Customer Support, DevOps

Tools: SharePoint, Miro, Excel

Discovery

Upon joining a startup, I initiated one-on-one meetings to understand cross functional workflows. One theme stood out consistently, the Customer Service team was escalating way more cases than they should and it was increasing the workload for many departments.

Analysis

I traced the root issue to a recent CRM migration's missed project requirement. The knowledge base that was housed in the previous system wasn’t included in the original scope.

• Support agents were operating with only partial access to historical articles

• Support SLAs were in danger of being breached due to growing ticket volume

• Nearly 50% of legacy knowledge content was inaccessible, and support agents had no consistent system to retrieve what remained.

• The window for migration support from the previous CRM had expired just four days before I uncovered the issue.

Solution

To act fast and minimize disruption, I conducted

• Workshops with support agents to audit existing gaps

• Stakeholder interviews to align on formatting standards and expectations

• Research and compare cost-effective knowledge platforms

My contributions included:

• Designing the information architecture of the knowledge base

• Documenting preferred article formatting for consistency

• Partnering with the support team to triage missing content

• Leading workshops to draft and rewrite support content

• Creating a workflow for ongoing content updates and governance

• Built templates and SOPs to reduce ramp-up time for future knowledge base contributors.

Impact & Outcomes

Within 2 weeks of launch:

• Escalations dropped, allowing agents to stay within SLA limits

• Support agents reported higher confidence and fewer repeated inquiries

• The Customer Support team returned to their pre-migration first call close rate to 90%

Reflection

This wasn’t just a content problem, it was a systems failure. But through design thinking and collaboration, we turned it around.

Key takeaways:

• CRM transitions must treat knowledge as a first-class asset

• Listening to operational pain points early leads to high-leverage interventions

• Choosing tools based on team familiarity boosts adoption and speed