Quick replies

I have one dream. Cherished. Quick answers. Any question!

After all, as sometimes happens, you do not know or forgot something - I called the help desk and received an answer in a couple of minutes. On this need, commercial references earn a lot of money, by the way. Have you ever organized your own competence center?

A quick, comprehensive answer to a user's question is what service departments should strive for. Answer immediately and you do not have to redirect the request or, even sadder, to listen to the same question, to which there is no answer, several times.
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Disclaimer
Hereinafter I will call the users of all clients of the competence center. This service is usually responsible for the operation of a specific process or function. Clients make requests, the qualified answers to which constitute the main function of the center. His mission.

Do you know why customer support services and contact centers are massively transferred to third world countries? Because for such work a person is enough to be able to read and write! He took the call, listened to the question, asked a couple of leading questions and, oh miracle, found the answer! Practice shows that most of the questions are of the same type and are very easily classified.

What to do with the answers? Organize!

Today I will look at several methods of organizing questions and answers that I used to work with, namely:
- Frequently asked Questions
- Encyclopedia
- User's manual

FAQ
The most common and easiest way. A question received several times, along with an answer, is published in the list of Frequently Asked Questions. Sometimes questions are grouped by topic, sometimes they are sorted by frequency. Foreign citizens call them quite a decent word FAK. (from the English. Frequently Asked Questions), Russian-speaking citizens came up with an affordable FAQ for everyone (Frequently Asked Questions). “Is there life on Mars?” Is a normal question for the FAQ.

Encyclopedia
Encyclopedias or knowledge bases are the most advanced way to organize questions. The first encyclopedias consisted of large weighty paper books in which short articles like this paragraph were organized in alphabetical order. A feature of encyclopedias is a detailed answer to a clearly posed question and links (read also). The encyclopedia can answer the question "What is an encyclopedia?". A sort of advanced explanatory dictionary.

User's manual
It is also the course of a young fighter. All you need to know in the Amazon jungle or how to cook in a microwave. The amount of material and style of presentation may vary. The usual format - a textbook on a specific topic. For example, “Dumplings. Methods of cooking, serving and use. The most extensive user manual I've ever met is SAP Help, a couple of CDs, packed with files in the Windows Help File format.

In order to arrange the questions, everything is clear. But how does this very center, that answers questions, appear?

The formation of a competence center usually occurs in three stages:
1. Preparation of instructions for users and initial training.
2. Starting the center and the subsequent storm period. Always like that. There will always be questions that no one has foreseen. At this stage, the most effective tool is the FAQ.
3. Established functioning and further development.

The first stage is the most hectic. As a rule, this is some kind of project, during which something happens, with which then users will have to live and work. An upgrade of the operating system, a new program, or even the introduction of an ERP system.

The second stage is extreme. I have been engaged in post-project support for SAP. The first part of the storm lasted two months. The second is two more.

The third stage is the most interesting. At this stage, users, gradually learning, gain experience. It's time to create an encyclopedia!

Cribs in the masses or QRC for everyone!

Have you ever written a spur? It's time to start doing this for your users! In the ideal case - together. Unlike the user manual, Quick Reference Cards are encyclopedia pages. It makes sense to thoroughly answer important questions, it will give you some free minutes in the future!

Card format can be any. I like the card in A4 format. Two sides of an ordinary sheet is enough to accommodate detailed instructions for the user. A few such cards with answers to the most important questions will make your users much happier, and the center of competences will have time to develop these very competencies.

An example of a Quick Reference Card answering the question “How to start a project?”



References:
1. Works of Viktor Sobiraisky