ServiceNow Knowledge Management – Building Self-Service Portals That Users Actually Use

Imagine your IT management system desk stays flooded with emails, and you spend valuable productive time answering emails, asking how to reset passwords, new expense policies, etc. 

Certainly not the situation you would want to get into, right? Spending hours answering queries that could be solved in minutes is a situation no company would desire. 

However, that happens when you build self-service portals that users don’t find useful. 

Remember, even the most technologically rich self-service portals are only as good as their users’ adoption. So now, if you want to build self-service platforms that deflect tickets, free up your support team, and empower users, you need something more than just technology. You require a vision. This is where ServiceNow Knowledge Management enters the scene.

It is a transformative feature that helps redefine the user-centricity of your self-service portals. Let’s see what it is and how to build such portals.

What is ServiceNow Knowledge Management?

Knowledge Management is a ServiceNow module that enables you to gather, organize, and share organizational information and expertise for easy access.

It helps companies publish knowledge articles, for instance, FAQs, resolution steps, policies, and troubleshooting instructions. The published content lets employees or customers find answers without necessarily requiring expert IT helpdesk support. Partner with Diacto Technologies for better results – Contact Us!

Implementing Knowledge Management appropriately helps you reduce IT support workload, expedite issue resolution, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Nevertheless, as stated earlier, a technology or a portal is just as good as its adoption rate. It becomes an asset only if and when users adopt it. Otherwise, it remains a liability.

So, how do you create a portal that users actually use? Let’s find out in the next section.

Self-Service Platforms Users Actually Use – 6 Crucial Guidelines

Users are the most crucial aspect of every self-service portal. Therefore, everything you do must focus on users, their needs, and expectations. So, let us see how to build such platforms.

1. Begin with Real User Needs

Often, companies assume what user needs rather than understanding what users actually want. Portals based on such assumptions fail miserably during the adoption. They don’t give what users need. Hence, users don’t find them useful.

Now, to avoid such situations, you must identify,

The most common incident categories

• High-volume requests
• Frequently asked questions
• Recurring issues and concerns

Accordingly, you must analyze ServiceNow reports, interact with support teams, and also connect with employees through surveys. Next, you can build your initial content by discussing 20-30 high-impact topics or frequently occurring instances. 

It will make your portal more meaningful for users.

2. Minimize Clicks. Ensure User-Friendliness

Users usually go to self-service portals because they need and expect quick answers. But imagine a portal that requires users to do 15-20 clicks for a single, simple answer! The result? Frustration and abandonment. User-friendliness is one of the cornerstones of self-service platforms. Therefore, some key practices to follow while building one include;

• Maintain a simple and intuitive navigation
• Ensure easy, prominent, central, and smart searchability
• Highlight common topics and top articles upfront
• Tabs with clear names like “Email Issues,” “Access Requests,” or “How-To Guides”
• Avoid deep folder structures.

Remember, the cleaner the portal, the higher its adoption.

3. Create Premium, Actionable Content

If content is king, quality is its crown. Hence, you must create content that exemplifies quality, relevance, and comprehension. You can achieve it by ensuring;

• Short, scannable content
• Visual content in the form of short videos, GIFs, etc.
• Instruction-based content (how-to guides)
• Consistent formats
• Plain and simple language (not too technical and free from jargon)

Create content the way users search it. For instance, if they type “internet not connecting,” your content must include those keywords or phrases so that users find it useful and see it.

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4. Optimize the Search

Discoverability is one of the most crucial aspects of a self-service portal. In other words, it is the backbone of such platforms. To enhance searchability, here’s what you can do;

• Tag articles correctly
• Use relevant keywords in the meta title, description, and content
• Use alternate phrasing and synonyms
• Create a single authoritative answer – don’t duplicate content

6. Promote the Platform

Don’t expect users to come to the platform even if it is an internal one. Encourage adoption by increasing awareness. Some tools you can use to do it include onboarding materials, emailers, internal newsletters, and IT support signatures.

Prepared to Build a Useful Self-Service Portal?

Choose Diacto. We are one of the leading IT asset management and IT management companies with proven expertise in ServiceNow and its offerings. Our consultation, implementation, and technical support help you build truly empowering self-service portals that help reduce IT workload, increase productivity, expedite user support, and enhance user satisfaction. Want to know more? Please email us at info@diacto.com.