How does the eDesk Knowledge Base work?

Reduce customer queries by up to 30% by publishing help articles to your website that enable customers to self-serve

This help file will guide you through setting up a Knowledge Base on your website with eDesk.

Before you start

The eDesk Knowledge Base is available as an Add-On. To find more information, click here.

You’ll need to have access to Knowledge Base in your Settings. If you don’t have access, you can request it from an Admin user within your business.

01 What is the Knowledge Base?

The Knowledge Base allows you to publish a library of reliable help articles to your website that enables your customers to self-serve and quickly find answers to their questions. Using the eDesk Knowledge Base add-on will put your content library at your fingertips so that you can reply even faster.

Now, when you are answering tickets in your eDesk mailbox, you will be able to search through your Knowledge Base content library and embed any article from it into a reply with a single keystroke. With Support Agents working from a single source of truth, your customers will receive a consistent, high-quality service.

02 How can I get the Knowledge Base?

The Knowledge Base is an Add-On available on all eDesk packs. You can try the eDesk Knowledge Base free for 14-days.

Once you have created a subscription for the Knowledge Base, you can get started by following the below instructions.

03 Setting up the Knowledge Base

To access the Knowledge Base, go to the Knowledge Base section on the left-hand side.
The following instructions can guide you in setting up your Knowledge Base.

Step 1: Create a Layout

Create a layout to customize your Knowledge Base display. To do this, select the Layout and Design section on the left-hand bar.
We have predefined themes available that you can clone and then restyle for your own Knowledge Base.

Once you have chosen your theme, you can customize it further by selecting the layout and amending the following settings.

Logo: The Logo of your choice for the Knowledge Base.
Brand main colour: The main colour of the library.
Secondary colour: The colour used on the buttons/ nav bars etc.
Background colour: The Background colour of the library.
Default text colour: The main colour of the text in the library.
Link colour: The colour of any links.
Default font size: The size of the font the library will display.
Font type: The type of font the library will display.
Custom CSS: To personally customize the style of the HTML elements on the webpage.
HTML Elements: Can be used to personalise the Library with your own HTML input.

Please observe the preview on the right-hand side of the above settings, which will show you how the Library will look depending on the customizations you choose.

Step 2: Create a Library

In the Knowledge Base page click ‘Libraries’ on the right-hand sidebar, then choose “+ New Library” in the top right corner.

Fill out the provided required fields that are explained below.

Library title: The title of the library within eDesk.
Library address: The name that will appear in the URL.
Library Name: The name of the library within eDesk.
Language: The language in which the articles will be created. Please note, there is currently no translate tool within the Knowledge Base.
Linked channels: Select a channel to allow the library articles to be used when responding to tickets via the $ shortcut.
Default click action on snippet: When selecting article in the Reply box, either insert a link to the article or insert the body of the article into your reply.

Once the library has been created, you can access it in the Library list. Clicking the line will bring you into the library where you can create and view articles.
To edit the library, click the ‘more options’ button on the right-hand side.

View offline shows a preview of the unpublished libraries.
Edit Library Settings allows you to update the settings after the library has been created.
View categories allows you to create new categories and view the existing list of categories in your library.

Creating a library will generate a URL. This URL can be used as a stand-alone link or can be added to your own website.

The URL for your library will be on the following format: www.edesk-support.com/{library_name}/{article_name}

Step 3: Create a Category

Once the library has been created, select View categories from the more options button. Here, you will see the default category.

Select + New Category to create a new one.

Fill out the required fields that are explained below.

Title: Category name.
URI: Used to customize the text that appears in the URL.
Order: Used to customize the order in which categories appear in the menu.
Library: The library to which the category belongs.
Parent Category: Make this the parent category or select another previously created one.

Step 4: Create a Sub-category

Once the category has been created, select View categories from the more options button.

Select + New Category and select the previously created category in the Parent Category section. This will then create a new sub-category and you will be able to add articles to it.

Step 5: Create an Article

Select the library and click + New Article.

Fill out the required fields explained below.

Title: The name of the article.
Content: Body of the article.
Category: Choose from the categories you have created.
Keywords: Used for searching the Knowledge Base.
Associated Tags: Tags are searchable in the eDesk mailbox, and allow agents to embed articles in tickets when replying to customers (see below).
Status: Draft/Published.

Uploading Media

Select the image icon and add a publicly hosted URL or upload an image to generate a publicly hosted URL. Please note, the media that is uploaded has a size restriction of 10MB.
To upload an image, click the Upload tab and choose a file from your computer.

For publicly hosted images, add the URL in the Image info tab. You can change the size, position and alignment of any upload in the Image Info tab.

04 Sending articles directly to your customers

When creating an article, there is an option to associate a tag with it. This tag relates to your eDesk tags.

If a tag is associated with an article, it means that the article is available to use in your outgoing messages on any ticket in your eDesk mailbox.

To use the article, type $ to display a list of associated articles.

Selecting the article will either add a link to the article or insert the article content into the reply box. This action is based on your library settings under Default click action on snippet.

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