Based on templates and articles, Microsoft CRM's library is called the knowledge base (also referred to as KB) and is a powerful tool for sharing information across your organization and with your customers. The knowledge base can house sales and technical literature as well as provide information to assist your customer service people with the thorniest customer issues.
Templates determine how information is formatted, found, and presented. Articles are the products created when information is stored in a template.
In this chapter, you find out how to create knowledge base templates and articles. You also discover how to search the knowledge base and associate relevant information with other sections of Microsoft CRM.
The key to the knowledge base is organization. So announce a staff meeting and order pizza, the ultimate brainstorming food, because that's what this meeting is about — brainstorming and organizing your documentation and processes. If you have a whiteboard (complete with the permanent-marker line that can't be removed), make sure you use it to record ideas and thoughts for the stuff you want to put in the KB, so everyone can keep track of what's brought up. Your task is to organize all the sales and service documents your company uses. Ultimately, these topics become the building blocks for your knowledge base. You should also consider which people in your organization have access to each type of information and documents.
Your sales documents can include features and benefits of your products, pricing, system requirements, availability, delivery timelines, and fancy marketing advertisements.
On the service side, you have things like schematics, maintenance requirements, warranty information, and installation procedures. Also, on the service side of your business, you may want to consider stocking the knowledge base with a trouble-shooting guides to allow even rookie customer service people to sound like experts on the phone.
Remember to keep your topics and titles in plain, easily discernible language because, after you're finished here, you're going to put all your notes together in Microsoft CRM to create your company's knowledge base.
The knowledge base contains articles built on templates. By using templates for the foundation of a new knowledge base article, all of your company's articles will be easy to enter and have a uniform layout, regardless of whether Accounting or Sales creates the article.
Microsoft CRM comes with a collection of default article templates: Procedure, Question & Answer, Solution to a Problem, and Standard KB Article, as shown in Figure 24-1. And those of you who like to think outside the box can create your own templates.
The Procedure template is laid out using a standard format of three sections: Purpose & Scope, Procedure, and Additional Comments.
Normally, you create a new article within an existing template. But we're going to walk you through creating a new template, just in case none of the standard ones fit what you're looking for. Later in the chapter, you create a new article based on an existing template.
To create a template, follow these steps:
In the lower part of the navigation pane, click the Settings button.
In the Settings window, select the Templates option.
Select Article Templates.
The Article Templates window appears, displaying all available article templates. (Refer to Figure 24-1.)
On the Article Templates window's toolbar, click the New button.
The Article Template: A new window opens and, right on top of that, the Article Template Properties dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 24-2.
Enter a title and a description of the article template and then click OK.
The description is optional, but we suggest you include it because it offers one more way (in addition to the title) to describe the template you're creating. When you click OK, you return to the Article Template: New window to design the template.
On the right of the Article Template: New window, in the Common Tasks pane, click Add a Section. A section, by the way, is just another level in the organizational structure of each template. You can scan ahead to Figure 24-4 to get a picture of some of this structure.
In the Add a New Section window, enter the title and a description or instructions for the section, and then click OK. The instructions, of course, are for those people in your organization who may be reading or modifying these articles.
If you want to add another section, repeat Step 7.
You can add as many sections as you want to the template. These sections will appear when you create articles (later in this chapter).
Click the Save and Close icon in the upper-left corner of the Article Template: New window.
The window closes, the new template is saved, and you return to the Article Templates window.
The knowledge base acts as the staging area for all your company's articles. This is where you store, edit, and publish articles, and also where your staff finds the finished product.
Imagine that your company doesn't have an assigned editor and this happens: Bob from Sales adds an article regarding a quick blurb he heard on the news about the competitor's washing machine. Stan from Marketing adds a comic strip about computer repair guys. Jane from Accounting adds instructions on placing orders and taking credit cards. Thomas the CSR adds one about what to do with irate customers.
Microsoft takes another step in preventing chaos by enabling your company to choose who can add articles to and remove articles from the knowledge base. We recommend that you set up this person, or team, to also approve articles before they are published, checking for format, accuracy, and continuity.
The next few pages explain how to create and submit draft articles as well as approve and publish them. As shown in Figure 24-3, the knowledge base categorizes articles in three stages:
Draft: Your works-in-progress, that is, composed articles that haven't been submitted for approval. Drafts are visible only to their respective authors, and users can't search for them in the knowledge base.
Unapproved: Store your articles pending editor approval here. Users can't search for these in the knowledge base either.
Published: Your finished, editor-approved articles, ready for the general public. Published articles are read-only (so your co-workers can't edit them), but users can search for them in the knowledge base.
Follow these steps to create a new article:
In the lower part of the navigation pane, click the Service button.
Then, in the upper part of the pane, select Knowledge Base.
The Knowledge Base window appears (refer to Figure 24-3). You can view articles (based on their status and if any exist yet) in the main part of the window, on the right.
On the Knowledge Base window's toolbar, click the New button.
The KB Template window appears, listing all the templates currently available in your system. Find a template you would like to use. Template information (title and type, creator and description) appears on the right of the KB Template window as you highlight a template.
Highlight your template and click OK.
The Article: New window appears, as shown in Figure 24-4. The sections and instructions appear here.
Enter a title.
Required fields are Title and Subject; you must fill them in before you can save the article.
Link the article to a subject.
To do so, click the magnifying glass to the right of the Subject field. The Look Up a Subject window appears. Use the plus signs to open and collapse the subjects to specify a section within the subject. When you find your subject, highlight it and click OK. (The Subject field includes information that your organization can use to organize and track specific issues and items entered into CRM. If you need more information about using the Subject field in CRM, please see Chapter 23.)
In the Keywords field, enter words that will help your staff find this article.
Much like a search on the Internet, you can enter words here to search for articles pertaining to certain subjects. For example, if I were the CSR on the phone with Mrs. Reynolds concerning her air conditioner, I could search the knowledge base for over-heating and this article would show up in my search results — if the person who created the article tagged it with the term over-heating in the Keywords field.
Separate each of your keywords with a comma.
Tip
Another suggestion for your article keywords is the model number of your product.
Click inside the text area and enter your information.
The instructions disappear, and you're ready to type. Microsoft CRM's predefined templates are already formatted with specific information. For example, if we had chosen the Procedure template to create our article, the following section headings would be in the template, prompting the user to give all of the necessary information in the article: Purpose & Scope, Procedure, and Additional Comments.
The sections of the knowledge base article template allow you to create an easy-to-read, informative article for your customer service representatives and your customers. You can write step-by-step instructions, create question-and-answer scripts, or even make a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section.
Tip
Use the toolbar under the Keywords field in the Article: A new window appears to do basic editing of your article and even add color text for emphasis.
Click the Save and Close icon.
The article goes into your Draft folder for further editing and, ultimately, submission for approval.
Although this publishing process may seem overwhelming and (in some cases) unnecessary, maintaining the process is important. Carefully managing information stored in the knowledge base guarantees that you're providing the latest, most accurate information to your sales and service staff and, even more importantly, your customers.
Now is the moment every writer dreads: time to hand over your masterpiece to the person your company designated as editor (when your business units were defined in Chapter 6).
To submit a draft article for approval, follow these steps:
In the navigation pane, click the Service button.
Then in the upper part of the navigation pane, select Knowledge Base.
The Knowledge Base window appears on the right.
On the left side of the Knowledge Base window, click the Draft folder to access your drafts.
On the right side of the window, highlight the article you want to submit.
In the Knowledge Base window toolbar, click the Submit button.
The Confirm Submittal dialog box shown in Figure 24-5 appears.
Click OK.
The article you submitted moves from the Draft folder to the Unapproved folder.
You can check that your article has been moved by clicking the Unapproved folder on the left side of the Knowledge Base window. All the articles pending editor approval are here. Just a reminder: These aren't searchable.
All those articles in the Unapproved folder are yours (if you have editing rights, that is) to check, edit, correct, and otherwise make your high school English teacher proud (or cry).
Anyone with editing rights can open and edit articles in the Unapproved folder. After all appropriate changes have been made, the editor can approve the article and add it to your company's knowledge base.
Follow these steps to approve an article:
In the navigation pane, click the Service button.
Then in the upper part of the navigation pane, select Knowledge Base.
On the left side of the Knowledge Base window, click the Unapproved folder.
All the articles awaiting approval are displayed.
On the right side of the window, find your article, highlight it, and double-click to open it.
This opens the article so that you can make changes. If you make changes, make sure to click Save (the disk icon) in the upper-left corner of the screen.
On the Knowledge Base window toolbar, click Approve.
In the event that you have to reject the article, click Reject instead of Approve. You're given the option to add comments explaining your rejection in the Provide a Reason dialog box, as shown in Figure 24-6.
In the confirmation window that appears, click OK.
The Article is automatically moved to the Published folder and is now searchable in the knowledge base.
Let's say you've approved the article, but a week later, someone finds an error in it. For example, the company logo's reddish color isn't called Cinnamon. It's called Beauty Red. In this situation, you (with the appropriate rights) can unpublish an article. To do so, follow these steps:
Click the Published folder in the Knowledge Base window.
Click the article you want to unpublish.
Click the Unpublish button.
The article is automatically moved to the Unapproved folder for revisions.
Now let's say that you've found an article that is out of date and you need to delete it. Again, you'll need the appropriate rights to complete this two-step process: Unpublish the article first and then delete it.
Click the Published folder in the Knowledge Base window.
Click the article you want to unpublish.
Click the Unpublish button and then click OK.
Your article is moved to the Unapproved folder. When you return to the Published folder, the list is refreshed automatically.
Click the Unapproved folder.
Highlight the article you want to delete and then click the Delete button.
The Delete Confirmation dialog box appears.
Click OK.
Goodbye out-of-date article. The Unapproved folder refreshes automatically.
Because all articles and subjects in Microsoft CRM are related, you're warned that deleting an article will also cause Microsoft CRM to remove any files attached to the article. Normally, this isn't a problem because the only attachment an article can have is to a subject, but we recommend that you and your staff use the delete feature sparingly. For those of you who don't want to delete the article and start over, you can simply add a comment to it on the Comments tab in the open article window.
Mrs. Reynolds is on the phone again, and you need to find the article you read aloud to her last week. Problem is, you don't remember the article's name. That's right, retreat to your trusty knowledge base and take advantage of the search function. Like a card catalog in a library, the knowledge base is the warehouse of information for your company.
With Mrs. Reynolds in one ear, here's how you search the knowledge base:
At the bottom of the navigation pane, click the Workplace button.
In the upper part of the navigation pane, select Service and then select Knowledge Base.
All of your company's published articles are displayed. You can reach this section also by clicking the Service button at the bottom of the navigation pane and then selecting Knowledge Base at the top of the pane.
On the left side of the Knowledge Base window, click the down arrow to the right of Article Queues and then select the appropriate search option.
The Search pane appears, as shown in Figure 24-7.
Fill in the following fields to define your search criteria:
Unlabeled Field: Use the drop-down menu in the first field to tell your search engine which fields to search. Full Text searches the title, case number, and body of every article. It doesn't search for keywords. Keyword Search goes through only the keyword field of every article. Title Search looks at the title field of every article. Article Number Search can find a specific article number. Similarly, Subject Browse helps you find all the articles with a particular subject, and Article Queues show all the articles in the system in their various stages of being published.
Search For: This is where you enter your search words. For our example with Mrs. Reynolds, you might enter air conditioner and the model number. If you remember only part of the model number, you can use a wildcard character. For example, entering *1138* returns every article with the numbers 1138 in the field you search.
In Subject: Narrow your search even more by selecting the subject you want to search. This is especially helpful if you have, say, several hundred articles.
Options: Another drill-down feature, this option allows you to search for the exact text you enter in Search For, or you can choose a broader search with Use Like Words. An Exact Text search is quicker but less forgiving; you'll need the exact wording to ping the articles you want. Use Like Words takes longer but allows you some freedom if you can't remember whether Mrs. Reynolds has, say, the Model 1138 or the Model 1138A.
Tip
In the Options field, you can use the * wildcard only with Options: Exact Text. Using the wildcard character with the Use Like Words option results in an error message.
Click the Search button.
All articles that match your search criteria appear on the right side of the window.
Note
Just a note on searching for articles: When you add a new article to the knowledge base, you can view it from the Published folder, but you can't search for it until the catalog's index is updated. Microsoft CRM does this automatically every 15 minutes (unless your administrator changes this value).