5 Questions to Consider when Creating Your Zendesk Guide Help Center

Zendesk Guide is one of many great customer support products Zendesk offers. It serves as a smart knowledge base and helps tap into the institutional knowledge of your organization. It allows customers to get better self-service and agents to see a faster resolution — a win-win. With Guide, you can quickly build a customizable help center, online community, and customer service portal and can easily match your brand with Guide’s out of the box drag and drop tools that don’t require additional development work.

With a clear project plan, defined goals, and strong communication on your team, branding your help center is a breeze. Whether you’re going it alone, have a team, or you’re hiring outside help, we’ve provided some questions to consider to make the process go smoothly. If you’re deciding whether to use the out of the box Zendesk solution or create a help center that requires more design and development time, these 5 questions can help you organize your thoughts and make the process easier.

  1. VISION: What kind of help center are you creating and why? If you have a clear idea for how you want your help center to look and what you want it to do, the rest will come together easily. Based on your goals, think about the content that will motivate your end-user to act. If you’re selling products, for example, then people may want to see shipping or order details more prominently. Consider making a list of content and prioritizing each piece based on the end user’s time. What do you want them to see first? The order in which you present your information and the type of content you present will form your user experience.
  2. GOALS: What will your help center help you achieve? You might want to deflect tickets or create a place for your customers to feel like they can ask any question and get an answer quickly from other community members. You might also just be looking to cut customer service costs by giving your end-user information they need without making a call or emailing you. Having a clear definition of what you’re trying to achieve is crucial for a successful launch.
  3. TARGET AUDIENCE: Who will be using your help center? You might have more than one audience you’re speaking to. You might want users or customers who are logged in to see different content than non-logged in users. The user experience that is best for employees finding answers to their IT questions will be different than a cosmetic product company that wants its customers to find shipping answers fast.
  4. INSPIRATION: Are there any help centers that you’re inspired by that you or your web design team could use for reference? If you’re struggling to figure out what you need, look at your competition and similar industries first. For custom help centers that have already been created with Zendesk, check out this Pinterest page for inspiration.
  5. PROJECT MANAGEMENT: What is your timeline, budget, and who will be helping you manage this project? If you have team members who are already knowledgeable about Zendesk, this is a great place to start. Even better, if you have resources on your team that can help with design or development, you should be all set to create your help center vision and bring it to life.

 

If you’re still undecided on whether you should use the standard theme Zendesk offers vs. doing a custom theme, here is a great article showing the differences. Once you’ve outlined what your goals and needs are, consider whether it makes sense to own it yourself or get some additional support from Zendesk experts. Review your internal resources and whether they have time to take on more work. You’ll need someone to help with project management and if you’re doing a custom theme, you’ll need help with design and development. If someone on your team is also already familiar or has a good grasp of content strategy and user experience design, that’s also a plus.

 

Need some more guidance on your Zendesk Guide help center? Contact our friendly team who will be happy to answer your questions. 

Have more detailed questions on getting started with your help center? Check out Zendesk’s extensive and helpful documentation here.