In our most recent installment of Cresta IQ, we looked at millions of anonymized customer conversations to better understand the current state of knowledge bases in contact centers. What we found surprised us: some contact centers have a 90% gap between the most common questions customers have and what is actually contained within the knowledge base.
In our recent webinar, Devon Mychal, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Cresta, was joined by Justin Robbins, Principal Analyst at Metric Sherpa, to further dissect these findings and their implications. Together they broke down the reasons a knowledge base isn’t just helpful – it’s mission critical for contact center agents, for your business, and most importantly, for the customers who interact with your brand every day.
They also dug into the hidden costs that come from neglecting the knowledge base as a cornerstone of your business, and the concrete steps you can take now to course correct.
Why a Strong Knowledge Base is Essential
Let’s face it: customers don’t want to call your contact center. When they do, it means they’ve already exhausted self-service options – are likely frustrated – and need answers fast. “Every second counts,” said Justin in the webinar. “A knowledge base isn’t just a reference tool—it’s an empowerment engine.”
The difference between an agent guessing their way through an interaction versus confidently resolving an issue is night and day. A robust knowledge base ensures:
- Agents have instant access to the right information, improving first-contact resolution.
- Compliance and critical processes are followed correctly, reducing risk.
- Institutional knowledge isn’t lost when experienced agents leave.
- Agents trust the system rather than resorting to creating their own (often inconsistent) workarounds.
Without a well-maintained knowledge base, every single customer interaction becomes a liability. If agents can’t trust the information they’re given, they stop using it, making compliance, accuracy, and efficiency impossible to maintain.
The Right Approach to Knowledge Management in the Age of AI
So, how do you build and maintain a knowledge base that actually supports your agents and customers? Our webinar laid out a three-step process:
- Invest in knowledge management
A knowledge base isn’t a one-time project – it’s a living resource that requires ongoing investment and maintenance. Companies that treat it as a static repository quickly find themselves falling behind as business needs and customer expectations evolve. - Ensure searchability & usability
A knowledge base is only as good as an agent’s ability to use it. Consider this real-world example from the webinar about an airline: A small subset of questions (like a surfboard policy) was taking agents an average of 17 minutes to answer—not because the information wasn’t available, but because it wasn’t easy to find. Poor searchability leads to long hold times, frustrated customers, and overwhelmed agents. - Identify and address gaps
How do you know what’s missing from your knowledge base? Your customers are already telling you. Contact center analytics, escalations, and agent feedback reveal knowledge gaps in real time. “If you’re not looking at that data, you’re ignoring invaluable insight,” Devon emphasized. Businesses need to:- Analyze customer inquiries and agent responses to spot inconsistencies.
- Prioritize high-impact knowledge gaps for immediate improvement.
- Continuously refine knowledge base content to match evolving customer needs.
The Hidden Costs of a Bad Knowledge Base
A weak knowledge base doesn’t just inconvenience agents—it has real financial and operational consequences.
- Rising costs: The problem isn’t staying the same; it’s getting worse. Contact center volumes are increasing, and the cost of bad information is compounding.
- Inefficiency & churn: Organizations serious about revenue and efficiency know knowledge bases aren’t a “set it and forget it” investment. Poor knowledge management leads to higher operating costs, decreased customer satisfaction, and lost revenue opportunities.
- Missed AI potential: With AI-driven solutions becoming the norm, a weak knowledge base cripples both human agents and virtual assistants, resulting in endless loops, unnecessary escalations, and poor customer experiences.
The Future: AI-Driven Knowledge Assistance
The next evolution of knowledge bases isn’t just about storing information—it’s about delivering knowledge in real time. Our webinar explored how AI-powered tools can transform knowledge management:
- Real-time agent assistance: Instead of searching through knowledge bases manually, AI can detect knowledge moments and serve up contextual answers instantly.
- Virtual agent enablement: AI-powered agents rely on knowledge bases just as much as human agents. Without accurate, well-structured information, automation creates more problems than it solves.
- Proactive knowledge management: Instead of waiting for agents to search, AI solutions listen to conversations, identify the necessary information, and surface it at the right moment—allowing agents to focus on solving problems, not searching for answers.
What’s Next?
If your knowledge base is failing your agents and customers, it’s time to act. Start by evaluating your knowledge management strategy, improving searchability, and leveraging AI-driven tools to transform your knowledge base into a dynamic, ever-evolving system. Want to learn more? Check out our 7 tips on structuring and organizing knowledge for AI-driven contact centers.
