Keep your knowledge base fresh with article reviews
Published: July 28, 2006
Accurate and timely answers are the key to good customer service. However, any storehouse of information is only useful if it is accurate and up-to-date. Knowing which articles need to be updated is half the battle.
As the Customer Service Representative (CSR) Manager, rather than guessing, you can use a combination of reports and Advanced Find in Microsoft CRM to find which knowledge base articles your CSRs are referencing. You can concentrate your efforts on ensuring these articles are kept up-to-date. By ensuring that accurate information is being given to your customers, you can increase your customers’ satisfaction, as well as save time for your CSRs.
CSRs can do the following to help you identify which articles are being used and what needs to be changed in them: Add comments for corrections and additions to articles. Attach the articles used to resolve cases to the cases, so that Microsoft Dynamics CRM can use this information to track which articles are the top articles being used.
If your CSRs do these two things on a regular basis, you can use the Top Knowledge Base Articles report and Advanced Find to identify the articles that are the top candidates for maintenance, deletion, or deactivation.
On This Page
Run the Top Knowledge Base Articles report
The Top Knowledge Base Articles report displays a list of the articles most frequently attached to cases by your CSRs.
1. | In the Workplace pane, under My Work, click Reports. |
2. | In the Reports list, double-click Top Knowledge Base Articles. |
3. | In the Report Viewer, click Run Report. |
The Report Viewer displays a pie chart of the top ten articles filtered by subject and the number of articles by subject. You can quickly determine what areas are being referenced.
To view the list of articles and how often each article was referenced, in the Report Viewer, click Show All. The articles are displayed in a list grouped by the article’s subject (as set when the article was written). On the far right of the list, the References column displays how often the article was referenced.
In the list of articles, click an article to open it in the Article form. To view the comments within the article, click the Comments tab, and then double-click a comment to open it. You can add your own comment, but you cannot edit the article in this view. Print, export to Microsoft Excel, or write down the list of articles that you want to revise. The article number is the most accurate method for finding a specific article.
| • | To export the report, in the Export list, select a format and then click Export. |
| • | To print a report, click Print. You may be required to install Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. |
To learn more about how to use the report, on the Help menu, click Help on this Page.
Find articles with comments
In addition to the Top Knowledge Base Articles report, you may also want to keep other articles updated with any corrections or additions. To do this, you can use Advanced Find to search for articles with comments.
1. | On the Standard toolbar, click Advanced Find. |
2. | To start a new search, click New. |
3. | In the Look for list, select Articles. |
4. | If Show Details is visible in the criteria toolbar, click it. |
5. | To select the criteria for the search, under Show Details, click Select, and then under Related, click Article Comments (KB Article). |
6. | Click Select and in the list, select Article Comment. |
7. | Click Equals and then select Contains Data. |
8. | Click Edit Columns. 1. | In the Edit Columns form, under Common Tasks, click Add Columns. | 2. | In the Add Columns form, click Modified On, and then click OK. | 3. | On the Edit Columns form, under Common Tasks, click Configure Sorting. | 4. | In the Configure Sort Order dialog box, in the Column list, select Modified On. | 5. | Select the Descending Order option, and then click OK. |
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9. | Click OK to close the Edit Column form. |
10. | Click Find. |
The search results cannot display comments or the number of comments. To view an article, double-click an item in the list. You can view and add comments. You can also export this list to Excel and use the list to manage your revisions.
Save the search as a view
You can save this search as a view to use later.
1. | If you're changing a saved view, click Save. If you are saving a new view, or want to change the name of the view because you changed the search, click Save As. |
2. | In the Query Properties dialog box, in the Name field, type a name for the search. |
3. | In the Description box, type a brief description, and then click OK.
The search is saved as a view and appears on the Saved Views tab. This new view is also available from the list page for the record type in the View box, in the My Views section. |
Unpublish an article for editing
If an article needs changes, you can unpublish the article and make changes to the article in the Knowledge Base area.
Anyone with a CSR or CSR Manager security role can revise articles and add comments, but only someone with the CSR Manager security role can unpublish articles. The Publish Article privilege, which is part of the CSR Manager security role, is the privilege that allows you to complete this task.
1. | In the Navigation Pane, click Service, and then click Knowledge Base. |
2. | On the Article Queues tab, click the Published folder, and then select the article you want to remove from the list. |
3. | On the Actions toolbar, click Unpublish. |
4. | In the confirmation message, click OK. |
Microsoft CRM moves the article from the Published folder to the Unapproved folder. There you, or anyone with a CSR or CSR Manager security role, can revise and resubmit the article.
Tip: To view the name of the person who originally wrote the article, or who last modified it, open the article. On the File menu, click Properties. In the Article Properties dialog box, you can see the person listed for Created By or Last Modified By.
After you have made changes to the article, don’t forget to delete any comments that no longer apply.
For information about submitting and publishing articles in Microsoft CRM, see the article Capture and share your team’s collective knowledge.
Maintaining your knowledge base is an ongoing task, but one that will continue to add value to your processes and improve your organization’s customer service.
