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How to Force Customers To Search First

  • 21 January 2021
  • 9 replies
  • 309 views

Userlevel 1

Hi all,

Despite our best efforts, we are getting soooo many support tickets via our Freshdesk asking questions that are already answered in our extensive knowledge base.

Basically, we can’t handle it, and further to that we have no desire to handle it, either.

Using Freshdesk how does one force the customer to search the knowledge base FIRST, and only open up the option for them to raise a support ticket IF their query isn’t answered?

Also, how does one edit the pre-filled text in the knowledge base search function?

Currently ours reads “enter your search term here”.

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Best answer by hemanth.ramya 12 February 2021, 20:37

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9 replies

Hi, This is a very interesting question; I struggle with the same topic !

Userlevel 1

Hi, This is a very interesting question; I struggle with the same topic !

 

It just totally defeats the object of having a knowledge base.

Nobody looks at it, they just blast straight over to the “raise a support ticket” button.

...to ask a question that’s already answered. Madness.

Badge +5

One option would be to consider combining Freddybot Solution Suggester into your automated reply for new tickets.

e.g. Turn it on, then change your ‘New Ticket Created Requester Notifiation’ to include something like:

{% if freddy_suggestions %}
It looks like we might already have an answer for your question! Here’s some suggested articles that we think will help:
{{freddy_suggestions}}
If these don’t solve your problem, then please let us know and one of our team will be in touch! If we don’t hear back from you then we’ll assume this solved your question and we’ll close your ticket.

{% endif %}

I think this feature actually might not be baked into the Email Bot feature rather than Email Notifications now.

If you can’t get people to search the KB before raising a ticket, then at least this way you can point them towards relevant KBs and automate ticket closure where it does answer their question.

Alternatively, if you are running an internal helpdesk rather than B2B/B2C, then treat this as a human problem, and name-and-shame perputrators to their line manager and have them deal with it. :)

Badge +5

Also, how does one edit the pre-filled text in the knowledge base search function?

 

You could have a look in  Admin > Portal > Customize Portal > Layout & Pages, however I suspect this is predefined text in a language file on the backend that we don’t have access to.

Userlevel 1

Thanks Chris but the problem with your first idea is that, fundamentally, a support ticket will be raised. I could actually see this creating even more problems, as the autoresponder you describe then gets sent to their junk mail (which they don’t check, obvs).

Ultimately we have to start keeping them more at arms length.

And the way to do that is to force them to search first.

If we can’t get this functionality with FD, we have to start looking hard at leaving unfortunately...

Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Hello,

 

We understand you would like your customers to visit your knowledge base before creating tickets in your helpdesk. We do have the option to auto suggest solutions when creating tickets from portal. Please navigate to Admin > Portal > Settings to check this option.

 

 

Alternately, you can make use of the Help widget functionality in Freshdesk with which you can make sure customers read your solution articles before creating tickets in your helpdesk. Refer to this article to get detailed insights on the same.

 

Also, you can customize the Search button text from under Admin > Portals > Customize portal based on your requirements. This article should be of help on customization.

 

Any help with the above requirements, feel free to drop an email to support@freshdesk.com and we would be happy to help! 

 

Cheers

Freshdesk Community Team

Sorry I do not have the option of Admin=> Portal

And I’m talking about FreshService. Not FreshWorks...

Userlevel 5
Badge +9

Hello @Linda_Petit 

 

The aforementioned solution would have instructions specific to the Freshdesk product. In case you would like to get assistance with Freshservice on this query, we request you to drop an email to support@freshservice.com and we would be happy to help!

 

Cheers,

Freshdesk Community Team.

Forcing customers to search first may not be very user-friendly. But you can train them to visit the kbase first. It takes time but it’s worth the effort. Here are some tips: 

 

Also, if the articles are of high-quality and optimized for search engines, customers don’t even have to visit the kbase. They can find your articles with a google search. So please make use of the SEO section while writing the articles on Freshdesk!