How do you help employees help themselves? Give them an obvious and easy way to find resources that allow them to. In terms of applications and company software, that means giving them a help center where they can find help for common issues they experience.
Imagine being in the middle of an urgent work project, only to hit a roadblock because you’re unfamiliar with a particular software feature. Frustration mounts as every minute lost translates to missed deadlines and increased stress.
This scenario highlights the importance of a well-crafted application help center or resource center (depending on who you ask), especially within corporate software. It’s about providing answers and empowering employees to continue their tasks without unnecessary interruptions.
An effective application help center is akin to having a personal assistant who knows everything about the software you’re using. It blends intuitive design, the right resources, and user-friendly navigation/search to create an invaluable employee tool.
A quality application help center makes it easy for employees to find resources to solve their software problems.
The importance of a quality resource center cannot be overstated when considering employee productivity and efficiency. In this post, you’ll learn what makes an application help center functional and a valuable resource that employees appreciate.
From understanding user needs to providing the right support, we’ll explore how to build a help center that preempts problems and provides solutions before the need to dial the help desk arises. The right help center will transform your approach to software support and help you discover how creating a top-tier application help center can revolutionize corporate software.
Understand User Needs
Understanding user needs is the first step in creating a top-tier application help center for corporate software solutions. Every organization and employee has unique requirements and challenges regarding software support. By deeply understanding these needs, you can tailor your help center to provide the most relevant and effective assistance.
Just like software must be tested with the users, so must the support center. That means talking to employees one-on-one to learn what would be helpful. Talking with the user also allows for iterations on an already launched help center.
Ask employees about their pain points, common issues, and what kind of support they would find most helpful. This feedback will provide valuable insights into the areas where a help center can make a difference.
Training can never be successful without understanding user needs.
I know the point of the help center is to reduce calls to the help desk, but the help desk is still a good place to start learning what will reduce their workload. If calls are logged and themes emerge after data analysis, use that to guide help center improvements.
Taking shots in the dark by creating content for the help center based on thoughts and feelings will likely lead to wasted time, frustration, and ineffective resources. There are often groups an instructional designer can collaborate with to learn what employees’ frustrations involve if it’s not possible to work directly with the employees.
Design an Intuitive and User-Friendly Interface
Once you understand user needs, it’s time to design an intuitive and user-friendly interface for your application help center. The goal is to make it easy for employees to find the information they need quickly and efficiently.
Start by organizing your help center into a logical menu that is easy to understand and has fewer options than necessary. For example, limit the options in the main menu to less than five.
Some of the most important options in the help center are help resources with a built-in search, a newsfeed for important in-app information, software onboarding, and possibly a link for the help desk when all else fails. An intuitive interface comes down to clear and simple language as well as not too many options.
A digital adoption platform such as Pendo makes creating a clean help center interface easy as long as it’s planned well. While the example below isn’t the best (it has too much information), it shows some possibilities for presenting information to employees.
When designing the interface, remember that simplicity is key. Avoid cluttering the screen with too much information or overwhelming users with too many options. We’ve built many help centers using Pendo and have found that avoiding subheadings on the main screen is essential.
Using features such as segmentation to show only the right options to the correct users is also essential. With a well-planned help center, employees will appreciate it as a go-to resource to help themselves.
Develop The Right Resources
A successful application help center should be a one-stop shop for all resources related to your corporate software solutions. This means creating helpful guides that are not overwhelming with information.
The resource center can have guides, including walkthroughs, videos, information, and more. Sometimes, the information is best presented in a job aid, which means you can link to it as a resource in the help center.
Determining the right content to develop starts with understanding where employees will likely get stuck. Start with the basics for your onboarding module but don’t go too far without getting input from employees. This goes back to understanding user needs, an essential part of application training.
Sometimes, it’s best to show a process using a GIF (with a hard G, please), so don’t be shy to get creative. As with all corporate technical training, use plain language rather than jargon. Most employees aren’t technical, so you have to provide help in a way that speaks their language.
Implement Walkthroughs
Walkthroughs are a great option for having employees perform a process while getting help. The help resource tells them what to do by pointing it out in the application and letting them click through the process.
Introducing employees to software in onboarding is a great way have them learn while doing. While it’s not always possible for this to happen in a safe environment, a walkthrough or stepthrough works well for an introduction to areas of an application.
A software simulation might be a better option when a safe environment is essential for learning. However, help centers aren’t meant to replace traditional forms of training; they’re more of a supplement.
Once employees have been introduced to the basics of new software, walkthroughs provide step-by-step guidance within the software interface itself. That means employees can use the software while learning and accomplishing their tasks in one process.
By offering walkthroughs, you empower users to learn at their own pace and gain confidence in using corporate software. This reduces their reliance on external support channels and makes them more self-sufficient.
When Self-Help Fails
Sometimes, the resource isn’t available, the help resource fails, or employees just can’t figure it out. In these situations, it’s nice when the application help center offers an option for contacting the help desk. It could be a link to live chat or a phone number to call.
There’s also the option of an AI-powered chatbot. While their answers can be a bit sketchy, this may be an option when implemented carefully. A final out for employees who have tried and failed to help themselves is sometimes necessary. It’s great to offer them that option and not make them work too hard for it.
Gathering Feedback
Gathering feedback is essential to ensuring that your application and help center remain effective and relevant. A help center makes it easy to collect feedback for both, and an option on the help menu makes it simple for employees to provide input and suggestions.
One caveat about feedback is that you must differentiate between what you want to gather feedback for. Employees often leave software feedback when you might be looking for help feedback. Is the help resource helpful to them, or are they angry at the application and its functionality?
Gathering feedback on training allows it to be better tailored to employee needs.
This feedback can help you identify areas for improvement in the help and application and prioritize updates or additions to your help center and the application itself. Feedback makes it much easier to tailor training to employee needs.
While gathering feedback is important, analyzing it is even more important. Don’t only ask for feedback to get data; it needs to be used, and there needs to be a plan, or else employee time is wasted.
Market and Publicize the Help Center
If you build it, they will come.
If you haven’t experienced that this premise is false, I’ll tell you: It’s false. A help center needs to be built and marketed, too. That means you have to rely on old-fashioned channels like email and perhaps a promo popup in the application that shows employees how to access the help center.
There are many options to promote application help centers. It could be in an intranet announcement or even posters in common areas. Highlight its benefits and emphasize how it can save time and improve employee productivity.
Wrap Up
Creating a top-tier application help center for corporate software solutions is essential in today’s fast-paced business environment. It empowers employees to seek the help they need themselves.
Similar to how they might turn to Google in their personal time, similar resources should be available in your corporate software. It will streamline how employees seek help and also help your company reduce help desk calls.
Software support can be drastically improved by understanding user needs, designing an intuitive interface, developing the right resources, implementing walkthroughs, offering an alternate support method, and collecting feedback.
A good marketing campaign, along with the application help center, can succeed in changing how employees seek support for their company software questions. An exemplary application help center empowers employees to find the resources they need quickly and efficiently, reducing their reliance on external support channels and enabling them to continue their tasks without unnecessary interruptions.
One of our digital training solution specialties is contextual help, which works in conjunction with the application help center. Schedule a free consultation to discuss how we can empower your employees with a comprehensive support resource for your company software.