Knowledge Basics for Lightning Experience

Get Started with Lightning Knowledge

Describe a knowledge base. Explain the benefits of a knowledge base. Explore Lightning Knowledge in the trial org.
  • A lightning knowledge base is a giant library that contains notes about commonly accessed information regarding a company’s products or services.
    • The knowledge base is accessible to agents, customers in communities, or even customers searching on a public website.
  • With a knowledge base, agents don’t have to research every question from scratch. The knowledge base accumulates over time. Every time an agent answers a question, the agent records the answer in an article. The next time it is asked, any other agent can find the article in the knowledge base and have that answer ready.
  • See if an org has Service Cloud User feature licenses available via: Setup » Company Settings » Company Information
  • A knowledge base is a single repository for storing helpful organizational information.
  • A knowledge base improves productivity by capturing and consolidating important information in one place.

Prepare the Knowledge Base for Success

Gather information to include in the knowledge base. Organize the information. Determine user access.

Best practices

  • Create a record type for each different type of information (Examples: FAQs, procedures, product manuals, guidelines).
  • Use Knowledge Import tool to bring articles in from a different knowledge base.
  • Use Lightning Knowledge Migration tool to move Salesforce Classic Knowledge into Lightning Knowledge.
  • Determine fields on support cases you want to use to filter suggested articles (Examples: Product family, product region, type of issue). Define data category groups for each type of search filter.
  • If articles require approval due to sensitive information, add an approval process to a record type so required reviewers approve that type of article before it is published.
  • Different audiences are called “channels.” Set the channel on an article to determine which types of users can view the article.
  • To track article feedback, users can give articles a thumbs up or thumbs down.
  • To track article effectiveness, monitor how closely an article is attached to cases.

Organizing Info

  • Data Groups are a means of categorizing info at a high level, so that people only find info relevant to their particular job function. Example groupings: teams for which it is pertinent.
  • Within those Data Groups, it is possible to further sort the info into Data Categories. Example categories: product types.
  • Each article has a specific lifestyle including the following steps:
    • Create, Publish, Update, Archive, Delete
  • Different users have different permissions to perform each of those steps. Examples:
    • Readers Only: Read articles only.
    • Contributors: Read, Create, Edit, and Publish articles.
    • Knowledge Admin: Same as Contributors, + Archive and Delete.
  • To ensure that the best articles are suggested as agents solve cases, create descriptive data categories for your cases and article types.
  • The permissions and article actions that article contributors need include the ability to manage article permission and Read, Create, Edit, and Publish article actions.

Set Up a Simple Knowledge Base

Identify and assign Knowledge User licenses. Enable Knowledge. Use the guided flow to set up Knowledge. Create and publish an article.
  • All internal users can read Knowledge articles without a special license.
  • Orgs using Service Essentials include Lightning Knowledge User licenses.
  • Assign Knowledge User licenses to users via: Setup » Users » Select a User » Edit » Knowledge User checkbox
  • Enable Knowledge for the Org via: Setup » Quick Find » “Knowledge Settings” » Knowledge Settings » Enable Lightning Knowledge
    • One-time decision. Once turned on, Knowledge cannot be turned off.
  • To use the Knowledge Setup Flow walkthrough for guidance during the setup process, access it via: Setup » Service Setup » View All under Recommended Setup » Knowledge Setup
  • Create Articles via: Service Console » Knowledge tab » New » Select record type » Complete remaining fields.
    • Publish the article (or set up a review and approval process) once written.
  • You can set up Lightning Knowledge authors and Data categories using the Lightning Knowledge Setup flow.
  • The article summary appears in the search results for articles.