The USD Accelerator – Technical Guide, Knowledge Base

In this section …

  • Knowledge Base
  • Feedback
  • UII Options

Knowledge Base

Dynamics 365 includes a comprehensive knowledge base feature, providing contextual searching of knowledge base articles. The articles can be a great help for agents when trying to resolve customer queries. Additionally these articles can be enabled for use within a customer service portal, when this is done the agent maybe able to email, SMS or chat URLs to helpful articles directly to the customer.

Articles can be searched in USD, with no case loaded (and the AlwaysShowKB option set) the knowledge search control will show in the RightPanel of The USD Accelerator.

Selecting an article will cause the article to open in a tab. (As shown below).

If a case is opened additional icons may show on the KB Search and KB Article navigation toolbars, including;

  • An icon to link the article to the current case
  • An icon to unlink the article to the current case
  • An icon to email the public URL for this article to the customer (Be that a contact or Account)

When sending the article in an email an email tab is opened and pre-populated with an email template. The email template is called “neil_SendLinkInEMailFromKM” and could be changed / replaced as required. Additionally emailing the article to the customer will automatically link the article to the case.

Note:
The email will be “to” the customer and regarding the case.

Feedback

Gaining feedback on articles is essential! If you wish to improve the quality of the knowledge base the knowledge manager will find it extremely valuable to gain feedback form agents. Which articles are good and which are poor? And when poor what comments have been made to help improve the article. Additionally it might be useful to know when an agent couldn’t find an article to help with a particular customer query.

The “hand” ok allows the agent to provide feedback. Selecting “Great” or “OK” will simply great a positive feedback record and link the article to the current case. (If a case is open.) The rating of articles is completed by selecting thumbs up or down icons.

Stating that the article is poor or can’t be found will open a feedback record.

Feedback records are automatically assigned a consistent feedback rating. 1 being poor (or not found), 2 being ok and 3 being great.

When a poor or not found feedback is registered the feedback record is opened in a global tab. A global tab is used so that the agent can complete the customer query and enter the feedback comments after the session has been completed.

UII Options

Two UII Options exist which influence the use of the knowledge base within The USD Accelerator.

The first if “UseKB”, this must be set to see the knowledge base displayed at all.

By default the knowledge base will be available whilst working with cases. If you would like the knowledge base to always be available when a session is open then additionally set the “AlwaysShowKB” option to “Y”.

Additionally the feedback option can be enabled / disabled by setting the “UseFeedback” option to “Y” or “N”.