AI agents
Contact center knowledge base
The CONTACT.WORK knowledge base is where your company keeps its policies, prices, instructions, and approved wording. Agents, AI consultants for chats and calls, AI assistants, and the IVR all use it, so customers get the same answer wherever they ask. You make a correction once, and a search report shows which content is missing.
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What the knowledge base can do
What agents and managers use every day.
Who uses it
Who gets answers from the knowledge base
Everyone works from the same content, but each uses it differently.
The answer in front of you during the conversation
An agent finds a policy, price, or procedure through search or gets a suggested article, so the customer doesn't wait. Night and day shifts give the same answers because they look at the same articles.
- Search and suggestions
- Approved wording
- Consistent across shifts
Customerasks about installmentscallSuggestion“Installments” sectionon screenWordingprebuilt phrasefor the replyAgentanswered without a pausedoneWhere AI gets its answers
The AI consultant and AI assistant rely only on the knowledge base and show the source article. If they find nothing, they bring in an expert instead of making something up. Once the article is updated and the AI agent is retrained, it handles that question without an agent.
- Answers from the knowledge base, not the model's memory
- Source in every answer
- No answer – it calls an expert
Questiondelivery time to ChicagoansweredSectionDelivery, item 4foundReply3-5 business dayssentNot in knowledge basedrone deliveryto expertCustomers help themselves
The IVR, your website pages, and the AI agent that answers calls use the same content. Customers can check business hours or return terms on their own without waiting for an available agent.
- IVR
- Website
- AI on calls
Customer“Are you open on holidays?”questionReplyhours from knowledge basegivenAgentnot neededavailableSourcesame knowledge basesharedAll AI agents draw from the same knowledge base, so their answers never contradict each other.
How it works
How the knowledge base is organized
Structure
Topics, sections, and owners
Content is organized by topic. Each topic has an owner who decides who can open a section and gets a reminder when it hasn't been updated in a while. The edit history shows who changed a page and when.
- Topics and owners
- Update reminders
- Edit history
Pricesowner – AnnaallRefundsowner – MikeallPurchasingowner – Rachelfor managersVideomodel callsfor new hiresGaps
Gap list
This list collects searches where employees found nothing and questions the AI couldn't answer. Owners work through the list and fill in the knowledge base.
- Failed searches
- Questions the AI couldn't answer
- List for owners
Installments56 searches not foundurgentGift cards12 questions to AIin progressStore pickup8 searches not foundin queueListwith ownersto updateEmbedding
The knowledge base inside your software
Through embedded windows and the API, content shows up in your CRM, the agent workspace, chat, and the IVR – no need to open the knowledge base separately.
- CRM and help desk
- Agent workspace
- IVR
CRMcustomer recordwidgetAgent windowtips during callsembeddedChattips in chatsembeddedIVRcustomer repliesvia APILaunch
How we launch the knowledge base
- 01ContentWe gather cheat sheets, price lists, and the good answers employees forward to each other.
- 02StructureWe organize content by topic and assign owners and access permissions.
- 03PopulationWe upload documents that are ready to use, migrate the rest, and remove duplicates and outdated versions.
- 04TestingWe try the knowledge base on real customer questions and add whatever is missing.
- 05ConnectionWe embed the knowledge base in the agent workspace, CRM, chats, and IVR.
- 06Ongoing supportWe use search analytics to expand articles and remove what isn't needed.
Requirements
What you'll need
- Content
- Work procedures, prices, cheat sheets, good answers
- Formats
- Text, images, audio, video, .docx and .pdf files
- Access
- Permissions for topics and pages
- Integrations
- API and embedded windows for your CRM and website
- Hosting
- CONTACT.WORK cloud or your own hardware
- Cost
- Billed in support plan hours
Preparation
What to discuss before you start
Q&A
Frequently asked questions
How is a knowledge base different from a folder of documents?
With a folder, you have to remember where the file is and read it all the way through. Here, the answer comes up in search or appears as a suggestion before the customer even finishes the question. Each section has an owner, and analytics show the gaps.
How do we build a knowledge base if we don't have one?
We start with what you already have: good answers from chat threads, instructions, price lists. We build the first sections from them, then add what employees searched for and didn't find.
Can we upload existing documents?
You can. Cheat sheets and policies in Word and PDF go into the knowledge base whole – nothing needs to be retyped.
How do AI agents use the knowledge base?
An AI agent answers from the knowledge base and names the article it relied on. If it finds nothing, it won't guess – it hands the customer to an employee.
How quickly do changes reach AI agents?
Employees see an edit right away. AI agents see it after retraining: usually minutes, hours for large changes.
Who can edit the knowledge base?
People with edit permissions, usually section owners. Other employees can only read, and restricted sections are hidden from them.
Can we see who changed an article?
Each page has an edit history: who changed what and when.
Can we store video and audio?
Images, audio recordings, and videos all work – for example, a recording of a model conversation or a video walkthrough.
Can the knowledge base show up in our CRM?
We connect it through the API: articles open right in your CRM, chat, IVR, and website. Employees see edits immediately; AI agents pick them up after retraining.
Can we host the knowledge base ourselves?
The knowledge base lives wherever the platform is installed – in the cloud we manage or on your own hardware.
How do we measure the results?
We look at analytics: the share of searches answered on the first try, how often the AI agent calls in a person, and the number of questions left unanswered.
How much does the knowledge base cost?
The knowledge base is part of the platform. Setup, content migration, and connecting your systems are paid from your support plan hours.
Glossary
Terms on this page
- Knowledge base
- All answers, policies, and prices in one place – for agents and AI. Learn more →
- IVR (interactive voice response)
- A phone menu: the caller hears a greeting and picks the right department. Learn more →
- CRM – customer relationship management
- Where a company keeps its customers, deals, and full communication history. Learn more →
- API (application programming interface)
- The way programs exchange data with each other without a person in the loop. Learn more →
- Cloud deployment (cloud)
- The platform runs on the vendor's servers, and agents connect over the internet. Learn more →
- Hosting
- You rent a server from a provider instead of buying one. Learn more →
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