Since 2017, millennials have become the largest generation worldwide. If you haven’t prepared your business to face the challenges that come with this change, it’s time to speed up the process.
Millennials are unsurprisingly obsessed with smartphones and technology. They’re mobile and expect immediacy and efficiency from the brands they interact with.
But if there’s one thing millennials hate, it’s using their phones to call for support.
According to a Salesforce survey, almost:
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- 89% of millennials use a search engine to find answers before making a call to get customer service
- 67% of them have increased their expectations in the past year regarding customer support
- 78% of millennial customers have moved their business somewhere else after one single poor customer service experience
- 69% of consumers first try to resolve their issue independently, but less than one-third of companies offer self-service options such as a knowledge base. (Zendesk)
These numbers speak for themselves. You must provide your customers with excellent support with minimal human interaction to keep them hooked on your product.
You need to give them clear instructions, easy-to-follow user manuals, and an exhaustive collection of FAQs — all wrapped in a modern and intuitive product. In other words, your customers must have access to a user-friendly knowledge base, where they can find their answers fast, with no need for external help.
Implementing Self-service support is a must for a generation that grew up surrounded by digital devices. Millennials have high expectations from brands, whether they’re looking for information for personal purposes or work.
This approach can help you increase customer retention across all generations, including Baby Boomers and Generation Z. And here are some more statistics that underline the importance of creating a knowledge base.
People Want Instant Help
- Research from Tidio Customer Service Statistics indicates that 98% of customers use FAQ, help center, or other self-service online resources on company websites, highlighting a near-universal reliance on these tools for resolving queries
- 78% of customers expect brands or products to offer online self-service portals instead of relying solely on traditional customer service support.
- 98% of customers are turning to company websites first for instant help, particularly for simple queries
- 72% of customers expect a response within 30 minutes of reaching out, making First Response Time (FRT) a key metric
- 70% of customers prefer to use a company’s website to get answers to their questions rather than use phone or email (Social Media Today)
- 90% of customers view an instant response as either crucial or very important when they need customer service assistance. Of these, 60% consider instant to mean within 10 minutes or faster.
- 60% of customers say that long wait times are the most frustrating part of customer service. (Hubspot)
- 90% of consumers expect an immediate response when they have a customer service question. (Hubspot)
Fact: No one likes to dial numbers guided by a recorded message, hoping to get in touch with a human.
Calling or writing long emails is not a good fit for modern customers. Whatever software you’re selling, you need to give people immediate access to information.
- 31% of customers want instant online help, while 40 percent of them expect to receive assistance in less than 5 minutes (Econsultancy)
To meet such high expectations, you need an intuitive knowledge base built with your customers in mind.
Creating FAQ pages can provide easy access to customers or users from any device. Furthermore, visitors should be able to navigate through various topics alone to get the answers they’re looking for.
You must create a knowledge base portal, where customers get a personalized experience based on their history with your brand. Simple and intuitive knowledge base software for your business needs
Your knowledge base should have built-in insights that allow you to analyze previous interactions. Use this data to give accurate answers to all possible questions and to improve the customer experience.
This way, your customers won’t have to come back for a second interaction with your brand to solve a problem.
Statistics to Support
- 57% of calls come from customers who visited the company’s website first (Harvard Business Review)
This isn’t good for business. If your clients have to call for technical support after visiting your website, you risk losing them to your competitors. Building a company knowledge base is the first step towards better customer service. But you need to update content regularly to remain relevant. Do keyword research to see what your customers are looking for in your knowledge base. This way, you can optimise your content to help users navigate your website faster. Simply uploading content is not enough to provide an excellent customer experience.
- 36% of customers say companies should improve their Search functionality and website usability (Oracle study)
Many companies encourage their customers to check their spelling or to use more specific keywords to make searching easier. This approach kind of leaves the responsibility on the customer and isn’t going to improve the user experience. Make things easier for them by delivering a killer search engine that can provide results even when your customers introduce misspelled words or forget the exact name of your product.
- 67% of customers prefer self-service over speaking to a company representative. (Tidio statistics)
Customers want convenience and control over their support experience. If they are able to resolve their issues promptly without holding, they will. Ensure your knowledge base is comprehensive, simple to use, and offers clear answers to frequent questions. The simpler it is to use, the more customers will use it rather than reach out to support.
- 81% of customers want more self-service options. (Khoros statistics)
Self-service is not a preference, it’s an expectation. Customers expect quick access to useful resources, whether it’s FAQs, troubleshooting tips, or tutorials. Continuously broaden and enhance your knowledge base through analyzing customer behavior and feedback. An effective self-service system maximizes satisfaction and decreases the burden on your support staff.
Customers Prefer Using The Knowledge Base To Get Their Answers
- 51% of customers prefer technical support through a knowledge base (Econsultancy).
And the number is growing as new technologies help to create knowledge bases more interactive and easier to use. The quality of the service is vital. Create a knowledge base as a well-organised, helpful tool, available 24/7, from anywhere. Your customers can access technical support at any hour, straight from their smartphone. This is a massive advantage if you’re a global company with customers in different time zones.
- 40% of customers prefer self-service over human contact (Forbes)
Most clients just like their privacy. Or they don’t want to look stupid asking questions. Sometimes, previous experiences with bored or rude call centre operators (not necessarily from your company) keep people from calling for help. Create a knowledge base that gives you the chance to provide your customers with answers using a channel where they’re in the driving seat. This way, people feel confident using your products, and you gain their trust, as well.
- 91% of customers would use an online knowledge base if it were available and tailored to their needs (Social Media Today)
Knowledge base software means faster customer service. People get their answers when they need them, with no time wasted looking for contact information, calling, or emailing. If you focus your efforts on improving your product to meet your customers’ expectations, you’re more likely to have happy customers.
- 91% of customers would use a knowledge base if it met their needs. (Khoros statistics)
A well-structured knowledge base saves time and frustration by providing instant answers. Keep it organized, up to date, and easy to navigate to enhance customer experience and reduce support requests.
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The Impact Of Knowledge Base On Customer Retention
A good knowledge base keeps customers from leaving. It’s an easy way to help them fast, so they stick around. More companies are fixing up their old help centers ‘cause it works for support. If you want to stay in the game, start with a simple internal knowledge base that’s easy to use. Fewer people want to call support these days, so you need a solid option they can grab themselves
- A 5% increase in customer retention results in a 25-95% increase in revenue. (Smallbiztrends statistics)
When customers stay, they keep spending. A little effort to hold onto them pays off big. The knowledge base helps by giving quick fixes, so they don’t walk away.
- Firms that prioritize knowledge management experience 37% higher customer satisfaction scores (Vorecol.com)
A clear, useful knowledge base makes people feel good. They find answers easily, stay satisfied, and don’t ditch you.
Knowledge Base Takes Your Business To The Next Level
- Simply improving your Help section can reduce the number of calls by 5% (Harvard Business Review)
Many problems your customers have can be solved by explaining things in 300 words or fewer. And, once you write the answer, all customers dealing with the same issue can get their instructions online. This way, you reduce the number of tickets, which means you get to cut down costs and increase efficiency. By transforming your old FAQ section into a modern knowledge base, you keep up with your competitors (or even step ahead of them).
- 54% of companies offering web or mobile self-service have seen an increase in their website traffic (Destination CRM)
An optimised knowledge base can boost your SEO, as more people come to find their answers directly on your site. If you provide users with high-quality content, they won’t be looking for answers somewhere else. They’ll spend their time on your website, looking to learn more about their topics of interest. This customer behaviour means lower bounce rates and increased time spent on page, which are indicators to Google that your website is a reliable source of information.
- 5% growth in retention can increase profits by up to 95 percent (Small Business Trends)
Customer service is vital when you’re looking to keep hold of your clients. The more you give them, the higher the chances of creating a long-term relationship. So, create a knowledge base as a valuable source of information.
How To Improve The Strength Of Your Knowledge Base
Publish “how-to” articles, white papers, e-books, and case studies to support your customers with relevant, updated information. Use all types of content to make sure you draw attention — infographics, video tutorials, and screenshots that illustrate how your product works.
The trend is clear: as a knowledge base is a cost-effective way of providing high-quality customer support, more companies are going to invest in improving their old Help Centres.
So if you want to keep up with the market, first of all, you must create an internal knowledge base that encourages high usability.
With fewer customers willing to pick up the phone to call technical support, you have to provide an efficient alternative.
- Self-service is preferred by 67 percent of clients over engaging with a company representative. (Superoffice)
There is no question that today’s clients are technologically savvy and would like rapid solutions to their difficulties rather than waiting for a support representative to assist them. People nowadays seek to address their problems quickly by using a self-service knowledge base. With an excellent knowledge base, you can give fast solutions to your clients’ commonly asked questions. This aids in the reduction of customer support requests, the reduction of customer support expenses, and the improvement of customer happiness.
- Gartner Predicts Agentic AI Will Autonomously Resolve 80% of Common Customer Service Issues Without Human Intervention by 2029
AI customer service is revolutionizing how businesses serve the people who support them, collaborating with human employees to deliver rapid, convenient, and personalized assistance.
How AI Is Evolving In Knowledge Management
- 85% of customer interactions are expected to be handled without a human agent by 2025.
Picture this—customers want answers now, not tomorrow, and companies can’t hire enough people to keep up. AI’s stepping in with chatbots that actually get what you’re saying, thanks to fancy language skills and learning from tons of chats. Businesses are all over this because it’s cheap, it scales like crazy, and honestly, people don’t care who’s answering as long as it’s quick. In a world where everything’s online 24/7, AI is the only way to keep up.
- AI-driven chatbots can resolve 80% of customer inquiries without human intervention. (Liveperson)
These bots aren’t the clunky “press 1 for yes” robots anymore—they’re smart. They’ve got huge knowledge bases and can figure out what you mean, even if you type like a mess. Companies love it because it’s like having an army of helpers that don’t need breaks. Customers are asking more stuff, more often, across texts, apps, whatever AI’s handling it because humans just can’t keep pace anymore.
- Businesses using AI-powered knowledge bases see a 35% reduction in support tickets. (Forbes)
Imagine you’ve got this search bar that just knows what you need before you even ask. That’s AI sorting through all the company info and handing it to you on a platter. People aren’t bugging support as much because they’re finding answers themselves. Businesses are doing this because everyone’s spread outremote work, hybrid vibesand no one’s got time to dig through old files or wait for an email reply.
- Companies implementing AI-driven customer service experience a 25% improvement in customer satisfaction. (Renascence)
Customers are happy when they get fast, spot-on help that feels personal, like AI’s reading their mind. It’s using data to tweak answers just for you, and it’s quick about it. Companies are jumping on this because happy customers stick around and spend more. In 2025, we’re all used to slick tech, so if you’re slow or generic, people bounce, AI’s fixing that.
- AI can help businesses reduce customer service costs by up to 30%. (Eself)
AI knocks out the easy questions, password resets, and tracking orders, so humans can focus on the tricky stuff. Businesses are all in because they’re feeling the squeezeprices are up, budgets are downand AI’s a no-brainer way to save cash without screwing over customers.
Final Thoughts
All these statistics show that people are ready for self-service customer support. In fact, they prefer it to the old-fashioned methods of getting customer care. Your clients are looking for faster ways to deal with difficulties. They want answers at the same time when they need them, and can’t afford to waste hours having their problems fixed. Not when they can solve everything by reading one or two articles online.
Don’t quit on your call centre just yet. But you should use it for more serious problems, not for giving the same answer to four different customers on the same day. You can use your knowledge base for that.
Creating a self-service knowledge base can help you increase customer satisfaction and retention rates, which will in turn increase your profits. Better yet, you get to cut costs by assisting your customers more efficiently.
In simple words, you get to give your customers what they want while increasing efficiency all around.
Finally convinced about the importance of a knowledge base for your website? Why not give Document360 a try? It’s simple, effective, and ready to implement – contact us today!