Gladly supports various Answer types used across multiple product areas, making Answers the one-stop-shop for knowledge base management. We suggest following certain guidelines and principles to ensure you have information that both your Agents and Customers can easily access.

See How To Write Sidekick (AI) Friendly Answers for more tips on writing Answers for Sidekick.

General tips when writing Answers

Below is a list of best writing practices when writing Answers, regardless of Answer type, to maximize the effectiveness of Answers in areas where they are searched and presented.

Evaluate your target audience

Determine if you’ll utilize Audiences to organize information. The Audiences feature organizes Answers by brand, business unit, and segment. For example, if you’re a multi-brand company utilizing Gladly to support Customers across different brands, you may have different refund policies for each brand. Audiences can help you organize and document brand-specific policies.

Write clear and concise content with context

You don’t need to write a novel-length Answer to get your point across and stay on topic. Avoid filler words or superfluous information, but that doesn’t mean only using one-word responses. As an ultra-simplified example, say you have a Public Answer titled “Do you accept Apple Pay?” Instead of the body simply saying, “Yes, we accept Apple Play,” you should provide contextual, relevant information to make the Answer more useful. In this example, you could write:

“Yes, we accept Apple Pay, and we also accept other major forms of payments, including credit/debit cards, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, as well as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.”

This way, anyone who finds these Public Answers through Help Center, Chat, or search engines will understand the purpose of the Answer provided and increase the chances of answering their question.

A rule of thumb is to break down Answers as specifically as possible. This works best for surfacing directly usable Answers to Agents and providing Sidekick with the needed knowledge.

Tip – Write in full sentences.
Tip – Clear and concise content is easier to read. For those using Gladly Sidekick, generative AI extracts and presents Answers written concisely with good context much more accurately.

Use simple language

Write using simple language. Use clear, plain language that aligns with your brand's personality to deliver your message quickly and effectively.

Know your audience – Tailor your language to resonate with your target audience, whether internal or external.
Use active voice – This makes your writing more direct and engaging.
Prioritize readability – Use short paragraphs and bullet points when possible.
Be consistent – Maintain a consistent tone and style across all platforms.

Avoid mixing content topics

Regardless of the Answer Type (e.g., Reference Answer, Public Answer, etc.), focus on answering or providing information specifically related to the Answer’s topic. For example, What's your refund policy shouldn’t include in-depth details about your Shipping policy. Instead, the latter should be written as a separate Answer. You can, however, deep link Public Answers back to each other to create a connection between related information. Do not link other Answer Types other than Public Answers.

Consolidate similar content into a single Answer

Consolidate

Minimize the use of images and videos

Visuals are great and have a place in Answers and knowledge bases, but you must consider that these media forms require additional management and maintenance. If your product offerings or processes change, you must review images and videos that may quickly become outdated. Only use images or videos if they truly help your Customer understand the information; otherwise, avoid using them.

Clear and concise content makes it easier for humans and AI to understand and extract key information.

Note – Currently, generative AI, including the technology used by Gladly Sidekick, cannot review images — or video-based content; it can only review text and respond in text.

Avoid mixing terminologies with various meanings in different contexts – Answers Search and generative AI are powerful software, but these technologies still need a little help distinguishing different terminologies you might use. Using Gladly as an example, we frequently use Conversation to describe communications and interactions with Customers as they occur within the Conversation Timeline, a key product feature. In our product documentation, we avoid using conversation as a noun to avoid irrelevant results and focus results for Conversation on Gladly-specific feature content.

Answer Type-specific writing guides

Establishing the proper format and the kind of information being shared is essential to increasing the effectiveness of Answers for both Agents and Customers.

Before proceeding to review the Answer-type specific guidelines below, make sure to review the General Tips for Writing Answers above.

Public

Target Audience	Content Visibility	Product Area
Customers/External	For public knowledge	Help Center, Chat, and Sidekick

Spell out acronyms

When using acronyms in any Public Answer, always spell them out on their first mention. For example, instead of just writing "GDPR," write "General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)." Similarly, when mentioning "KB," write "Knowledge Base (KB)" the first time. If an acronym appears multiple times within the same response, ensure it is fully spelled out the first time, with the acronym in parentheses. This approach helps maintain clarity for readers who may not be familiar with the abbreviations.

Focus each Public Answer to address one question

Avoid creating one Public Answer with many FAQs in the content body, even if they are related.

Each Public Answer should be assigned to answer one question or a specific topic to explain. Avoid intermixing topics, especially if they are unrelated. For instance, think of an automobile manual. Each section of the manual is assigned a topic, whether an overview of the driver’s dashboard or the audio interface. Then, in the following sections, there are pages detailing the interfaces' functions. They don’t mix the “Whats” and “Hows.” The same principles should be applied when writing Public Answers. In an e-commerce example, you’d write separate Public Answers for:

What types of payments do you accept?
How long does shipment usually take?
What’s your refund policy?
How long do I have to return an item?

In the example list above, you shouldn’t combine “What’s your refund policy?” and “How long do I have to return an item?” in a single Public Answer, even though they could be related since a return could trigger a refund. Instead, it would be best if you deep linked related Public Answers in the content body to relate each Answer.

The image below illustrates what to avoid. In this scenario, creating a Public Answer for each FAQ is the best approach.

Frequently asked questions about refund, return, exchange, and shipping policies. Avoid writing FAQs in this format.

Expand Public Answer visibility and access

Public Answers are accessible in multiple ways:

Help Center – Public Answers are assigned to Sections (aka categories) in Help Center to organize information.
- Search engines like Google crawl Public Answers attached to a Help Center. We highly recommend implementing a Help Center to increase self-service opportunities and search engine visibility.
Chat – Allows for Public Answers to be searchable within Chat if Enable Search and Quick Actions is activated.
Answers Panel – Allow Agents to view and share answers to questions approved to be shared with the general public.
Sidekick – Feeds generative AI information to answer questions received via Sidekick during an automated messaging session with a Customer.

Remember that Customers access Public Answers in both linear and non-linear ways. A linear view is similar to reading a knowledge base from beginning to end, starting from the very top. It’s like reviewing a user manual from page 1 to the end. Non-linear is access to information through a Help Center’s search functionality or various search engines, where your Customers are taken directly to a specific Public Answer that addresses their question.

See How To Write Sidekick (AI) Friendly Answers for more tips on writing Answers for Sidekick.

Reference

Target Audience	Content Visibility	Product Area
Internal	Internal Only	Answers Panel, Answers Admin

Reference Answers are visible to internal Gladly users only, meaning the information contained in a Reference Answer isn’t directly accessible via the Help Center, Chat, or other Customer-facing features. However, its contents could be marked as shareable with Customers.

Consider creating Reference Answers to provide information like internal policies and other internal-use-only reference information.

Is the information contained in the Reference Answer shareable with Customers?

Reference Answers aren’t directly accessible to Customers. You can use the Internal checkbox to communicate to your Agents whether the information in the Reference Answer is shareable with Customers. For example, if you have a Reference Answer that discusses when exceptions can be made to your standard 30-day refund policy, marking that Reference Answer as Internal communicates that you cannot, verbally or in writing, share that exceptions can be made. If it’s not marked as Internal, it communicates that Agents may share the contents of the Reference Answer.

Internal reference section with content formatting options for document editing.

Messaging

Target Audience	Content Visibility	Product Area
Customers/External	For public knowledge	Customer Profile Answers Panel, Proactive Chat, Proactive SMS

Keep it short and concise

Messaging Channels (e.g., SMS, Facebook Messenger) thrive in concise responses. For example, a Messaging Answer for SMS when asked about your return policy could be structured like this:

You have 30 days from the date or purchase to return an item. Go <link> to start refund process.

The example above is a perfect length response for the SMS Channel. It's short and contains the information your Customer will need regarding the topic.

Email

Target Audience	Content Visibility	Product Area
Customers/External	For public knowledge	Customer Profile Answers Panel, Proactive Email

Appy email appropriate formatting

Email Answers provides a rich list of formatting options. Because Email Answers are primarily used for email responses, consider applying a simple email structure, like making headers larger for added visibility, using bullets or number lists to organize content, etc.

Improve your Answers knowledge base over time

Think of your Answers knowledge base as a living and breathing entity. It should evolve and change as processes, procedures, services, and products are updated, and the information contained within should follow suit.

Test your Answers

Keep in touch and survey your internal and external users to ensure that Answers, regardless of type, are relevant and proceed to make necessary updates accordingly.

Monitor usage for improvements

Use reports like the Answers Usage report to understand how often Answers are used and look for opportunities to improve Answers.

Establish and keep a tight review process

Answers are only as good as the information they provide, so create a tight review process to ensure their contents are accurate, up-to-date, and comprehensive. This could mean assigning a key person to own and maintain Answer or a group that manages your Answers knowledge base.

Remove unused Answers

It’s good hygiene only to keep used Answers, but that doesn’t mean you should remove every Answer with low usage/views. You’ll have to determine the importance of each Answer before you do so.

Are there any other considerations for using Idiomatic with Gladly?