At the bottom of each knowledge base article, readers are asked Is this article helpful? Their answers tell you which articles work and which need another look. You can read all of it in the ratings list, and you can also have every written comment start a private discussion, so someone on your team answers it.
What readers see
A reader clicks Yes or No. Yes is all it takes. After No, Tender asks "Sorry about that. What could be better?", and the reader can write a few words (up to 2,000 characters, optional) and click Send feedback.
When feedback discussions are on (see below), readers who aren't logged in can also leave their email address if they'd like a reply.
Each person rates each version of an article once. When you change an article, they can rate it again.
The ratings list
In your dashboard, open Knowledge Base and click Ratings in the sidebar. The newest ratings come first, each with the article, who rated it, when, and their comment.
- Show picks what you see: All, Negative, Positive, With messages or Spam.
- Click a person's name to see all their ratings, or View article to read the article.
- An article's own ratings are a click away on its page too: staff see its share of "helpful" ratings there (for example "75% helpful (3 yes, 1 no)"), which opens this list for that article. Ratings of earlier versions are listed separately.
- Discussion #… opens the discussion a comment started.
To tidy up, tick ratings (or Select all) and click:
- Spam: hides them and stops counting them in their articles' ratings.
- Not spam, under Show: Spam: puts them back, counted again.
- Delete: removes them for good.
Tender checks written comments for spam as they come in. The ones it catches go straight to Spam, so they never count; look there now and then in case it caught a real one.
Turning comments into discussions
A comment in the ratings list is easy to miss. To make sure each one is answered, open Account & Settings › Settings and click Knowledge Base Feedback in the sidebar (it's there when your knowledge base is on). The ratings list's Set up feedback link goes there too.
- What happens to feedback: Keep it in the ratings list (the default), or Also start a private discussion for each message.
- Category: where feedback discussions go. Choose New category: Knowledge Base Feedback to have Tender make a private category that only your staff see, or pick one of yours. Feedback discussions are always private, whatever the category.
- Queue: put each feedback discussion in a queue as well, or No queue. The queue's own notification settings apply.
- Email these supporters: who gets an email about each new feedback discussion. Ticking someone subscribes them to the category's new discussions; each person can change that later on their own profile, under Email notifications.
Click Save. Only comments start discussions: a plain Yes or No stays in the ratings list.
What a feedback discussion looks like
The discussion is titled "Feedback: " and the article's title. The first message is the reader's comment, followed by a line saying who rated which article "not helpful", the article's version, and a link to it.
Who it's from depends on the reader:
- Logged in: it's their discussion, as if they'd started it, and they get your replies like any other.
- Not logged in, with an email address: it's from that address, and your replies go there by email.
- Not logged in, no email: there's no one to reply to. Use it as a note for your team, and close it when you've dealt with the article.
Reply, assign, queue and close it like any other discussion. As with any private discussion, people in the reader's company can see it.
Comments that were caught as spam don't start discussions. If you mark one Not spam, its discussion is started then.