Internal Vs. External Knowledge Bases

A knowledge base is an organized library of information that users can use to find quick answers. It simplifies the whole process of contacting someone first and then getting a guide. A knowledge base then divides into two things: 

• External Knowledge base
• Internal knowledge base

They serve different purposes and solve problems for different audiences. Here, this difference between the two types will be discovered.

What is an Internal Knowledge Base?

An internal knowledge base is a centralized digital repository that stores company-specific information such as training materials, standard operating procedures, onboarding guides, and internal FAQs. It helps employees access consistent information quickly, improving efficiency, onboarding, and team communication.

An internal knowledge base is built for the employees of an organization. It is supposed to be used by the people within that organization. Hence, the word “internal.”

The goal of such a knowledge base is operational efficiency. This avoids the unnecessary back-and-forth among the various teams to solve even minor issues. This makes information readily available for every employee and speeds up work. 

Use Cases

Such a knowledge base can serve various purposes. The information can be technical, procedural, or even simple guidelines. Some of its use cases are explained with examples here: 

• Employees can troubleshoot common IT-related issues such as password resets, device setup, or software errors themselves.
• New hires can follow standardized onboarding guides. This way, their whole learning process won’t rely entirely on managers or mentors.
• Teams can document how tasks are performed in the internal knowledge base. This can include the procedure to process invoices, handle customer escalations, or approve expenses, etc.
• HR policies, security requirements, and legal guidelines can all be stored in one authoritative location.
• Brand voice is important. For consistency across the organization, Marketing and support teams can reference brand standards and tone-of-voice rules.
• Internal bases can be helpful for incident response as well. They may explain what to do during outages, security incidents, or service disruptions.

With such a knowledge base in place, employees won’t bombard IT with "have you tried turning it off and on again" requests. Instead, they’ll solve the problem themselves.

Also Check out: How to create a knowledge base?

What is an External Knowledge Base?

An external knowledge base is a public-facing repository that provides customers with self-service information such as FAQs, product guides, troubleshooting steps, and tutorials. It reduces support requests by enabling users to find answers independently, improving customer satisfaction and reducing workload on support teams.

An external knowledge base can serve various purposes. It might have information that simply explains a product or a service. Also, it is the first stop for a customer looking to fix a problem. So, it might contain answers to simple questions like “How to reset your password?” 

Here is an example of an external knowledge base: 

 

Source: https://www.namecheap.com/Support/Knowledgebase/ 

Use cases

Some specific use cases of this include:

• The features, product specifications, or any other product/service-related information can be stored in external knowledge bases. 
• Customers might face problems in account access management. External bases can contain answers for this in the form of questions. Examples include “How do I change my email address?” and “How to cancel a subscription?”
• A customer support team might not be able to look after customers in all time zones. External knowledge bases can, therefore, store guides to solve the most common issues. 
• Some products have setup guides. External knowledge bases can store all these guides. This way, it acts as a secondary platform to access a product setup guide. 

Just like an internal base, this removes the need to contact customer support for every single query. Most common queries are already answered in the knowledge base. Again, this makes self-service for customers easier and takes some workload off the customer support team. 

Importance of Understanding this Difference

You might think that at the end of the day, a knowledge base is a knowledge base. What does it matter if it’s internal or external? However, the problem is that you might need to use both of them. 

In that case, you need to know how the two are different. This way, you can create and structure your knowledge base properly. For example, in the following scenario, you need to have both types of knowledge bases:

“Internal knowledge base documents how support agents handle refunds. External knowledge base explains refund timelines to customers.”

Both explain refunds for completely different audiences.

For further context, if this distinction is not understood, companies often:

• Expose sensitive internal information
• Confuse customers with internal jargon
• Build poorly structured documentation
• Fail to meet user expectations

So, it is important to not only understand but also implement both types of knowledge bases correctly. 

Main Differences Between Internal and External Knowledge Bases

As you have seen already, the primary difference between these two knowledge bases is their audience. But that changes a lot. Things like the structure of information and writing styles are also different for the two. 

Here, we explain these differences in more detail:

Information Sensitivity

Information stored in internal bases is more likely to be sensitive. Such things are not safe to be disclosed to the public. Some examples include:

• Vendor pricing breakdowns
• Security response procedures
• Internal risk escalation paths
• Hiring evaluation frameworks

This type of knowledge may be misused by the public or by your competitors if made public. 

On the other hand, external knowledge bases avoid sensitive topics. They focus on safe and customer-facing guidelines. 

Example

Internal: “If fraud is suspected, follow an xyz procedure used strictly by your organization.”

External: “If you notice suspicious activity, contact support immediately.”

Writing Style

The writing styles also vary in these two knowledge bases. This is mainly because internal bases assume a shared context. Doing so is not a good idea in external bases because it might be used by a first-time visitor as well. They might not have any context whatsoever about your company. 

Moreover, an organization’s employees would be familiar with certain acronyms and terminologies. Customers wouldn’t. 

Simply put, a sentence like this can only be used in an internal knowledge base:

“Submit a JIRA ticket and tag the Ops lead before EOD.”

Tips to Write for Internal Knowledge Bases

Here are some tips you can follow to make effective internal bases:

• Create knowledge base guidelines before actually writing. 
• If multiple writers are working on the same base, ensure they follow all the guidelines. 
• Create a set of acronyms that may be used in the knowledge base for efficient writing. 
• Don’t over-explain things where not necessary. 
• Take feedback from your team and improve the knowledge base until it works for you and your employees. 

Tips to Write for External Knowledge Bases

Some things that are different in external knowledge base writing are:

• Identify customer pain points and write about them. 
• Research about the most commonly asked queries. Add them to the knowledge base in a logical sequence. This makes the questions easier to find. 
• Don’t only research the common problems. You should also know the best way to explain the fix.
• Use a helpful and guiding tone for a better customer experience. 
• Be comprehensive. Adding various details in an external base article is mostly a good idea. 

Structural Differences

Both types of knowledge bases are arranged differently. Employees think in terms of responsibility, whereas customers think in terms of problems. So, the knowledge bases are structured accordingly. 

This means that an internal base would have a structure similar to the following:

HR

• Onboarding
• Payroll

Support

• Ticket handling
• Escalations

And so on. External knowledge bases are different. Here is an example;

• Getting Started
• Account Management
• Billing
• Integrations
• Troubleshooting

This focuses on user intent instead of department organization. 

Tone Differences

Just like the writing style, the tone used in both knowledge bases is also different. Internal bases require speed and precision. External bases are more descriptive and focus on clarity and reassurance.

This difference can be better understood with the following side-by-side comparison. 

Internal: “Do not bypass this step. It breaks reporting.”

External: “Skipping this step may cause reporting issues.”

We need to be mindful of such tone usage when writing for different knowledge bases. 

Benefits of Internal and External Knowledge Bases

Here is a comparison between the two types. This shows how these knowledge bases serve different purposes.

Who Uses Knowledge Bases

To add further clarity, let’s see who’s using what type of knowledge base.

Internal Knowledge Base

Here is a list of organization types that may use internal knowledge bases:

• Call Centers: Call center representatives need to follow certain SOPs and guidelines. An internal knowledge base can help them with that. 
• HR Managers: An HR manager’s job has extensive responsibilities. With so much to do, having a place where every process is documented helps a lot. 
• Customer Support Teams: As mentioned earlier as well, customer support teams are one of the main users of knowledge bases. This helps them maintain consistency in their work. 
• IT Teams: Knowledge bases help technical teams with the help of troubleshooting guides, incident response procedures, etc. 
• Sales Teams: Pricing guidelines and dummy sales pitches documented in a knowledge base can help sales representatives of a company. 

These are just some of the areas where knowledge bases are applicable. But it gives you a general idea of the users. 

External Knowledge Base

Similarly, external knowledge bases have a diverse community of users. These include:

• Customers and End-Users: The customers or audience of an organization can use external knowledge bases to understand products and resolve issues quickly. 
• Company Partners: External knowledge bases make partnerships easier. Instead of taking them through every step of the process, you can direct them to your knowledge bases. 
• Resellers: Resellers can benefit from knowledge bases as well if your company is of that nature. These people can understand your product better and, in the best-case scenario, buy more from you.
• After-Hours Users: After-hours users or users in a different time zone can take help from a knowledge base. This partially removes their dependence on live customer support. 

Now you know how a mix of both types of knowledge bases can be beneficial for you. You can help all these users just by making a platform with information.

Final Summary

To reiterate one last time, internal and external knowledge bases serve different purposes. They are not interchangeable. Internal knowledge bases help teams work faster and smarter. External knowledge bases help customers solve problems on their own.

If both of these are implemented the right way, everyone wins. All you need to know is where both of them differ. So, follow the instructions given in the article, and you should be good to go.