Migrating YAMM documentation to Zendesk: A better site to find all you need!
Post date: Jan 11, 2017 5:15:27 PM
What were our motivations to migrate YAMM documentation to Zendesk?
The first documentation for Yet Another Mail Merge was an FAQ on Google Docs that we migrated during Spring 2015 on our Script Examples website, powered by Google Sites. Even if this add-on is not very complex to use, people do read our documentation and it generates around 20K pageviews every month.
We update it every time we bring new features, make changes to the UI (meaning we have to make new screenshots) or simply when we realize we are answering over and over the same questions by email and it is time to have an official, public answer.
As YAMM is becoming more and more popular, we think it is now the right time to have more content on a specific domain name (yet-another-mail-merge.com). At the same time, we have always been facing some limitations with Google Sites. That’s why we started to test Zendesk, a well-known platform for providing knowledge base and ticketing support. The test was very convincing and we decided to migrate our YAMM documentation from Google Sites to Zendesk:
Click on the following button to access YAMM documentation:
Main benefits of the migration
1. A more accurate search bar, using Algolia Search
No need to navigate through all the articles to find answers to your questions! The search bar is more visible and enhanced with autocomplete. Simply type keywords on the search bar, and results will appear directly below (it will even work if you’re not entering the exact word):
2. A better and more flexible categorization of articles
In our previous documentation, if we wanted to switched an article from a section to another one, we had to manually update the article listing and the URL. With Zendesk, we are now able to move an article to another section / category without modifying its URL, and the structure of the documentation is automatically updated.
This means you will not get any ‘dead’ links with this new system. We can rearrange articles without having the fear that you will not have access to it anymore.
3. A logical reading and easy navigation between articles
Reorganizing articles in Google Sites was complex, and there was a lack of logical flow of reading. We couldn't choose how to sort the articles (alphabetical order by default), and one way to bypass it was to add numbers at the beginning, as we have done in Awesome Table documentation. But if we created new articles, we would need to modify each title, which was time-consuming.
Now we make sure that the articles are sorted in a logical way and follow the different steps in YAMM. For example, you would need to read how to configure form submission notifications, before being able to use the delay mail merge option:
The ‘articles in this section’ part and category menu on top of each article should help you ease your navigation through the documentation. This was missing in Google Sites.
Whether you like to search or prefer to browse through the documentation, both are now easier thanks to Zendesk!
4. More interactivity: Follow, vote & comment option
The comment section in Google Sites was available only for internal use, so end-users couldn’t post any comment. On the contrary, this option is available on Zendesk. People can comment on an article, give their feedback and vote for an article.
Based on all your critics and thanks to this interactivity with our users, we are able to add missing information, clarify some parts, and improve the documentation as a whole. For example, we received a few months ago 5 bad rates for the article about bounces due to sending limit:
This will help us focus on this specific article and rework on it. We know that we will definitely have to change and improve the poorly rated articles.
You can also follow an article, like the release notes, to always get the latest version of a feature. For example, we have modified our unsubscribe feature and improved our real-time tracker, so with the follow button, don’t miss any new updates anymore!
And the publication date at the beginning of the article lets you know when it has been created and/or updated, which was missing in Google Sites.
5. And always a responsive documentation!
In our documentation on Zendesk, we are using a fully responsive theme, so it is easy and convenient to browse the documentation from any device.
Conclusion
After investing some time these past months to get familiar with Zendesk interface, we discovered that the help center (or knowledge base) was the perfect tool for reorganizing our documentation. As a result, we have also migrated Form Publisher documentation to this platform and we will do the same for Awesome Table in the future.
Zendesk is mostly known as a ticketing tool and we also tested that to handle our support for one full week. However, it didn’t add any extra value to the way we used to handle it (via Gmail and the web app), although we had an overview of its potential for bigger teams. For example, you can (re)assign easily tickets to your colleagues, and set triggers to fasten the process.
Maybe we will need to switch again to Zendesk in the future for the support, but for the moment, we hope you will enjoy this new documentation and that it will be useful to you when you are using YAMM. We will also read and consider all your suggestions, so don’t hesitate to leave comments and give your feedback on the articles!
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