Finding and checking information before you answer
Search the knowledge base, product documentation, release notes and known issues early and well, check that what you find applies to the customer's product, version and situation, read version numbers and changelogs correctly, and record and improve what you used.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 50 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 3 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Search early using the customer's exact words and error text, and record the context
- Check a source against the customer's product, edition and version before relying on it
- Read a semantic version number and a changelog to find when a change or fix arrived
- Tell validated knowledge from unvalidated or community material and say which you used
- Flag or fix a knowledge article that is wrong or out of date, and cite sources in the ticket
Course outline
- 1.Finding and checking information before you answerVideo · 2 min
- 2.Search early, search wellLesson · 16 min
- 3.Does this source apply?Lesson · 18 min
- 4.Using and improving what you foundLesson · 16 min
- 5.Finding and checking information before you answer: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 17 questions
- 6.The advice that deleted the invoice templatesScenario
- 7.Final exam9 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- Consortium for Service Innovation: KCS v6 Practices Guide (search early, search often; capture the requestor's context; flag it or fix it; article states)
- Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH; pre-release versions; 0.y.z initial development)
- Keep a Changelog 1.1.0 (latest version first, dates shown, Added/Changed/Deprecated/Removed/Fixed/Security, Unreleased section)
- General technical-support practice
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.