Use this troubleshooting guide template to:

• Ask customers questions and lead them to the right solution, based on their answers.
• Help customers find solutions to their specific issues with the step-by-step, interactive structure.
• Describe each issue in detail, and show users how to implement the solution.
• Create a 24/7 support portal to help customers find and correct issues.
• Improve your self-serve support with customer insights.

Offer your troubleshooting guide anywhere your customers might be looking for help. Embed it on your website, display it in your app, make it part of your help center or knowledge base, or send direct links to solutions via email or live chat.

What is a troubleshooting guide and do you need to have one?

Troubleshooting is a method for helping users self-diagnose and solve issues or problems that may have occurred while using a product. A troubleshooting guide leads customers through a series of questions or small tests to help them find the source of their problem. Then it offers tips and advice to correct the issue to make the product operational again.

As a result, a troubleshooting guide should be an interactive platform that helps a person self-diagnose the issue and presents them with ideas on how to solve it.

Troubleshooting guides are ideal for software companies, product manufacturers, developers, and any other brand that creates and distributes products for end-users.

But troubleshooting guides can also be used internally. They can help various product teams troubleshoot or even test new products during development, for example. Or assist sales and support teams in finding answers to customers’ most common questions faster.

Does your company need a troubleshooting guide?

If your brand creates a digital or physical product, you should be offering its end-users the option to troubleshoot issues. Here’s why:

Most customers prefer to resolve product issues on their own. Research proves that 91% of customers will choose a self-service option when offered. They will reach out to support only after exhausting all the other options available.

Customers will use products in ways that you cannot predict. As a result, it’s impossible to guess, let alone cover in product documentation, all the various issues they may encounter. An interactive troubleshooting guide allows you to continually expand and update the database of solutions with new customer problems.

Customers want to resolve their issues fast. In many cases, solving a problem quickly will be critical to their productivity and success. A troubleshooting guide will help customers correct issues on their own, immediately after they’ve identified them.

When to use our troubleshooting guide template

Troubleshooting guides help end-users and a company’s teams fix and solve various issues with a product. For that reason, they are an ideal solution when you need to:

• Reduce customer support tickets and offer customers an interactive self-service option
• Improve customer success and satisfaction with the product
• Offer on-demand support
• Reduce customer support touchpoints while still delivering personal attention to every customer
• Help developers and internal product teams test new products and speed up development
• Identify the most common issues with a product to fix in its future iterations
• Help customers understand how to effectively describe and communicate their issues in the case they still need agent support

Looking to help customers identify and solve problems with your product? Sign up to use this troubleshooting guide template now!