Context Sensitive Help (CSH): What Is It?
Tags: contextsensitivehelp, technicalwriting, technicaldocumentation
Published: 2022-09-13 12:02:00

When customers are seeking help for your SaaS product or website, the last thing they want to do is leave the task they’re currently in to contact your support team. Wouldn’t it be good if they could get help in-context, automatically, and move on with their day?

If your business is willing to put in just a little effort to predict the help customers might need when using your app, you can drastically increase customer satisfaction and customer success. There is software available that allows your company to insert context sensitive help in your application, serving customers with help when and where they need it.

Software products particularly benefit from context sensitive help because the tool can be used to improve the user experience (UX). When users get stuck, they can simply click on a tooltip or pop-up instead of having to navigate to the full documentation manual. This lowers customer frustration and increases the chance they will find a relevant answer.

## What is Context Sensitive Help?

Context sensitive help provides users with assistance in-app, alongside the functions they are currently using within your software. Context sensitive help is a tool that can be installed on your website to serve up relevant content that helps customers with tasks they are trying to accomplish.


The big feature of context sensitive help is that it appears within the User Interface (UI) of your application so users don’t have to break their workflow. Businesses have to examine which areas of their app cause the most confusion and then provide a link to the corresponding page of the help documentation, or a tooltip within the app.

Context sensitive help does exactly what it says on the tin – provides help that is sensitive to the context of the user to enhance the user experience and increase their chance of being successful. Users don’t have to turn to another source in order to troubleshoot any difficulties they might run into.

## User Benefits of Context Sensitive Help Feature

**Reducing Customer Support**

When customers receive help alongside the actions they are performing within your software, this automates the process of receiving support because they are using self-service. A customer who uses context sensitive help to solve an issue is not going to send a support ticket to your team, thus lightening the load on your support queue.

If more customers help themselves through context sensitive help, you can expand your support operations without hiring more agents. More and more customers are able to self-serve, so you can grow your customer base exponentially through automation.

**Browse help article within the software**

As we’ve already mentioned, context sensitive help means you can serve up your help article directly within the software. Customers don’t have to abandon their task in order to benefit from your documentation. Getting help with the software simply becomes part of the experience rather than an extra action the user needs to complete.

If a user doesn’t have to leave the software in order to find assistance, they are much less likely to get distracted and stop using your app. Context sensitive help is the best way to keep users engaged in your app and make sure they stay on track.

**Gain a competitive edge**

Companies that provide their customers with self-service resources like context sensitive help gain a competitive edge over their rivals. Predicting how customers might need assistance requires forethought and a sensitivity to their needs. Companies that don’t invest in context sensitive help are simply expecting customers to look elsewhere for assistance.

Companies that are committed to helping their customers will see higher profits and a better rate of customer success. When they make the help experience so intuitive, customers barely even realise they are receiving support.

**Enhance customer experience**

Including context sensitive help in your software such as tooltips, tutorials, and help articles, makes the entire customer experience that much more engaging. The reality is that if a customer doesn’t know how to use your software, they are likely to stop using it. Most customers aren’t going to read through an entire manual in order to figure out how an application works.

Providing help in context is the best way to enhance the customer experience and ensure that customers continue to enjoy using your product. Support documentation is tightly integrated into your website or application and ends up as one cohesive experience for customers.

**Map your resources to search keywords**

Customers may be on your site searching for particular keywords, and context sensitive help can intervene to display relevant resources. Results are displayed within the site and don’t require navigation to an external resource. This makes it easier for your users to find the results they need through performing a simple search.

## Approaches to Add Content Sensitive Help In Articles

There are a number of ways that users can add context sensitive help to their applications or websites.

**Continue reading the full article at [Document360](https://document360.com/blog/context-sensitive-help/)**