Your Team Rewrote the Same Answer 847 Times: Knowledge Articles for Odoo 18 Helpdesk

Your support team answered the same "How do I return a product?" question 847 times last month. Each response took 4.2 minutes to write. That's 59.3 hours of copy-pasting slightly different versions of the same answer.

At $28/hour average support salary, you burned $1,660 on repetitive answers. Across all common questions (returns, shipping, account reset, payment issues), your team wastes 340 hours per month retyping information that already exists somewhere. Annual cost: $114,000 in duplicated effort.

Worse: 23% of those 847 answers were slightly wrong. Different agents gave contradicting return windows (some said 14 days, others said 30). Customers got confused. Support escalations doubled because of inconsistent info.

Odoo 18's Knowledge Articles fix this by letting you write answers once, then insert them into tickets with one click. Here's how to set it up so your team stops reinventing the wheel 340 times per month.

What Knowledge Articles Actually Do

Knowledge Articles = pre-written answers stored in Odoo. Support agents can insert them into helpdesk tickets with 2 clicks instead of retyping everything.

Step 1: Create a Knowledge Article

Let's create an article for "Return Instructions" - the question your team answers 847 times per month.

Create the Article

1. Open Knowledge app in Odoo
2. Click Create button
3. Enter title: "Product Return Instructions"
4. Select visibility: Internal (agents only) or Public (customers too)
5. Click into the article body

Write the Content

Don't just copy your existing FAQ. Structure it for support agents who need to send this to customers.

Add Clipboard Template

This creates a "Copy" button that copies the article content to clipboard. Useful for pasting into chat support or external systems.

1. In the article editor, click Add Clipboard Template
2. Format the content exactly how it should appear when copied
3. Save the article

Step 2: Link Articles to Helpdesk Team

Tell Odoo which articles should be available to which helpdesk team.

1. Go to Helpdesk app
2. Click the dropdown on your team (e.g., "Support Team")
3. Select Configuration
4. Scroll to Self-Service section
5. Enable "Knowledge" checkbox
6. In the Articles field, select your article(s)
7. Click Save

Step 3: Use Articles in Tickets (The 3 Methods)

When a support agent opens a ticket, they have 3 ways to use Knowledge Articles:

Method 1: Send as Email Message

1. Open the helpdesk ticket
2. Click the Knowledge icon (book icon, top-right)
3. Search or select: "Product Return Instructions"
4. Article opens in preview
5. Click "Send as Message"
6. Email composer opens with article content pre-filled
7. Add personal note if needed (e.g., "Hi Sarah,")
8. Click Send

Customer receives a professionally formatted email with complete instructions. Agent saved 4 minutes of typing.

Method 2: Use as Ticket Description

1. Open ticket
2. Click Knowledge icon → Select article
3. Click "Use as Description"
4. Article content replaces/appends to ticket description

Good for documenting the resolution in the ticket itself. Other agents can see exactly what instructions were given.

Method 3: Copy to Chatter

1. Open ticket
2. Click Knowledge icon → Select article
3. Click "Copy"
4. Article content is copied to clipboard
5. Paste into chatter message
6. Log note or send to customer

Useful when you want to add context before/after the article content.

Step 4: Publish Articles to Customer Portal

Let customers help themselves before creating tickets. Reduces ticket volume by 30-40%.

Make Article Public

1. Open your Knowledge article
2. Click "Share" button
3. Change visibility to "Public"
4. Article now appears in customer Help menu

Customer Experience

1. Customer visits your website
2. Clicks "Help" in main menu
3. Sees list of published articles
4. Searches for "return"
5. Opens "Product Return Instructions"
6. Follows steps without creating a ticket

Real-World Example: Return Policy Article

Client: D2C beauty brand, 8-person support team, averaging 847 return questions per month.

Common Mistakes That Kill Adoption

Which Questions to Turn Into Articles

Not every question needs an article. Focus on high-volume, consistent answers.

Top 10 Articles to Create First

Measuring Success

Track these metrics before/after implementing Knowledge Articles:

Quick Implementation Checklist