FAQs Help Automate Support Questions!
 A common and useful feature on the Internet is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.
An FAQ page gives you a chance to answer questions before they are asked. These can be the same questions you would typically hear from customers in a regular brick-and-mortar store. This page is a must-have for online businesses selling a product or a service.
Answers to All Their Questions
Think about how many times you have been shopping online
and needed a couple questions answered. You searched the whole website
but found no answers. At this point you may have either left the site
to look elsewhere or been forced to e-mail the company for answers.
Now, if
those answers were readily available on that site, you probably would
have made the purchase immediately, right? The same is true for your
customers.
Almost everyone has questions, whether they are
about products, warranties, returns, or other general information about
doing business with you. This is just the nature of being in business.
If you can answer those questions through a frequently asked questions
page, without the consumer having to take steps to contact you
directly, then more of your website's visitors will be converted into
buyers.
Frequently Asked Questions Pages Can Evolve Over Time
As time passes you are bound to get questions that
are not answered on your FAQ page. As these questions come in via
e-mail, add them to your FAQ page. This cuts down on time replying to
the same question, and will provide your consumers with an increasingly
comprehensive guide.
Your frequently asked questions page will become a
constantly changing part of your website that is continually being
updated. A side benefit of this is that the search engines will eat it
up. Your consumers will also see that you care about customer service because your FAQ answers all of their questions and makes their lives much easier.
Frequently Asked Questions Pages Are Not Just For Businesses
FAQs can be incorporated into just about any type
of site. For example, if you have an informational site on crafts and
you are getting e-mailed on a regular basis with basic questions, you
can compile the questions and answers into an FAQ.
Action Steps
1. Start compiling basic questions that you are often asked or feel you could be asked to create a basic FAQ page.
2. As your site grows, continually add new questions and answers.
Important Points
- Try to cover all of the basic questions first, and then go into the more complex questions and answers.
- Make the link to your FAQ page fairly obvious so it will be easy to find on your website.
- Keep the page updated as often as possible.
Related Resources From A Touch of Business
Customer Service Mistakes
Related Resources From the Web
FAQ Wikipedia
Copy Writing: 3 Tips for Creating an Effective FAQ
Tips on Writing a Good FAQ
How to Write a FAQ Page
How to Write FAQs: Do's & Don't
Video
Creating a Simple FAQ Page
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