Customer service is the key to keeping your customers happy, but 73% of consumers want self-service technology. They don’t want to deal with customer service, so how do you give your customers the support that they need without running them off?
An FAQ page can take care of customer concerns, and it can also take care of yours.
Customers are irritated when they have to deal with customer service, but it is equally as irritating to have to answer the same questions over and over again.
An FAQ page takes care of both these issues with ease. And you barely have to lift a finger.
This is where you host all your frequently asked questions, hence the name. Customers can easily find answers to their questions about your product or business all on their own.
However, FAQ pages don’t need to be entirely made up of customer service questions. Helping your customers navigate your site and make decisions is more than just addressing common questions.
You can compile all the need-to-knows and make sure your customers are informed. And even further, its benefits include:
- Helps your customer in every stage of the purchasing journey
- Reduces purchasing anxiety
- Improves overall SEO
- Prevents customer complaints before they arise
Simply put, your FAQ page can be wherever you want it. Most pages are found either embedded in the site or on their own landing page.
As long as it’s easy for your customers to find, it works.
That being said, your customers need to discover it when it matters most.
Their journey as a buyer leads them to questions and concerns, and they need to be able to reach out to you quickly and easily so that they don’t leave the page before they decide to make a purchase.
A few tips to improve visibility and usage:
- Don’t bury it in the footer — instead, incorporate it into your site so that it is easily discoverable.
- Create specific URLs for individual questions.
- Link to the page from multiple places — have a button near check out when a customer may be hesitant.
On Amazon Web Services’ site, their support can be found right along the main menu on the top of the page. There is no need to search or click through to find it, it is right there, clear and easy to find.
The basic requirements of an FAQ page follow the basics of addressing common concerns, questions, and objections of customers.
It should follow a logical order, where the most important, relevant or common pieces of content are placed high on the page so that they are easy to find. This is the easiest way to save time for both you and your customers.
It is the first point of contact between you and your customers, but in order for it to be of value, it needs to consider the needs of the business first.
There are certain templates and software that can allow you to measure success, and keeping these details in mind can accredit your page in more ways than one.
- Questions that go to customer service
- Key selling points
- Speak to objections
- Calls to action
It may seem obvious, in part to the few references already made, but it is extremely important to include frequently asked questions on the page.
If the point of this page is to save customer service resources and save customers time (it is), then why wouldn’t you add these questions? It is the quickest and easiest fix, and it’s that simple.
Positioning your answers is important. Write your questions from a customer’s perspective and put a positive spin on the answer, even if the question has a negative connotation.
Your FAQ page is an optimal place to gather content that informs customers about the business, its products and key points of sale.
In the same way that a customer will go looking for answers to their questions, they will go looking for reasons that your product is better than a competitor’s.
Take this opportunity to really wow your customers. Show them why they should choose your company or your product, but be careful not to be too salesy.
Try something like customer or client reviews, allowing prospects to see what current clients are saying about the product.
This is back to the basics. In line with frequently asked questions, speaking to objections will allow you to clear the air in order to put the customer at ease.
To keep that obstacle from hindering closure with the customer, you can put a detailed explanation on the FAQ page so that it is out in the open and put to rest.
On Jomashop’s site, they directly address customer concerns about the warranty on their product.
It doesn’t have to be a detailed disclosure of reasons why people object to your product. Just an acknowledgment of customer concerns to alleviate any distrust of the company or product.
Once the customer has their questions answered, they’ll need a push toward the next step.
Having a call to action on the FAQ page, the same page where they become informed about the product and their objections, will likely lead them to make a purchase or book an appointment.
Even though they are no longer curious, they may not navigate back to the purchase page right away.
ChipBot has call to actions similar to popups, but they convert higher and are easy to testwith. You can customize them to pop up when users scroll to a certain point on your site. This allows you to:
- promote when users are ready
- reduce bounce rates
- collect user feedback
FAQ pages come in different shapes, sizes and formats. Not all FAQ pages look the same or have the same content. Follow the guidelines above and customize it to your needs. To get started, try one of these 3 suggestions.
There are many different formats and templates that can get you started. Following a template is as simple as just downloading or copying the example and filling in your own information.
Templates can be very helpful as an outline to get you started, but do your due diligence in your selection to ensure it is a good format for you.
Using a template can save time and resources, allowing you to get right into the content without worrying about format and placement. Templates can also help you come up with questions, providing common questions for different industries, so you don’t have to dig too deep.
Once you have the basics down, however, you will want to get into the nitty-gritty of your specific business.
Remember: there is no universal template. Be sure to customize based on your brand design and your customer’s behavior.
If you know what you want and need, you can do it yourself. Once you know what it should look like and what should be included, create your own with a logical order and format that makes sense for your business.
Again, here you have to be careful in making sure you have a way to ensure that your page will work well.
Creating your own page may seem like a daunting task, but it really can be quite easy. It can be beneficial by simply being:
- Highly customizable and flexible to your needs
- A unique and exciting experience for the customer
- Inclusive of all the information you need
If creating on your own or from a sample template is too large a task for your company, consider using a knowledge base instead. A knowledge base has the essentials of an FAQ page, but can replace a landing page and be embedded into your site.
The software takes away the hassle of creating and updating your FAQ page, you just have to give it the necessary information.
Knowledge base software is the best of both worlds. There is no need to create a format or use a template, and it is:
- Customizable
- Unique
- Inclusive
The software also updates based on feedback and provides an analysis so that you can see what is working well and what isn’t.
With ChipBot, you get intuitive self-service support for FAQs, service info, and product details, for free.
ChipBot also gives you:
- Extreme portability
- Storage without trade-offs
- Flexible design
- Improvement over time
If you decide to use a template, make sure to choose one that is compatible with your needs. As stated above, there is no one template that will work for everyone and everything, however, try not to choose a boring one.
You want your customers to be excited about your product, not so bored they leave the page. Some templates to get you started can be found here.
Another way to get started is to find general questions for your page. You’ll want to dig deeper into the specifics of your business for most of your questions, but personalize these questions and their answers to kick off your page:
- Where are you located?
- How do I make an appointment?
- What is your return policy?
- Is there a warranty on the product?
- What makes your product better than x or y?
- How is the product made?
- How do I contact your company?
All FAQ pages are not created equal. There are good examples, but there are a lot more bad examples.
If you let your page become a neglected piece of your site, then you are wasting the potential for your customers to build confidence in your brand.
Don’t half-ass it, customers are looking for full, coherent, and credible answers to their problems.
Shake Shack has many locations, but their common questions among customers remain the same.
They list and answer many questions, and even have a link at the bottom for unlisted questions—all you have to do is click.
It is clear, straightforward, and easy to navigate.
Athleta does a great job of including a call to action on their customer service page. With the list of questions and answers, you can easily find what you need and move on to making a decision.
The call to action helps you respond immediately with easy navigation with an exciting recommendation.
The organization on the Dick’s Sporting Goods’ FAQ page is a great example of logical order.
There are defined categories so the customer can easily find what they are looking for without having to search or navigate.
The problem with this page is that it provides no immediate support to the customer. It allows you to send in a question, but there is no way to easily find your answer on the spot.
The customer may be able to navigate the page to find the answer on their own, but they want immediate support, and they will likely leave the page without asking for help.
While target has a great help page with good organization and helpful links, you have to scroll to the bottom of the page to find it.
This site does a good job of clearly communicating each question and answer, but the structure has no flow to it. There are no categories, and the questions do not seem to be organized in a thoughtful manner.
Don’t fret too much over it, just keep these examples in mind and get cracking on yours ASAP.
today!
