Literally, all of you are familiar with the acronym FAQs. It stands for Frequently Asked Questions. You are probably familiar with FAQs on websites, user manuals of gadgets, and the like. Just so you know, FAQs go way beyond that; they can be and should be available for anything involving serving customers. If you had never thought it well, start now, every business can and should have FAQs. It really helps and streamlines your business operations in so many ways. In this article, I look at exactly why your business should have FAQs. Bear in mind that the easiest way to incorporate FAQs for your business is through having a website. In most cases, FAQs for businesses are found on their websites. There are of course other ways of disseminating them to customers e.g. through fliers, in-store posters and so on.
Faster And Pleasant Customer Experience
Your FAQs help customers or prospective customers get answers to issues they might have quicker. Let me give an example from a real-life experience. Last year I was on a short term contract at a particular company specializing in livestock feeds and veterinary services. I noticed that every day the nature of queries or questions people came with were largely the same. Thus you would find that sales representatives would at times get frustrated from being asked the same things over and over again. It is typical really, monotony is frustrating and thus at times sales representatives could address customer concerns rudely. Plus many people would walk in every day only to ask about issues that are more or less the same. This all could be addressed by having FAQs; that way human interactions prone to emotional standoffs get eliminated.
Time Saving And Uniformity
It only makes sense to get to this issue of time-saving. FAQs address frequently or commonly asked questions. This means people have to go through the FAQs to get answers. This does away with them having to stand in line or taking productive time away from company staff. The staff members get to have more time to attend to other key tasks without constantly being stopped to address FAQs. Imagine the inconvenience of getting incessant messages, calls and emails every day asking more or less the same questions. There is also the issue of uniformity which is vital. FAQs enable uniformity in terms of responses to frequently asked questions. The responses will be standardized and uniform; which is not the case if humans are left to address. There will always be variations in how people address frequently asked questions. They can misrepresent things, be inaccurate or leave important aspects in answering such questions. When you have well-structured FAQs there is uniformity.
Drawing Traffic To And Retaining It On Your Business Website
Studies have shown that it is most likely that website visitors go to FAQs right after landing on the homepage. This shows you how important FAQs are because they will determine whether or not people stay on your site. What the FAQs cover, how structured or not they are, and how detailed or not they are can solely determine who stays on or leaves your business website. All this contributes to people gaining trust in your brand plus it increases the likelihood of people making purchases. In fact, some studies have shown that over 70 per cent of site visitors expect to find a FAQs section. This means if it is not there they will most likely leave the site immediately.
Online Visibility And Discoverability
FAQs are integral to search engine optimization (SEO). Remember that search engines want to easily make sense of what your business is all about. If they have a good hang of that from your website they can better bring it up when people conduct their searches. Searches would need to know what your business does regarding things like your products and services. FAQs provide a good opportunity to include strategic keywords, AdWords, and so on. This all contributes to boosting your website’s SEO. In the end, this will ensure your business is visible and easily discoverable online.
These are 4 of some of the fundamental reasons why your business should have FAQs. You should have them and it is not just putting together a bunch of questions. You need to do thorough work in ensuring that the FAQs you cover are all-encompassing. FAQs, if well incorporated, can save your business lots of money and bring in lots of money. Note also that it is a present continuous exercise; always seek to establish whether your FAQs are serving their purpose or they need to be improved.
