I did an article on why your business should have FAQs. If you have not read it already it would be best to start with it. In this article, I discuss what you should put or include in your FAQs. It is not just about coming up with a bunch of questions. You have to be strategic about what to include so that the FAQs are all-encompassing. Bear in mind that FAQs can boost your site’s ranking on Google. FAQs can be the reason why some business websites show up first in Google searches whilst others do not.
Important Consideration
Let me start by emphasising something that will inform what to put in your FAQs. The best source of what to put in your FAQs is the actual customers. If you are a business that effectively collects data from your interactions with customers this should be easy. What do people usually ask regarding your products and services? What questions do people usually ask about your brand in general? From the time’s customers contact you, what are the most common issues at play? You will find that good businesses have an enquiries section and or a call centre. These are central to a business figuring out what is frequently asked. As much as you can guess what might be frequently asked, it is better to get from the horse’s mouth.
Products And Services
This is the most obvious because people will be curious to know what you are about and offer. This can basically be a categorization or listing of the products and services you offer. You can include images, even short video clips, with brief explainer notes where necessary. You can also include prices and how people can actually purchase. All things being equal you can even have links here that will redirect people to make a purchase. There are so many variations as to what you can cover under this. You basically have to address any common questions about your products or services.
Simplification Of Terms And Conditions
Terms and conditions are usually long-form and riddled with legal jargon. Thus it is convenient for people to understand the core terms and conditions in the simplest of forms. For doing your investigations you will find that most FAQs have to do with terms and conditions. A quick example is a stuff like refunds or returns; it would be great to enunciate it here in simple terms.
Payment Information
There are also lots of dynamics when it comes to payment information. How can people pay? What is possible and what is not? Especially here in Zimbabwe, this would be a vital section given our monetary and fiscal policies. You can even address things like exchange rates and the like. So many queries usually arise from payment related issues so you should address such concerns here.
Queries
Queries come in all shapes and sizes; payment related queries are just a part of them. What are the commonly cited queries and how are they addressed? How do you bring them up, who do you approach and through which channels? All these and more must have a segment under your FAQs.
Live Chat
FAQs can do the job totally but at times they can only go as far. There might be some unique scenarios that FAQs might only partially address. That is where live chat or live support comes in. Chatbots can be used here as a first responder function but humans should take it up from there. There should be a team or someone who attends to live chat requests. This will give a fuller experience for your FAQs; if FAQs fall short people can always resort to live chat.
These are the 5 basic ones but this is not a one size fits all. Remember you have to figure out the FAQs from service data borne out of your interactions with customers. Thus, due to different contexts from business to business, what to put in FAQs may vary immensely.
In closing let me just share with you some basic pointers in coming up with great FAQs sections. In coming up with FAQs, imagine you were the customer and what questions would you possibly have. You go further to even survey by asking the customers. Alternatively, you can infer just by taking stock of the questions your business gets daily – you will figure out what is frequently asked. People typically hate going through long-form content – keep your questions and answers short and precise. To augment that, present your answers in point form or short paragraphs. Use plain language that is easy to understand; it is wise to also structure your FAQs into categories.
