Answering customer questions is one of the best ways to deliver a positive customer experience. But it can be hard to find the time to answer them. As an entrepreneur, you already have enough on your plate. What’s more, your customers will often have already asked their questions on forums or entrepreneurial communities. But answers can sometimes be contradictory.

That’s why it’s so important to create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on your website. This document explains the most frequently asked questions to your customers. It prepares them for what they can get from you, and how they can do it. Most companies haven’t, and this is reflected in the frequently asked questions on the forums.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know that the questions are always the same. Whether it’s the price, the products, the payment options, the returns, and so on. This article explains how to create a FAQ on your website while reducing the time you spend on it.

1. The whys and wherefores of FAQs

When a visitor asks a question on a forum, you’ve failed to explain something clearly on your website. He may not understand how your process works, or he may not have found the right place to ask his question.

For customers, the ideal is to be able to formulate a question without having to go to a forum and hope to find the right answer. To do this, you need answers to these questions, and that’s where the FAQ comes in.

However, a FAQ can have several purposes:

– Be easily accessible to a customer.

– Provide clear information about your product.

– Reduce your response times to customers.

– Show that you take charge of your relationship with your customers.

A good example of an FAQ

Let’s see how you can use a FAQ on your website to :

– Be easily accessible to a customer.

– Provide clear information about your product.

– Reduce your response times to customers.

Be easily accessible to customers

You can place your FAQ in the left or top sidebar, or even directly on your home page. The most important thing is to make it accessible to customers, so that they can consult it quickly and easily.

Provide clear information about your product

Now that you’ve set up your FAQ, you need to add any questions your customers may have. For example, if you’re a plumber, you might want to include questions like « How do I clean the toilet? » or « When should I call a plumber?

If you’re selling a particular product, now’s the time to describe it in detail. Make a list of questions your customers may have about this product. This list will be your FAQ.

You can also tell your customers how to use your product, the types of problems you can solve or the question they should ask themselves before calling on you.

Reduce customer response times

If you answer a question, don’t put it in your FAQ. Indeed, if you answer a question, it would be inappropriate to consider it as an answer to your FAQ. So there’s no need for you to add it to this document.

What’s more, if you answer the question, the customer gets the impression that you’ve heard their request, that you’ve taken it on board, and that there are no other problems that may arise. So you’ve reduced your response time and optimized your customer service.

What’s more, if you don’t make any mistakes and answer every question in the FAQ, you’ve got a fantastic chance of getting noticed by your customer. Indeed, it’s unlikely that anyone else will answer his question.

Answer the most frequently asked questions

To avoid answering the same question dozens of times, you can find it in your FAQ. If you’ve answered a question, putting it in your FAQ will reduce the time it takes to answer it.

What’s more, if you’ve already answered the question and filed it away in your FAQ, it means you haven’t made a mistake. Customers really appreciate this type of service, as it makes them feel valued by the company.

2. The right questions to ask

To make a good FAQ, you need to know what questions you’re going to answer. Here too, there are several ways to proceed.

You can simply Google « What’s the best way to … » and replace « to » with the word of your choice. You can also do a Google search for: « How to do… » and replace « do » with the word you want.

You’ll then have a list of questions and answers that develop the idea of your FAQ.

For inspiration, here are some examples of the most frequently asked questions that you can find on the Internet:

– What is SEO?

– What are the characteristics of SEO?

– What are good SEO practices?

– What are the steps involved in SEO optimization?

– What’s the best way to do SEO?

– How do I know if my site is optimized for SEO?

– What are the tips for working with SEO?

– Where can I find information about SEO?

You also need to know who you’re addressing your FAQ to. You can draw inspiration from your corporate identity, logo or model.

You can also ask your team or customers who they are and what their profile is.

Also think about people who don’t know your company and who may have access to your web page.

Writing questions for your FAQ

You’ve finished collecting questions from Internet users. Now it’s time to write them down!

Here are a few tips to help you:

– First, read the questions you’ve collected. You can also use statistical software such as Google Analytics or Piwik.

– Try to answer the question in a few words. If this isn’t possible, make a short summary.

– Avoid long sentences and complicated expressions.

– Write down the questions as if you were talking to someone in front of you. Be friendly and straightforward.

– Put in as many questions as possible. The more there are, the easier it is to answer the remaining ones.

– You can also write the most frequently asked questions in very small type.

– Don’t forget to include keywords in your questions, as this will help you with natural referencing.

– Don’t forget to include links to other pages on your site. People will have more confidence in your company if you provide them with complete answers.

– Don’t write questions that don’t meet a need. So if you have a question like « What do you think of our site? », it doesn’t make sense and you risk getting irrelevant comments.

– Remember to put the questions in their logical order. Here’s a reading grid you can use to organize your content:

– Your company/product

– The service (or product)

– The benefits

– Disadvantages

– The purpose of the web page

– For content to be relevant, make sure the questions are related to the service (or product) you want to promote.

– Also remember to explain the purpose of your company and/or business on your web page. It’s important to include a paragraph explaining what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.

– Don’t forget to update your questions regularly, adding new ones or modifying old ones. This will keep the web page more active and interesting.

– If you don’t have any writing experience, you might want to ask someone who does. In fact, a poorly-posed question can have a detrimental effect on the quality of the content.

– Once you’ve finalized the content of your web page, it’s often a good idea to have it validated by an expert or a person skilled in the subject. This will help you avoid errors that could affect the quality of your web page.

3. The right answers for your customers

– Answer customers’ questions and help them solve their problems.

– Welcome consumer feedback and respond to their concerns.

– Give consumers the opportunity to write to you, call you or contact you in other ways.

The content of your web page

Your web page should be made up of content that meets consumers’ expectations. In other words, it must be clear, concise and well-structured.

The four most important types of content for your website are :

– Text, which includes the main text of your web page as well as everything displayed on the home page. It must be coherent and interesting.

– Images, which help make your website attractive and fun. They can be useful to illustrate your words or represent products.

– Links, which connect the information on your website. You can use links to create links to other websites or to pages on your own website.

– Malfunctions, which are intended to warn consumers if you are unable to answer their questions, for example if you are on vacation or if you have been the victim of an incident.

To ensure that your website complies with current regulations, you need to have a page declaring that you have updated your legal notices. You may also need a page declaring that the content of your website is not intended for anyone under the age of 18 (if this is the case).

It’s also important to note that it’s not mandatory to have a button for reporting inappropriate content on your website.

Before creating a website, you need to make sure that the information it contains is accurate and up-to-date. You must also provide your company’s name and address. However, it is not mandatory to have a physical address.

Although it may seem obvious, it’s important not to forget to update your legal notices if your company changes. For example, if you’ve changed your name or moved house.

If you have any questions about legal notices, don’t hesitate to contact your communications agency or a lawyer specializing in Internet law.

4. Questions we don’t want to answer

Whatever field you work in, there’s a good chance you’ll have to answer a survey that can be long and tedious.

You may be asked to complete a survey simply to obtain a new customer account.

However, there are some things that aren’t supposed to happen, such as when you’ve gone to your bank or another company’s customer service department, and they’ve asked you for personal information such as your Social Security number, bank account number and address.

Just because a company has a secure site doesn’t mean you’re obliged to answer their questions. Indeed, it’s crucial not to answer intimate questions, or questions that aren’t related to the relationship you have with the company.

There are also questions that companies should never force you to answer, because they’re not related to your relationship with them.

Indeed, they are likely to have consequences for your privacy and security.

Conclusion on FAQs

FAQs are frequently asked questions, so it’s important to consult them first before contacting the company. However, you should always bear in mind that the questions and answers are written by the company in question. It’s not uncommon to see information that doesn’t correspond to reality. For example, a company may say it doesn’t use your personal data, when in fact it does.

You’ll find a list of frequently asked questions on most sites, which can be grouped into three categories:

– Technical questions (what means they use to manage personal data…)

– Questions related to user relations (how to modify my personal data, etc.)

– Questions related to the company’s privacy policy (what are the purposes of data collection, etc.).

Are these questions real? Not always, as we’ve already said. So you can read that the company doesn’t share your data with third parties, when in fact it does. Or that they don’t use them for marketing purposes… Yet it’s obvious that all companies use your data for marketing!

There’s another important point to bear in mind: the privacy policy must be as clear as possible. Don’t hesitate to read it several times and ask for clarification if necessary.

Article source: www.instants-web-formation.fr