How much thought do you give to the FAQ section of your website? It can be hard to know what questions to include, especially if your business is new and you have to just guess what questions will come up the most often.
Your FAQ should serve several purposes.
- To answer customer questions.
- To lessen the load on your support and customer service teams.
- To further your brand identity.
Most businesses keep the first two points in mind, but how often do you see an FAQ that takes that last point into consideration?
Questions and answers don’t have to be cut and dry. You can insert a little personality. Although the primary goal should still be to make it easy for customers to find answers, feel free to add some fun factoids or little jokes to make the experience more fun. The tone should match that of the rest of your site.
When writing your FAQ section, keep your target audience in mind as well. How you write your answers will depend a lot on who you expect to be reading them. If your customers are primarily highly educated, highly technical people, they may feel insulted by a FAQ that assumes they have no idea what they’re doing. On the other hand, if your customers come from all walks of life, it’s good to write answers that don’t assume a certain level of knowledge.
Just like your website and social media, we believe that an FAQ shouldn’t be static. What does the data say? What answers are people searching your site for most often? What do they call or email you about because the FAQ didn’t answer their questions? Over time, you’ll need to add new questions that come up often, and make others easier to find based on common search terms.
Most importantly, you need to update your FAQ when the answers change! Ensure that you’re accurately representing what your company currently does and how your products work. Above all, make sure that if your contact information changes, that the FAQ reflects this. Nothing erodes customer trust more quickly than making it difficult to get in touch when they have problems!
If you’re wondering how big of a priority your FAQ should really be, keep this in mind: it’s often the most visited section of a website, alongside an About Us page and outpacing your Products or Services pages. Many people are going to land on your FAQ page while researching your company -- make sure it leaves them with a good impression!
In conclusion, your FAQ is a living document. Give it some personality and nurture it.
If you want to see an example of what we like to see in an FAQ, check out the recently updated one on our site.