The FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions page is one of the crucial elements of a website. It helps you provide better customer service to the people visiting your site. It also adds to the reputation of the site, based on the reliability of the answers. There is a certain knack to creating the most effective FAQ pages, and we are going to show you how, with tips from the best web development company in Chennai.
Compile the Frequently Asked Questions
Of course the most obvious step would be to get your data ready. Before you get onto the design aspect, you need to ensure that you have the required and relevant data on hand to fit in the layout. There are several ways that you can infer the FAQs from.
Some companies simply make up their own FAQ page out of what they think customers would want to know, but that is of no help to anyone. The most apparent method is to check out questions that actual customers have asked. It could be
- Questions posted on your Google reviews,
- Questions posted on your comments section,
- Questions posted on the product section, or
- Questions directed at your customer care executives by customers.
This last part is a gold mine of information to post on your FAQ page. The customer care execs know exactly where most customers face processing hurdles, what questions are repeatedly asked, and what the answers are. Not only do you get the questions, you also get the answers to them.
The second method is to set up task groups involving employees, assigning them products and services and asking them to note down doubts they would get if they were actually buying the product. You could also check the support mails and subsequent customer care replies to gain more insights. Set up categories like product specifications, product pricing, product quality, etc. to categorise the questions into easily identifiable segments.
Note the answers for those shortlisted questions
When you get the questions, you would shortlist those that were frequently asked and then categorised them. Now it’s time to get the answers for those questions. Despite the name FAQ page, suggesting it is a page of questions, it is all about getting the right answers.
The customers do not want rambling answers filled with too much unnecessary information. The answers must be concise, and to the point, preferably within a 250 word limit, with exceptions of course. The answers must also be accurate and updated with the changes made in the site.
The customer care team is your go to for information on FAQ answers. They are already well versed on the information that is pertinent to the customers. The next group is your technical team if you are in charge of manufacturing or assembling your products. The sales, marketing and accounting team can also help wherever their expertise is deemed required.
Wherever possible use screenshots and videos to guide the customer effectively. A picture is worth a thousand words, and is also easily interpretable by laymen. Again we cannot stress enough the importance of updating these images to match any changes made in the site.
Plan the hierarchy and navigation of the FAQ page
Now that you have your FAQs and their answers, you can start to work on the web page design. This is where you need to layout out the hierarchy and map of the FAQs. There must be an organic layering that allows customers to easily find their queries, even without the filter or search box. The FAQ page must, in simpler terms, be easy to navigate.
You can display the categories as a horizontal or vertical bar menu so the customer can choose where they want to go. Collapsible windows to indicate the categories are another interesting choice to make navigation easier for customers, while restricting it to a single page.
On the other hand you can opt for a multi page layout where each category has its own dedicated page. A single FAQ home page could connect all the category pages together so the customer can jump to where they want using the links on the FAQ home page. You can add as many sub categories as you want to refine the links within each category page.
Show it where they can see it
Once the page has been designed and the copy has been incorporated in it, you must decide where on the website, the particular webpage is placed. It shows prominently, so the customer can easily find it on your website.
The usual areas where the FAQ page is placed are the footer, sidebar and the main menu. Out of the three, the footer is the most popular place where one finds the FAQ page on most sites. The trend these days is not using the actual name, but a close enough term to denote what that link comprises. We assure you, that this is going to make it difficult for customers, who do not want to waste time in mundane interpretations. FAQs are FAQs or Help, no other term can make it clearer.
Another way to direct customers to your FAQ page is through a subtle nudge in the Contact page of the website. Most customers are inclined to pick up the phone or shoot a mail to customer care, however trivial the query is. Most of those queries would have been covered in your FAQ page. Thus you can include a reminder above your contact information asking them to check the FAQ page before contacting customer care.
Replace and recycle the FAQs as needed
Keeping the FAQ page static is one of the most common mistakes that businesses make. Like the entire website, the FAQ page also needs constant revaluation to remain relevant. There could have been changes in site layout while some of the FAQs are still referencing older versions of your site.
Some of the FAQs could also be about discontinued products and services, or there has been a change in the product features. All this needs to be updated in the FAQ page in addition to the product pages. There are new questions pouring in from customers every day. Assign people to track these questions and update your FAQ page to include them.
There may be times when a lot of customers are still asking a question that has been answered in the FAQ page. This is a clear indication that the answer may have become obsolete, or it wasn’t clear enough. Such issues also need to be addressed.
Open Designs is one of the top 10 web development companies in Chennai and they have been developing SEO friendly websites for over 20 years. Designing an effective FAQ page is one of their strong points as it is where SEO can be implemented on a large scale capacity. They have dedicated experts who can help evaluate, compile and design your FAQ page to perfection. Get in touch with them at www.opendesignsin.com.
