Customer service can be delivered with and without the implication of your support representatives. As a business owner, you understand it’s important to have both ‘regular’ customer service and self-service. The first one refers to service in which customers contact you to ask for information and solutions to their problems. The second is related to resources such as FAQ pages or community forums your customers can access when they have a question.

Although we refer more to the first category when speaking about customer service, self-service is also an essential element. It completes the puzzle, helps you offer excellent customer support and can bring you great benefits:

• helps you save great resources such as time and money
• customers have a pleasant option to search for information
• can make you look like an expert in the field
• can increase your sales 

Research also shows us 40% of customers would use self-service support in order to avoid contacting a support representative. Self-service support has become a popular tool which plays an important role for your customer support and your business.

The efficient FAQ page

Let’s look more at the FAQ page. Containing the most frequently asked questions about a product or service, it is a resource greatly accessed by your customers.

An Efficient Faq page is composed of:

• a clear structure
• answers to a large number of questions
• a wide variety of resources
• user-friendly design

Here are 6 simple steps to help you create an efficient FAQ page.

Make it visible

When customers enter your website, they should see your FAQ page immediately. They are looking for it because they have a problem or cannot perform a certain action. Making it visible and easy to access can help your customers with their problem and offer them a pleasant experience.

Consider that they use multiple devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones. Having a user-friendly website is a must nowadays. Make sure your FAQ remains visible while customers are browsing your website.

Have an easy-to-read structure

Your FAQ needs to be well-structured and intuitive. This means you should include different question categories (related to certain products, features, types of issues), emphasize the most important information and make it easy to read.

Customers need to find answers quickly and this depends strongly on your FAQ structure.

When creating a FAQ page, take into consideration these tips:

• Write short and clear sentences
  They make your texts easy to read.
• Try keeping one main idea per paragraph
  It helps you write clear and coherent texts.
• Use headings and subheadings
  It helps customers determine what subject you are approaching in those paragraphs.
• Take advantage of bullets and lists (especially when you are explaining a multiple-step process)

Add articles from your blog

Maybe you already discussed about a problem or a series of tips your customers may find useful in some of your blog articles. Include them in your FAQ page. It can help you you deliver great answers to your customers and save some time.

If you do not have a blog or discuss other topics on it, including articles you consider relevant from other sources is also a great idea. The key point is to offer customers a wide variety of answers.

Include a search box in the FAQ page

Having a Search Box in the FAQ page is a crucial element. Some customers may need to look for specific information and you have to provide them the means to do it.

The search box needs to be placed in a visible part of the page. Also, a well-defined table of contents comes in handy and makes the process of looking for information easier.

Add media

Besides text, videos, images and other visual examples are excellent elements that can help your customers understand a problem. Tutorials and how-to videos are really easy to use and come with a double benefit:

• customers can see exactly what they have to do
• (sometimes,) they have a person explaining the process and providing additional information

Constantly update the FAQ page

You release a new version of your product or service. Your customers send you feedback about your offerings. They discover a new issue with one of your offerings. All of these are factors which can determine you to update your FAQ page.

Including new topics and questions is important for having an efficient FAQ page.

We are gladly inviting you to share with us your expectations for an efficient FAQ page!

The post How To Create An Efficient FAQ Page For Your Business appeared first on Helparo.