How Many FAQ's Does My Website Need?

Einstein said, "Question everything." But you are running a business, you have to worry about a lot of things, such as keeping your customers happy, generating leads and new business, and keeping a positive cash flow coming in. Your website is at the heart of your business when you are an online business. Creating positive customer experiences is job one for the online business entrepreneur.

Answering Customer Questions: Essential to Business Success

One of the key ingredients in keeping your customers happy is by answering their questions. This can be done in some ways including:

• Customer service emails
• Surveys and polls
• Online blog
• Videos and podcasts
• Having a FAQ section on your site

The Purpose of the FAQ Section

The FAQ section is meant to serve a purpose of answering fundamental questions that customers may have about your business. But can you overdo this?

The key to writing a FAQ section that works is to address critical customer issues while serving to answer the most commonly asked questions. You can take these from your customer service inquiries, complaints, or emails or from customer surveys. This way, you will know that you are addressing the issues that matter most to your clients.

But when is it too much?

How to Tell if You Have Too Many FAQs

• Is the FAQ answered somewhere else in one of the other questions or could you combine it somehow with another question?
• Does the FAQ that is asked seem apologetic in any way? You should never apologize for possible problems while still offering a solution when things come up.
• Does the FAQ answer a question that is essential to your business or could it be answered in customer service emails?
• Is there another way you could answer the question such as through customer service emails or videos?

The purpose of the FAQ section should be to cut down on your amount of customer service due to getting too many emails about things your customers don't understand. One alternative to listing an overabundance of questions within the FAQ section is to put out blog posts on your site to inform customers regularly about your business practices. Creating videos is another good way to communicate important information without overloading your FAQs with too many questions.

Anything Can Happen

Don't be afraid that people will be offended by your FAQ sections. Customers and potential customers realize that in business (as in life), anything can and will happen. It's nice to be able to go to your FAQ section to see what your normal procedure is when something happens so that they know they will get their problem solved.

Including a Positive Statement

For example, if you own a content site, including a question about how to block a writer is not a negative thing as long as you include a positive statement before it. For example, say: "We rarely have any issues between writers and clients and all usually goes smoothly. But not every writer is for everyone. If you have a bad experience with a writer, contact us, and we might be able to help. If all else fails, here are the steps to block a writer."

If you are a content site, it is not out of the ordinary to allow this features of blocking writers. So it's better to provide people with a solution in case they encounter this situation. Alternatively, though, you could just have them contact you if there are any problems. This makes it seem less focused on the issue.

Using Media to Answer Some Questions

Some questions might be better answered through media such as a podcast, video, or blog post. This will cover the subject that you may not want to be included in a perpetual FAQ section and allows you to address it directly and in more detail.

Too Much Information?

It's better to provide more FAQs is it helps people find their answers faster without having to contact you unless of course, you want more contacts from potential customers. If you are a startup business, you could cut down on the number of FAQs and leave a contact form instead saying, "Contact us with your questions." This is a very good idea for a starting business as they test the waters of what is important to their clients and you get an idea of what to include in your FAQ section.

In a Nutshell

Socrates believed that the only way to find out anything was to ask questions. As a business, you know that your customers will have questions about how you do business or what to do about certain situations. As a rule, around 10 FAQs is probably sufficient to handle most concerns.

The rest can be dealt with through social media private messaging, email, and such like.

If you include enough regular blog posts on your site, it's possible you will be able to drop some FAQs altogether. Don't be afraid to address the issues, though. It's what customers want when they have a problem. 

If you like this blog post, contact GetBlogPost.com today to get your own content written. It was written by a GetBlogPost.com writer. Regular blogging is an excellent way to offer customers answers to their questions without overdoing your FAQ section!