Michael Epps Utley {kind=image/jpg}
Creating a small business frequently asked questions (FAQs) page on your website may seem daunting. However, it’s worth the time. Not only will it save you and the people on your team from having to answer the same questions over and over via phone, email, or chat — a helpful FAQ page creates a better customer experience. It’s better to give people the information they need when they need it to move more efficiently through the sales process.
This guide explains how to quickly and easily develop FAQs that will provide prospective customers with the right information right away.
How to Develop Helpful Small Business FAQs
Here are four steps to take to produce a comprehensive FAQ page for your website.
1. Compile FAQs From Multiple Sources
People have a lot of questions. An FAQ isn’t meant to answer everything, but rather the most common questions your representatives receive. Interview the people on your sales and customer service teams, along with those who manage website forms and your email inbox, to find out what customers ask about most. Also, check the questions you receive through the Questions and Answers section of your Google Business Profile (GBP) and on social media.
Document all the questions in a spreadsheet to stay organized and ensure nothing gets lost.
If you own a single-location business, one spreadsheet should be adequate. For a multi-location operation, consider a separate sheet and set of FAQs for each one.
Gathering questions isn’t once and done. Customers need new information all the time, so it’s wise to check the questions they’re asking regularly.
2. Organize Your Spreadsheet Into Different Categories
Review the questions you gathered and bucket them by type, such as putting all the business-hours queries in one column and those about products and services in another. Make a column for each main category of question you are receiving. If you have one-off questions, create a catch-all column for those.
3. Assign FAQs to the Right People
Based on what you’ve learned from reviewing and organizing your questions, you’re ready to identify the best people to answer them. In some cases, it could be a product or service manager; in others, it might be a sales and customer service representative.
Once you have answers to all your questions, ensure all key stakeholders review them to make certain they’re accurate and complete.
4. Review Your FAQs Frequently
Businesses change at a rapid pace these days. That’s why it’s critical for you and your stakeholders to review FAQs to ensure they’re current and complete regularly. Fortunately, updating FAQ pages is easy.
Where to Post FAQs
Now that you’ve compiled your small business FAQs, where should you post them? Here are some places to consider:
Multi-location businesses should post related FAQs to each location’s landing page.
Single-location companies should post the answers to the questions asked most frequently on their home page, contact page, and about page.
Product- and service-related questions and answers should go on the related offering pages.
Post your top questions on your Google Business Profile (GBP) in the Questions and Answers section and answer them. This saves people from having to ask them on the platform or to visit your website.
Film a short video providing brief answers to your top FAQs. Put the video on your website and GBP, and post and pin it on social media.
Include answers to your top FAQs in your social profile descriptions and regularly publish them as posts.
Some FAQs may provide value on signage, such as ones about returns, shipping, and gift cards.
Replace phone hold music with answers to frequently asked questions. While you want to avoid putting people on hold whenever possible, providing them with helpful information is better than forcing them to listen to music. And it may provide the information they need. A win-win!
Don’t limit your thinking to just answering questions on an FAQ page on your website. Find ways to make it easy for people to find relevant answers to their queries no matter where they are in the sales process. For instance, creating longer-form blogs that address FAQs in more granular ways is a great SEO-friendly way to help customers find what they’re looking for while ranking for keywords that matter most to your business.
Small Business FAQs: The Final Word
An FAQ page is one of those things most local businesses consider developing but often put off because of the time it takes to create them and the lack of understanding of their value. Leverage the information in this guide to improve the process of creating your small business FAQs and distributing the information in them effectively.
