When did you last update your FAQs?

4th October 2022 | Posted in Web content

I’ve just been working through the Frequently Asked Questions on the website of a client. The web site has been established for several years, so it was due a refresh.

We made sure the offerings text was current, updated the About Us sections, made sure the delivery process was accurate – and all that good stuff that you’d expect.

The FAQs were something of an afterthought, but look what we found. Across 6 pages of Q&As there were:

• Product questions ranging from the generic to the highly product-specific
• A bunch of queries around ordering and invoicing
• Questions about Covid-19 security and staff on furlough
• Discussion about business benefits
• Queries that centred on personal career development

And more.

Were these FAQs doing a good job?

Not yet, because:

• They were hidden away on the website with no signposting, so customers weren’t likely to find them, and would just use the live chat instead (which was very good actually)
• If customers did find them, it was obvious that the FAQs weren’t being updated regularly – the Covid-19 precautions is a good example – casting doubt on the whole website
• The limited categorisation wasn’t helping to drive the customer to the questions they were asking

My client agreed that outdated information anywhere on the site throws a shadow on the credibility of the company.

So the first thing we’re going to do is dispense with the FAQs that no longer apply. Then we’ll check that the rest are relevant and current.

We’ll aim to make the categorisation more useful, and link relevant product pages to the appropriate FAQs.

And then, and this is the tough one, we’re going to make the content of the FAQs work harder to reflect the ethos of the company and its relationship with its customers. So rather than a straightforward functional response to a question, we’ll underpin it with a conversation that aims to make the customer feel valued and at the heart of everything that my client does.

In this way we will turn what could be a liability into some worthwhile content.

My advice then is to take a look at your FAQs and check that they are working for you as hard as they should.