You can design the perfect product. You can build the perfect website. You can create the easiest customer journey that delivers a frictionless path to making a purchase.
You can test everything. You can get feedback from customers and focus groups, and you can tweak each element to make it run as smoothly as possible.
Yet somehow, a customer manages to have a problem anyway and they need someone to talk to. This creates problems, but it also creates opportunities and if you put in place the right systems and processes to support these customers you can increase sales and build brand loyalty.
Time Consuming Problem
Responding to customer queries, whether they be pre-sales or aftersales, can be very time consuming. For a small business, this can take valuable resources away from other important activities, while in a larger business it can increase costs significantly.
While it will vary greatly from business to business, research has shown that the average live chat conversation lasts around 11 minutes and 24 seconds, so it will take a customer service representative more than an hour to deal with just 6 customers.
FAQs Can Help
A frequently asked questions (FAQ) section can be a solution to this problem. It allows customers to find answers to the majority of their questions without the need to speak to a representative.
This, of course, creates a huge saving since a website costs almost nothing in comparison to the cost of a human.
It’s not only your business that can benefit though; research by Zendesk has found that customers actually prefer them. According to their study, 67% of customers prefer using a knowledge centre and FAQ to find answers over other options. They also found that nearly all (91%) of customers would use it if it contained the information they needed.
Therefore, it seems that customers don’t just accept using FAQ sections, they actively prefer them.
This is quite a win-win situation, since it delivers cost savings for your business and it provides your customers with an improved level of customer service.
Using FAQ Sections for Pre-Sales
Potential customers often have questions that they want to answer before they commit to making a purchase. An FAQ section can be a great tool for answering these questions since they can allow a customer to find answers faster, something that can be important when customers are looking to make a purchase decision quickly.
A searchable knowledge base, like the one in A.M Custom Clothing, can be a great option for this, allowing the customer to type in their question to receive suggested answers. This can also be useful if you have a high number of questions and answers that would be cluttered if shown on one page.
Pre-sales FAQs could answer questions about delivery times, payment methods, and whether your product/service is suitable for a particular purpose.
Using FAQ Sections for Aftersales
FAQ sections can also be used to help customers troubleshoot problems they are having with a service. For example, PokerStars uses an FAQ page to provide a series of steps users can follow to solve connection issues that prevent them from using their app.
This can be particularly useful for handling technical problems, especially if they are issues that are experienced regularly by customers.
Aftersales FAQs can also include what to do if you’d like to return an item, typical delivery times, how to track a parcel, or how to get a copy of the order invoice.
FAQs That Help Your Customer Service Team
It doesn’t just have to be your customers that your FAQ can help. If your system is integrated to the platform that you use to handle customer queries, the FAQ can often provide the canned responses that you can provide to customers.
This means that answers are consistent no matter where the customer goes for help, and it can help speed up responses.
Your customer service team can even provide links to specific articles that provide instructions on how to perform a certain task, such as troubleshooting a problem or resetting a password.
FAQ pages are useful tools to reduce your customer service costs, provide a better experience to your customers, and to increase conversions. They are win-win since they are an option favoured by all parties, and therefore present a unique opportunity to satisfy customers while cutting costs.
