Earning your customers’ trust is one of the best secrets of success in the ecommerce industry. More so true, if you are just starting to build an online store and nobody really knows about your business. People visiting your store for the first time will have a few questions of their own such as-
- Should I trust this newly opened store?
- Who are the people running this business?
- What must be its shipping and return policy?
- Are these products tested and certified?
- Is it secure to enter my personal details here?
Such questions serve as roadblocks in your otherwise speedy ecommerce journey. These roadblocks often result in people not buying any product from your ecommerce website.
Scary, but true!
So, what do you do? How do you negotiate this hurdle? The answer lies in removing as many roadblocks as possible. Yup! offer your customers a freeway to purchase what they want hassle-free.
And how do you do it? With the help of your FAQ page.
Table of Contents
- What is an FAQ page?
- Why should I have an FAQ page?
- Questions to cover in an FAQ page
- Account and Membership Section
- Order and Delivery
- Payments
- Cancellations and Returns
- Post Sales Services
- Making an extraordinary FAQ page for your online business
- Write questions from the customer’s perspective
- Making relevant and timely questions
- Simplicity is the best policy
- Use FAQ to emphasize education
- It helps build your brand’s voice
- Conclusion
What is an FAQ page?
A FAQ or ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page is a section of your website that you can dedicate to answering site visitors’ common questions and concerns. FAQ has been around for a long time now. In the beginning, they were used both as a navigational tool and as stand-alone curated content. But later on, ecommerce websites adopted this format since shoppers cannot physically examine the products or talk to a sales rep.
Why should I have an FAQ page?
The main purpose of an FAQ page is to answer customer queries but you will be amazed to know how much more you can accomplish from this. It is a powerful yet simple way to bring added benefits to your ecommerce business in the following ways:
- A well written and organized FAQ page helps save time as your customers won’t need to contact you on an individual basis every time they have any queries.
- Build an online store with an FAQ section which will serve as a building block for trust. When customers see your attempts to be transparent about addressing queries, they repay it by returning time and time again to do business with you.
- FAQ page also helps demonstrate your expertise in any field. This increases the probability of a prospect converting into a customer. Who doesn’t like to buy from a legitimate and professional business?
- Each question in the FAQ page can be hyperlinked to the relevant product or service on your ecommerce website. It means it can also be used as an integral part of site navigation too.
- Do you know apart from answering questions, FAQs can also help improve your site’s search engine rankings? Yes, it can because this page contains a lot of good, relevant and informative content which search engines deem important.
- FAQ pages have the power to turn your customers’ negative perceptions around by explaining why your company is better.
- Lastly, FAQ pages can greatly reduce the burden of your support team by answering common queries. It will free your employees time to be engaged in other important tasks.
A word of advice:
If you build an online store with good intentions but for whatever reason, your site has bad content quality, do not assume that an FAQ page will magically fix that. Similarly, if your site can answer questions without calling it out on a separate page, then it’s better to skip the process. Just focus on fixing your website copy.
Questions to cover in an FAQ page
You want your FAQ page experience to be seamless, don’t you? But for that to happen, you will need to organize your questions by category with noticeable headlines on your ecommerce website. This way, customers can easily jump to the sections they are looking for. Below are few such categories and related questions for you to consider.
Account and Membership Section
- How to create an account?
- How to change the password?
- What are the benefits of having an account?
- Why buy a membership?
Order and Delivery
- How to place an order?
- How to track my order?
- How long before my order would be delivered?
- What if I am not available at the time of delivery?
Payments
- What payment methods do you accept?
- After building an online store, did you make it secure too?
- What personal information do you store?
- How do you prevent frauds?
Cancellations and Returns
- What if I am not satisfied with my order?
- How do I return or cancel my order?
- How long does it take to cancel my order?
- In the case of refunds for returns/cancellations, how long should I wait?
Post Sales Services
- I have got my order, how to install it?
- How to claim warranty on my product?
- I lost my warranty card, what should I do?
- To fix my product, should I contact your ecommerce website or the brand?
The key here is to take advantage of the potential benefits of an FAQ page. So, how do you do it? By asking the right questions that are not only useful but accessible to your online store’s customers as well.
Making an extraordinary FAQ page for your online business
A well organized and functional FAQ page is paramount to the success of any online store as it helps promote the content. Just like building an online store is paramount to your success as an entrepreneur. Now, this might sound ‘easier said than done’ but with the help of these simple tips, you can easily create a useful FAQ page for your website.
Write questions from the customer’s perspective
Write questions based on your customers’ point of view and then try to answer them within your existing content. And to understand your customers’ perspective, refer to these sources- your customer service department, feedback forms on your website or your own email. You can also try social media channels, people love asking questions there about ecommerce websites. But do not invent questions just for the sake of answering, it only creates noise and confusion.
Making relevant and timely questions
Repeat after us, “we shouldn’t let our customers ask the same questions over a long period of time”. Your first priority should always be to solve customer queries within the website content. If that’s not possible, try at least to update your FAQ page frequently so as to address new questions that arise. You can even use FAQ page to account for seasonality changes if those affect your business.
Simplicity is the best policy
Build an online store with an FAQ section that contains clearly worded questions and answers that focus on providing solutions rather than posing more questions. In short, keep it simple. Also, avoid too many questions in your FAQ page. Try organizing the information to provide the best user experience to your visitors. Your goal here should be to help them find the information they are searching for easily and quickly, and not the other way around.
Use FAQ to emphasize education
By using your FAQ page as an educational tool for your ecommerce website, you can easily and effectively help your visitors become better informed about your brand. consider linking your answers to articles that expound on the issue you’re solving. By following this practice, you will not only be able to better educate your customers but also help increase the trust level in your brand.
It helps build your brand’s voice
Yes, the FAQ page offers a great opportunity to build up your brand’s voice. Think of it more as a customer service touchpoint where usually the people who come are either curious or frustrated. You built an online store with great care, now it’s time to show your customers how much you care by handling their issues with kindness and consideration. And what better way to showcase it than the FAQ section of your business website.
Conclusion
A useful FAQ page is one that includes a clear and thorough discussion of the most important questions in the eyes of your customers and prospects. When done right, it gives credibility to your business besides encouraging visitors to continue engaging with your ecommerce website.
So, are you ready to get the most out of your FAQ page? With our useful guide written with a dedicated customer experience mindset, you will easily create a suitable FAQ page for your store. Looking for more ways to improve your online store?
Check out our blog section for similar ecommerce guides. StoreHippo is a specialized ecommerce platform provider that apart from helping you build an online store also helps you shape that business.
How? With its expert tips, guides and market trends directed towards one major goal, to create a wholesome selling experience for online stores.
So, don’t wait! Try out our 14 days free trial and give your business the boost it needs to succeed.
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