Starting a FAQ List
Joseph Feibel – January 15, 2017
Customer service is an important aspect of any business. But you don’t want to spend a lot of money on customer service. The best way to avoid spending a lot of money on customer service is to design a product or service that doesn’t have any glitches in it. The goal is to create a customer service department that is the equivalent of the Maytag repairman: lonely.
The second important technique to reduce customer service is to make your initial instructions so clear that the user doe not have to ask any questions which is difficult to do.
The third technique of keeping customers happy is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list. An FAQ is a lot easier to produce than a flawless product and flawless instructions. The FAQ list is your fallback position when your product isn’t flawless. That is why you need an FAQ.
The advantage of a FAQ list is that customers and potential customers provide the questions you must deal with. I recently started an FAQ for questions I receive in my job; I serve as a liaison between Attorneys, Contracting Officer’s Representatives and the Acquisition Office. I realized that I receive the the same or similar questions; I don’t always know the answers, but I look up the ones that I can find the answers for and document them. Additionally if the CO answers I question for a client, I have been documenting those as well.
My goal is to create an FAQ that includes answers 20% of the questions that are asked 80% of the time. I continue to add more entries to the blog I started and will continue to do so.
A secondary function of the second FAQ list is to reduce the number of questions submitted to the Acquisition Division. It is good if client questions can be answered in a way that does not require them to call to get a question answered. I try to find a way to get questions answered before clients decide to call the Acquisition Division.
Nevertheless, the existence of the customer service FAQ list is a way for me to leave a bit of an information bank if I end of taking another position. Now that I think about it, the FAQ list also applies to whoever replaces me when I quit or die. The FAQ list is a crucial element of continuity in any institution that deals with the general public. Every institution wants continuity. No institution wants unexpected disruptions. The FAQ list for customer service is a fundamental element of continuity in any organization.
If your organization does not have such a list, one way to make yourself indispensable is to provide effective answers for both kinds of questions. Help create a FAQ list. If you work with a particular department to help it with its FAQ list, you will learn a great deal about all of the departments. It never hurts to be perceived as a helpful person who goes out of his way to provide aid to another department free of charge. If at some point in the future, you want to find employment in another branch of your company, this is a really good way to get name identification with decision-makers in other departments.