FAQs

Customer service, or customer care, is almost never talked about when on-line marketing is discussed. Oh, sure - every book on list-building has a section (usually pretty small) on contacting your list. And every book on sales-letter writing or ad-writing points out that you should write like you talk, and it should be very natural and conversational. But can you remember the last book or article that talked about what to do when your client has a question about your website or your product?

Well, here is one thing you can do. The bonus about this suggestion is that not only will it help your client and show him or her that you care about the quality of the experience, but it can also be a marketing tool. You can use it to directly push your product, or you can just remind the customer that YOU are the site that cares about them (as opposed to all those OTHER websites that just scream "But Me! Buy Me!" at them all the time).

Set up an automated FAQ, or Frequently Asked Questions, page. FAQs are exactly that: the questions that everyone asks, or that most people ask the most often. The FAQ page gathers these together, with - of course - the answers, so your customer can get a response quickly and efficiently. There's also a little psychological satisfaction for the customer that, since other people MUST have had the same question, it wasn't a stupid one. Or, if the customer's question isn't in the FAQ, then he or she is clever enough to think of a unique question.

You can make your FAQ page interactive in two easy ways. The first is for the question ("What are the chapter titles in this book?") to be a link to an autoresponder, that will email a response to the customer. This method allows you to write a long or detailed explanation, going into detail about the question and related topics. You can also add links to related articles or products you are promoting that are related to the topic. This method also can be used to capture the customer's email address, to be added ot your list. The downside is that a customer may not want to add his or her email address just to get an answer.

The second is for the question ("What is your return policy?") to be a link to a separate page. This method also allows you to write long responses, but also gives you an instant billboard for links to products or banners or other graphics to other articles or products. Since it is a webpage, the customer will tolerate more unrelated content than in an email. Also, the webpage can't be caught by spam filters or deleted by the customer. The downside is that, unless the customer adds the page to their favorites, the first time is the only time the customer will see this page, so your writing had better be top-shelf.

Automating your FAQs helps your promotion and marketing activities by giving you another platform to advertise. It also helps your customers, which should generate goodwill and a good reputation. The choice between responding by email or by bringing up a new webpage depends on several factors, one of which might be simply which method is easier for your skills! Try this method and see if there an increase in your sales or your sign-ups.