Many sites offer sitewide FAQs but there are occasions when product specific FAQs are necessary.
Some products like IKEA furniture and Lego bricks require quite a bit of assembly before they can become functional. If you sell such products you should offer assembly instructions in a downloadable manual or ship a hardcopy of the same with the product.
Despite this, assemblable products tend to generate quite a few questions. Some customers may lose their manuals, others may simply be stumped, while others would probably just be having trouble making sense of the language in the manual.
While products that require assembly at home generate the most questions, they are not the only culprits. Products that require usage over significant periods of time like acne medication tend to have quite significant numbers of worried customers.
FAQ section
The FAQ section contains the questions asked the most by users or those a site expects users to ask. The questions are accompanied by site-provided answers.
Benefits of the FAQ section:
- FAQ sections have high-quality questions and answers.
- FAQ sections prevent question repetition.
Drawbacks of the FAQ section:
- It’s hard to anticipate all the possible questions.
- It’s not as trusted as the Q & A section
Q&A section
The Q&A section contains questions asked by users and answers provided by other users. It can be a great and useful tool when you have a large and vibrant community.
Benefits of the Q&A section:
- Users are not on the lookout for negative posts like they usually are when reading reviews.
- Previously unthought of questions can be asked.
- Answers from community members are deemed more trustworthy than those from the site.
Drawbacks of the Q&A section:
- Questions are often repeated and many don’t get answered.
- Some questions and answers will be of low-quality thus requiring someone to moderate the forum.
What is the best approach?
Baymard recommends using a hybrid approach that combines site FAQs with customer Q&As.