Referral programs reinforce the existing word of mouth that your store already received from customers and fans. Since referral programs depend on existing satisfied customers or advocates who are expanding your reach, there is not one magic formula that can predict whether a referral program for your store will succeed.
For entrepreneurs who are seriously considering a referral program, you should set up an FAQ sections so that your users will be clear about how the program works exactly. In this article, we will discuss why you need this FAQ section, how to make it, and what questions you should include. Let’s begin
What is FAQ Section?
It is common for your audience to have similar doubts about each other, and your company may be overwhelmed with these questions. In this post we will teach you how to make a FAQ and gain productivity in your customer service team. FAQ is an acronym that stands for Frequently Asked Questions.
It is a page that literally brings up the most frequently asked questions and answers for that brand. In fact, it’s common for your audience to have similar questions. And that ends up becoming repetitive for the support professional.
As a result, you will lose much of your precious time of the day. Have you ever wondered if you could solve this through self-service? Well then, let me tell you: you can! Today we will teach you how to make a FAQ.
Although chatbots are an increasingly common issue when it comes to self-service, the FAQ is a much simpler, cheaper, faster format that you can implement today in your business. Assembling a FAQ is not complicated and requires only organization, knowledge of your business and action! It may seem complicated but it is incredibly simple.
Let’s imagine a scene: you are the clerk of an information desk in a mall. Every day, hundreds of people come to you to answer your questions. Some of the questions asked by customers are very specific, complex or even curious, and you need to help them solve their problem.
On the other hand, I’m sure most of the questions you would get would always be the same questions asked by different people. Something simple like “where can I pay a parking ticket?” Is precisely the kind of question that is most often repeated.
Now imagine that, instead of having to respond to each of these clients separately, they could get to know this question in a more agile way, not to waste their time or yours. That’s what the FAQ does! It brings together the common questions in one place, in a simple, easy-to-read format.
Thus, the customer can answer their questions without having to contact the support, without wasting their time and without any difficulty.
Reasons to make a FAQ for Your Referral Program
Making a FAQ about your referral program is good not just for the brand but also for customers and other potential consumers. It is a practice that brings benefits to all sides. With the use of a specific page for this, it is possible for the company to have a service much more agile and efficient.
Not to mention that the client can do their research on their own time, at any time the way you feel like it. Let’s take a closer look, then, at the benefits that a well-structured FAQ can bring to your company.
#1 Team Productivity
Just stop to think a little and soon you will realize how a FAQ will save you a lot of work and time of service. Even if you have a large team of well trained professionals, use a customer service system and serve your customers through the most diverse communication channels, yet I’m sure having a little more time on hand would be a blessing.
Certainly, you have a large number of customers who have the same doubts. The time you are spending answering these questions for the thousandth time could be much better utilized. Having a FAQ page increases the productivity of your team.
This happens because it takes away questions that can be solved with self-service. In case of your referral program, the users who are interested in joining your program will get answers they want faster. As a result, the referral recruitment happens fast, your sales too, everything’s more productive!
#2 Better Users Experience
When a potential customer visits your site, they need access to information that can mean the difference between closing the browser, or signing a contract. With the use of a well-crafted FAQ, he can get a lot of questions before even contacting the customer service team. It is often this ease of finding rich information that will propel you into making a contact, already with the intention of asking more specific questions and linked to your business.
Understood? This is how you ensure a better user experience, which makes it more secure and closer to your business. Not to mention, of course, that with a well-written and rich information FAQ, you demonstrate how much you master this subject if you are prepared to respond well to the needs of your customers.
#3 Increase Sales
Let’s start with the simplest: FAQs make it easier for your customers to find what they are looking for faster and easier. This, by itself, can already help in sales. After all, no one closes business if they still have questions about how a product or service works.
If they want to be your referral, they can erase their doubt fast and just start promoting your business in no time. In addition, a good FAQ page can increase the conversion rate of your site. Whether it is your goal to purchase a product in the online store, that the customer subscribes to your newsletter, or take a free trial or request a quote.
If your customer can take action directly from your FAQ through links or buttons, it will be much easier to succeed with a call to action (CTA), ie with a direct call to the action you want it to perform on your website.
#4 Customer loyalty
If you take all doubts out of your customer before he makes a purchase or join your referral program, he will be more aware of what he has acquired and the conditions of use and purchase. That way, you also keep people looking for something completely different, but they got confused and risked buying the wrong product if they did not have the information at hand. At the same time, you conquer the ones you are looking for in the right place.
In addition to better selecting your audience, you can explore in detail terms of payment, delivery, terms, terms, exchange and return policies, among others. Knowing all this in advance, customers will feel more secure, and will have clarity of what they have bought. This increases loyalty, increases mutual trust and decreases the amount of complaints on social networks, for example.
#5 Optimizing Your SEO
A SEO work on the site of your company means that you can use a number of content strategies and structures so that it is better positioned on Google. As the FAQ brings questions and answers of great interest and often with high number of searches, Google and other search engines can use your page to answer these questions. Imagine if your referral program gets a lot of organic traffic from Google.
That will increase your referrals, sales and revenue just from FREE traffic.
How to Make an Effective FAQ
Now that you’ve realized the importance of having a question and answer page on your site, let’s get down to business: how to make a FAQ that brings positive results to your brand. The first thing you need to keep in mind is your primary goal: to answer the questions of your consumers. With this as a priority objective, follow our tips on how to make a FAQ that will improve your self-service strategy.
Listen to the doubts
When it comes to making a FAQ, it’s no use copying your competitors’ questions or tutorials on the internet. Your page will only really help your customers if you listen to what they have to say. After all, the great goal is precisely to respond to the doubts of its consumers.
You can check, with the use of monitoring tools, which questions are most asked by the people who visit your site. But the best way is still to raise this information through your support team. They are the ones who need to respond to customer issues on a daily basis.
Then, of course, they can help you figure out what the most frequently asked questions are. This is a knowledge you already need to get together once you start planning how to make a FAQ. Also, check your social media channels, sometimes, your referral might ask you similar questions on Facebook, Instagram, etc about the referral program you have.
That should be enough for your reference
Select the most frequently asked questions
Now that you’ve assembled your team and diverse information regarding the questions your customers have about your product, brand or service, it’s time to select the most common ones. These are the most frequently asked questions that should be part of your FAQ, so that it can fulfill its purpose. After selecting the questions that will be part of the page, group the questions by subject.
This will ease the process of creating responses and will also make your audience search for answers much faster. In this part of the process it is common to realize that some of the questions are very similar to each other, or explore the same themes in different ways.
In the end of this article, I will give you examples on how to group FAQ about your referral program
Answer the questions as clearly as possible
The most important part when you ask yourself how to do a FAQ is precisely answer the questions you have selected. For this, there is no secret: you need to solve the questions as clearly as possible. Use accessible language, and beware of English grammar errors.
The clearer you are, the better. But do not forget to adapt your language to that of your target audience and to convince you. After all, one of the goals of you researching how to do a FAQ is to encourage your audience to use your product or service.
However, do not overdo it: this is not a sales channel. Also, do not go too long. It is tempting to cover a huge number of doubts, exploring each one in depth, in an elaborate way. But too much information can confuse the reader even more, rather than helping him.
Being clear is more important than being thorough!
What should you include in your FAQ?
Here I will give you a sample of questions you can ask on the FAQ section. You can add or reduce few parts here according to your needs. However, these are what I think essential.
As promised, I classify them into a group.
Basic Questions
1. What is (your company name) referral program?
Tell people what your program is all about and why they should join it
2. How does the program work?
Explain how the program could benefit your audience and the potential earning if they join.
Rewards and Eligibility
1. What rewards can I earn?
Not all companies offer money. Some of them might offer Amazon gift card, discount, etc. What about you?
2. Whom can I refer to earn rewards?
I mean, can your customers refer somebody below 18 years old? Is there any specific criteria of people you want your referral to refer? For example, some companies only want to refer people in the certain zip code
3. What must my referrals do so that I can receive rewards?
To be exact, tell them what makes the conversion count. Should they make purchase? Should they just sign up? Or what?
4. How do I track the referral status, leads, and sales?
It is important for your referral to know when they make sales and any conversion. This question must explain it clearly.
5. When do I receive my rewards?
Tell them when and how often they will receive rewards. In what date? Or what day on each week? Is that weekly or monthly?
6. How will I receive my reward?
Will you transfer it to PayPal? Or if it is not money, figure out a way how you can deliver the rewards. Typically, if the rewards is digital, such as discount code, or gift card, you might be deliver it directly in their dashboard
7. Is there a limit to the number of people/rewards I can refer?
How many people they can refer each day? If you have a rule to limit the conversion like only 100 people max per person per day, let them know!
Final Important Questions
1. Where can I reach out if I got more questions?
Tell them where they can find your contact us page, or better, leave your phone number and social media account (if you prefer to do so).
2. How long can I expect my questions to be answered?
If you provide live chat system, you can tell them that they can get the answer almost instantly. However, if not, tell them how long it could possibly occur.
At last, Update periodically
After some time, it is normal for new questions to appear on the media. They can be added to your FAQ page. You should update your FAQ frequently! The higher the frequency of updates, the better. Try to constantly evaluate the content and analyze what kind of adjustment can be beneficial.
Just what I needed, thanks
This is so interesting, didn’t know there are ways to create better FAQs. A lot of companies need to read this.
This sounds really great, I will definitely read more of your articles.
For people who don’t know what the FAQs page is for, this one is definitely helpful.
I hope you don’t mind if I share this to my assistant. Definitely well explained and simple to understand.