A Cup of Tea and a Few Thoughts…
Following on from my recent blog, One Bad Review. What Do You Do?, I've been thinking a little more about why customers sometimes leave negative feedback.
Of course, there are occasions when something genuinely goes wrong. A service doesn't meet expectations, a product isn't quite right or a customer feels they've been let down, but sometimes, the problem isn't necessarily what happened.
It's what the customer thought was going to happen.
And that's where good communication can make an enormous difference.
When expectations don't quite match reality
Imagine booking a treatment and arriving to discover that you need to allow an extra half an hour for a consultation, or arranging for a tradesperson to visit, assuming they'll provide a quotation immediately, when actually they need to assess the work and send something through afterwards.
Perhaps you've ordered a handmade product, expecting it to arrive within a few days, without realising it's made to order. None of these situations necessarily means the business has done anything wrong, but if the customer wasn't aware of what to expect, it can lead to frustration.
And sometimes that frustration finds its way into an online review.
The questions you're answering again and again
I think most small business owners could probably list five or ten questions they get asked regularly.
How long does it take?
What does it cost?
Do I need to pay a deposit?
What happens if I need to cancel?
Is there parking?
Do you offer refunds?
What should I expect at my first appointment?
If you're answering the same questions repeatedly, that's a good indication that the information could be easier to find.
And a Frequently Asked Questions page, or FAQ section, is often a simple way to do that.
FAQs aren't just there to save you time
Although they certainly can.
A good FAQ page helps customers feel more confident about taking the next step, and gives them the opportunity to understand how your business works before they make a commitment.
For a therapist, that might mean explaining what happens during a first appointment, how long a session lasts and what someone should wear. For a tradesperson, it could be explaining how quotations work, whether deposits are required and what happens if the weather delays a project. For an online retailer, it might cover delivery times, returns and what to do if something arrives damaged.
The questions will be different for every business, but the principle is the same.
The more clearly you explain things, the less room there is for misunderstandings.
Don't hide the awkward questions
This is something I feel quite strongly about.
It's tempting to fill an FAQ page with the easy questions, but sometimes the most useful information is the stuff we feel slightly uncomfortable discussing, such as; cancellation charges, refund policies, additional costs, delivery delays, or what happens if a customer changes their mind.
These are often the things that cause frustration when they haven't been explained properly. Being upfront doesn't mean making your business sound difficult, it means being clear about how things work.
And that can help avoid uncomfortable conversations later.
Of course, an FAQ doesn't replace clear booking terms, contracts or any legal rights your customers may have. It should help explain those things in plain English.
Make your answers sound like you
There's no need for an FAQ page to read like a legal document. In fact, I'd encourage small businesses to write their answers in much the same way they'd explain something to a customer face to face.Keep them friendly, keep them straightforward, and avoid unnecessary jargon.
If someone needs a little more detail, you can always link to another page. The aim is to make information easier to understand, not to overwhelm people with it.
And remember to keep it up to date
A question and answer page is only useful if the information is accurate.
If your prices change, your opening hours move or you introduce a new booking process, remember to update your FAQs too. It's worth reviewing them occasionally and adding new questions when you notice the same things coming up in conversations with customers.
In fact, some of your best FAQ content will probably come directly from those everyday enquiries.
And finally, a thought over my cup of tea…
Following on from last week's thoughts about negative reviews, I think it's worth remembering that good customer service often starts long before someone actually becomes a customer, it starts with the information we share, the expectations we set and how easy we make it for people to understand what they're buying or booking.
A good FAQ page won't prevent every misunderstanding or negative review, but it might prevent a few, and if it also saves you time answering the same questions, helps customers feel more confident and makes your business a little easier to deal with?
Well, that sounds like a worthwhile addition to me.
Now, where's that cup of tea?
Bev