The repetitiveness of FAQs can seem like a bit of a local business hassle, but there’s treasure hidden in them for improving customer service and reputation.

If you’re old enough to remember working at a business pre-internet, you likely remember picking up the phone dozens of times a day to answer the same questions, over and over, ad infinitum. Yes, we’re open on New Year’s Eve. Yes, we accept returns with a receipt. Yes, we have no bananas.

If we thought the web would put an end to this Q&A cycle, we were wrong. People are just asking these common questions in more places now, doubtless because they are either having trouble locating the answers or because they don’t know whether the information they do find online is current and accurate. No one wants to arrive at a closed shop or come for dinner only to find out a place no longer serves vegan food or be presented with a bill from an establishment that doesn’t take their card.

These surprises aren’t good for the equanimity of the customer or the reputation of the business, and so the online FAQ page was born, hoping to reduce both risks and time spent answering repetitive questions.

But, in some ways, huge FAQ pages have never sat very well with me, partly because I find them a slog to wade through but more because I feel they may indicate that a company has failed to answer these questions wherever the customer was before resorting to this run-on page.

FAQ pages have their place, but they’re only one thing you could be doing with your customers’ most common questions. Let’s spark some good ideas for additional/alternative FAQ implementations today!

1. Gather FAQs from multiple sources

Interview your in-store and phone/text staff and those responsible for managing website forms and your email inbox to learn what customer questions they encounter most. Record them in a spreadsheet or other asset. If necessary, formalize the process by having staff record these questions in a centralized document over a set period of 3 — 6 months. Add to these all the questions you’ve received via the Questions and Answers section of your Google Business Profile (shown above) and via your social media profiles.

If you are marketing a single-location local business, a single sheet for recording all this information should suffice. In the multi-location scenario, each location should have its own sheet so that you can associate questions about particular branches with the right locale.

2. Sort your sheet into different category buckets

Make a copy of this spreadsheet or create your own.

Analyze your questions and bucket them by type, such as putting all questions about hours and days you are open in one column and all questions about amenities like bathrooms or outdoor seating in another.

Make a column for each main category of question you are receiving. Add a note if staff say they are asked certain questions very often or if you see the same question repeatedly in your assets and profiles. If you have some random one-off questions, you could make a catch-all column for those.

Again, a single sheet should suffice for a single-location business, but definitely create a unique sheet for each branch of a multi-location brand. The reason this matters is that one of your locations may be getting a ton of questions about where to park, while another may never receive this question due to its setting.

3. Assign your FAQs to the right resources

Based on what you’ve learned from analyzing and sorting your FAQs, now you’re ready to find the best homes for them.

You may be surprised to discover that some of the questions aren’t actually answered yet anywhere on your site, listings, or profiles, which can be a real lightbulb moment.

I was on a site just last week that required customers to log in to access an asset but on which no clear login link was anywhere to be found! I’m sure the business must answer questions about that roadblock daily.

But even if you think you’ve got a question answered somewhere on your site, now is the time to figure out if you’ve put the answer in the best place. Make use of these tips:

1. Multi-location businesses should post their most popular Q&As on their location landing pages.

2. Single-location businesses should find a place to answer the questions asked most frequently on their home page, contact page, and about page.

3. Product-related questions and answers should go on relevant product pages.

4. Post your top questions on the right Google Business Profiles in the Questions and Answers section, and then answer them. You are allowed to do this as the business owner.

5. Film a short video answering your top 5 FAQs in the shortest possible time and put it on your Google Business Profiles.

6. Put your top Q&As in your social profile descriptions and publish them as posts from time to time if it makes sense. For example, a post reading “Yes, we are open on New Year’s Eve! Come on in!” would be the perfect thing to share several times in the month of December.

7. Some questions may belong on in-store signage, such as FAQs about returns, shipping, gift cards, etc.

8. One-off questions that ended up in your catch-all column may not be true FAQs, but they could make good material on your social profiles and your Google Updates posts. A random-seeming question like, “I’m eating lunch here right now. Is there anything else cool to do within walking distance?” may not have the volume of questions like, “Do you take Apple Pay?” but it could spark ideas for content and spark interest for other customers. You could answer a question like this with a post about how you’re within walking distance of a nice dog park, a history museum, and a great music store.

9. In Q4 of 2023, Claire Carlile noticed that you could populate Google Messaging with automated answers to FAQs. If you’re using that service, make use of her tips so that customers get very fast answers to their common questions. You could approach your text messaging responses and chatbots similarly.

10. I am not a fan of putting customers on hold on the phone. I think it’s one of the worst consumer experiences in the world. But, if it’s absolutely necessary for your business, ditch the on-hold music (does anyone enjoy it?) in favor of a pleasant, informational message from your brand, including answers to some top FAQs.

Yes, you can definitely have one, but here is my top tip: take the most oft-repeated questions you saw across all your locations and that have answers that apply to all branches and see if you can summarize them in a single paragraph at the top of the page, like this:

We’ve answered over a dozen FAQs for this fictitious eatery in just one paragraph. We’ve all encountered run-on FAQ pages that are a hassle to sort through, and a pared-down summary like this could send a strong signal that you care about customers’ convenience.

Include links in your paragraph, either to fuller answers lower down the page or to other pages on your site that offer more information. You can’t cover everything in your paragraph, though, and some visitors to your site may feel more familiar with a more traditional Q&A presentation on an FAQ page, so move on to that section after your opening summary.

Use the buckets you created in your spreadsheet to categorize your FAQs by type on this page, helping customers get to the answers they are looking for more quickly. If you’ve got multiple locations, be sure to include tabs for each.

Then, close the page with a very clear call to action to get in touch with your business. For local companies, websites are aides to customer service, but they can’t replace getting to communicate with and serve a customer 1:1.

Put all the ways to get in touch with you for personal service: walk-in, book, order, text, phone, email, fill out a form, social profiles, etc. Don’t overlook this step of guiding customers toward understanding that this business really wants to hear from them!

FAQ pages are one of those resources most local businesses think they should have, but by being intentional about gathering, sorting, and assigning this content, you may discover that there are additional places where common Q&A can be more effective than if it only exists on a single page.

Every question you gather should be approached with the attitude of, “Why isn’t the customer finding this information more easily on my website, listings, and profiles?” Something you thought was evident about your business may be unclear to the people you want to serve.

Diversifying the places in which customers can get answers is a smart practice. The simple process we’ve looked at can turn up some treasure for you that you might have overlooked, creating a better user experience and adding to your brand’s reputation for fantastic customer service.

So, a little more love for FAQs is worth the time, and the effort it takes often yields some valuable insights for your team!

Looking for more free tips to take your local business content strategy to the next level? Read The Local Business Content Marketing Guide.