Why customers ask about things that are in the FAQ
A question that keeps coming back does not mean nobody looks at your help pages. Sometimes the FAQ has an answer, just one that is too general. The customer asks whether the parcel will arrive before Saturday, and the FAQ says “fulfilment takes one to three working days”, which tells them nothing about their order, because they do not know whether you have that product on the shelf or which courier will carry it.
The other possibility is an answer hidden far from the question. A question about delivery is born on the product page and in the cart, while the answer lives in a “Help” tab at the bottom of the site. The customer would have to stop shopping and scroll down to the footer, where a list of twenty questions is waiting for them.
Still, do not throw the FAQ away. In Baymard Institute usability research some participants looked for return and delivery rules in the footer, so links to that information should stay there, even if you also show a shorter version on the product page.
Which questions should go in a shop FAQ?
Do not invent them at your desk. Take your latest emails and chat messages, say 50 questions if you can collect that many, and merge the ones about the same matter. For each topic, note the address of the page with the answer and what that answer is missing.
Write the questions in the customer's words. “When will I get my parcel if I order on Friday evening?” tells them more than “What is the order fulfilment time?”, and instead of the internal status name from your admin panel, explain what is happening with the order right now. Such text also helps someone who lands on it from a search engine, although adding an FAQ alone does not guarantee more traffic.
To start, you can take this skeleton and fill it in with questions from your own inbox.
- How much does delivery cost and from what amount is it free?
- I'm ordering today after 3 pm. When will the parcel leave the warehouse and when will I get it?
- How do I return an item?
- My payment failed but the money left my account. What now?
- Where is my parcel?
- Does this product fit my device, or which size should I pick if I usually wear M?
Where should you show answers about delivery and returns?
Product data belongs with the product. Put dimensions and compatibility with specific models on the product page, because that is where the customer is thinking, and the FAQ can at most point to the size chart.
Shop rules need one permanent place that every page links to, and a short summary where the customer makes the decision. So the return procedure sits on its own page, and next to the product there is one sentence about the 14 days for withdrawal and a link. Show the delivery cost in the cart for the chosen delivery method, before the customer reaches payment.
Keep an eye on the difference between dispatch and delivery. “We ship within 24 hours” says when the parcel goes to the courier, while the customer is asking when they will receive it. If part of your range is brought in to order, say so next to those products instead of repeating the lead time for goods in stock.
One price change, several places to fix
Back to the customer with a PLN 180 basket. Say you recently raised the free delivery threshold from PLN 150 to PLN 200. The cart already counts by the new rule, the FAQ still has the old one, so the customer sees two different figures and writes to you because they do not know which to believe.
Adding another explanation to the FAQ will not help, because the old amount stays in all the other places. Make a list, once, of every place where you publish the threshold. The FAQ and the delivery page are the obvious ones. The terms and the promotion banners are easier to forget, and the chat's knowledge base is the easiest of all. At the next price change you go through the list from top to bottom, and one person in the shop should own it.
A shop FAQ as knowledge for the chat
The same FAQ can work inside a conversation. CartBot searches a prepared knowledge base of your shop and matches an answer to a question asked in the customer's own words, so “do I get free shipping at PLN 180?” will find your threshold rule even though nobody typed that question exactly. The text of your terms and rules does have to go into the configuration, otherwise the bot has nothing to answer from.
Once it is connected, ask the bot the questions from your list, including the ones about exceptions to the general rule. Add one about a situation your materials do not cover at all, and see whether the bot asks a follow-up or hands the matter to a person. If it instead gives a deadline that appears nowhere, fix the data or the answer rules and only then repeat the test.
Chat does not replace documents. The terms and the returns policy should be at hand for someone who does not want to talk to a bot at all and prefers to read for themselves. To start, one afternoon with your mailbox and a list of the places where your free delivery threshold appears is enough.