Being a tradie, you might think your business is pretty self-explanatory. This might be the case most of the time: the majority of your customers will generally be aware of what a plumber does, for example, and seek out your website to look at your services for their upcoming bathroom renovation.
What you might not know is that no matter how simple or straightforward your business is, a Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ page on your website works for you by saving you time in pre-empting common customer questions.
Done well, a good FAQ page can also help bring in more paying clients, and get you paid faster.
What makes a 'good' FAQ page?
To write an effective FAQ page, you will need to know what your customers are asking most often. Don’t dump a whole lot of text on a page for the sake of having plenty of information up there – really think about what your clients ask, what they need to know, and highlight why your business is great to work with. Don’t overdo it, though: if you overload your FAQ page with too many questions, you will overwhelm your site visitors and prevent them from finding what they are actually looking for on the page. Only give them what they want and need.
The other key tip is to have some sort of structure to your information – for example, first put the questions about your quotation process, customer service and terms of trade, then variations and changes, and finally invoicing or payment queries. If you are jumping around all over the place with seemingly random questions, the page will be hard to navigate and understand. Make it flow; ensure the order of the questions makes sense.
5 Reasons why having an FAQ page good for business
1
FAQs help build trust
FAQ pages are professional – and provide an excellent way to firm up good first impressions of your business. By pre-empting customer queries and providing answers and information before they even need to ask, you’re putting your most professional foot forward and establishing trust with your clients – all this before they even pick up the phone! A tradie who understands customer pain points and problems is a tradie who will be taken seriously when their invoice is sent through.
2
You will save time and money
If you truly listen to your clients and your FAQ section is a reflection of the real questions you are typically asked, you eliminate the need to take time out of your day to attend to those queries and provide them with a response.
As most tradies are on the tools every day (or close to), it also means that you save your clients time and effort as well. If they can immediately source the information they need, you can use your office time on getting quotes and invoicing to your clients much faster – meaning in turn, they are far more likely to pay your invoices on time as well.
3
Your customers know what to expect
Make key areas or parts of your Terms of Trade crystal clear, so your customers know what to expect.
Give your clients every opportunity to understand what is expected of them in upholding their part of the bargain when it comes to working with you.
For example, if your business process includes collecting a 50% deposit before confirming a job booking, it’s a good idea to highlight that in your FAQ section, as it’s important information that all your clients will need to know before they choose to work with you.
Through making these terms clear – especially when it comes to things like payment timeframes, payment options, and variations or changes to scope – you’ll find that your clients spend much less time querying line items on your invoice. Instead, they are much more likely to understand the invoice when it comes through, and pay it promptly.
4
FAQs are great for search engines
Google, Bing and other search engines tend to rank websites more highly in their search results when they have an FAQ page, compared with those that don’t. There are a few reasons for this, but it’s mostly because they provide useful content that site visitors typically view for longer periods of time.
If someone Googles “landscaper” and your landscaping business is near the top of the first page of search results, it naturally becomes more credible. This means more clients will come to you, and more money will end up flowing into your business – without needing to spend money on digital marketing campaigns. If you are providing useful information on an FAQ page on your website and your competitors aren’t, you already have the upper hand.
5
You can use your FAQs to promote your business
Instead of a boring set of questions or ‘wall of text’ answers, your FAQs can be a great place to inject personality into your business, and convince people to work with you. It’s your website after all, so just about anything you want to tell your clients about how good your workmanship is, or the benefits of your services can be framed as a frequently asked question.
Remember that no one likes being sold to, so provide useful Q&As about what you do (and don’t do) – stick to useful information – but be sure to communicate why they should work with you, specifically.
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Get your FAQs done today
There are many reasons why FAQs are great to have on your website, including helping boost your visibility and client credibility online, and getting more paying clients through the door. Unlike other marketing efforts like promotional flyers, your FAQ page is much more likely to actually be read in detail by your prospective clients – so keep it structured, concise and packed full of useful information, and you can’t go wrong.
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