A “frequently-asked questions” section on a website is a great idea in theory. In practice, it often falls short for two reasons:
1. The user has to seek it out.
2. All too often, the question you want answered isn’t there.
Now that we’ve bought Collegewise back from The Princeton Review, we had to switch our benefits provider. That meant that every employee had to fill out a new enrollment form for medical, dental, and vision benefits. Not surprisingly, the forms were confusing (I’ve never filled out a simple insurance form). We all had questions, the type that we’d typically have to answer ourselves by searching online or by reaching out to a benefits provider and waiting for a response.
But that never happened. Our CFO (who put the plans together) did something smart, simple and incredibly helpful—he filled out a sample form by hand and included it with the forms we had to complete. In that sample, he underlined the portions we needed to fill out and crossed out those we could ignore. And he included annotations with helpful tips like:
“Skip to page 3”
“Only applicable if you’re declining coverage.”
“Enter the code here” (with a list of the codes to pick from)
It wasn’t elegant or even complex. But it was so helpful and refreshing. It probably took him less than five minutes to do, but that five minutes saved our 37 Collegewisers hours of cumulative time and frustration. And it saved him from likely receiving a few dozen emails asking, “What are the codes for the plans?”
Teachers, counselors, PTA presidents, business owners, student leaders, and anyone who has a constituency that you serve—what are the most frequently-asked questions in your organization? Can you answer them preemptively, either in person, or with a handout, or by sending a link to an appropriate, helpful FAQ?
Remember, a lengthy handbook or a single repository with hundreds of supposed “FAQs” isn’t as helpful as a focused, timely, relevant resource. Sure, you can keep everything in one spot, too. But it’s much more helpful when you share the desirable information as those events or milestones happen and people are likely to need particular answers.
Before you say that you don’t have time, consider how much time you might get back in the future. Our CFO has already saved himself hours that would have been spent answering questions because of one form. And he can use that same resource over and over as we add people in the future.
Spend the time it takes to give really thoughtful, helpful answers once. Record or save or otherwise find a way to keep them on hand. Then share the answers with people when you anticipate the questions arriving. You’ll save hours of time and give better support to your people when you answer questions preemptively.