Most small companies answer the same dozen questions again and again. Is this suitable for our size? How long does it take? What do you need from us? Each answer is written fresh, by whoever happens to pick up the phone, and none of it reaches the website. The next customer with the same question either calls too, or leaves.
This article is for a head of customer support or marketing who wants to change that without a content project. It describes how to collect real questions, choose ten, and publish clear answers with an owner. It is about public answers on your website; it is not about internal notes or what to record in your own tools.
Step 1: Collect for two weeks, in one place
Create one shared sheet with four columns: date, channel (email, phone, chat, meeting), the question in the customer's own words, and who answered. Ask everyone who talks to customers to add a line whenever a question comes up that they have answered before.
Two rules keep this light. Copy the wording as it was said, because customers rarely use your internal terms. And do not collect personal details: no names, no company names, no order numbers. The sheet is about the question, not the person.
If the team is small, two weeks usually gives forty to eighty lines. If you have a shared inbox, a quick search through the last month adds more.
Step 2: Group and pick ten
Read the sheet once and give similar questions the same label. "How much does a small project cost?" and "Can you give me a price range?" are one question. Count how often each group appears.
Pick the ten groups that appear most often. Then check each against three tests:
- Can you answer it truthfully in a few short paragraphs?
- Is the answer the same for most customers, or does it always depend?
- Would a stranger understand the question without knowing your company?
Questions that always depend, such as exact prices, are still worth a page. The answer then explains what the result depends on and how to get an estimate, instead of pretending to give one number.
Step 3: Write each answer from one template
A template keeps ten answers consistent and makes them quick to write. One that works:
- The question as a customer would ask it, used as the heading.
- The short answer in one or two sentences, before any explanation.
- The details: what it depends on, with one concrete example.
- What to do next: one link or one action.
- Last reviewed: a date, visible on the page.
Write the short answer first. If you cannot do it in two sentences, the question is probably two questions and should be split.
Avoid promises you cannot check, such as exact delivery times for every case. Say what is usual and what changes it.
Step 4: Give every answer an owner and a review date
An answer without an owner goes stale quietly, and a wrong answer on a website is worse than none. For each of the ten, write down two names: the person who drafts it and the person who approves it. The approver is the one who would be embarrassed if it were wrong, often a service lead or the owner of the product.
Set a review date, three or six months ahead, in a shared calendar. Review sooner when something changes: a new process, a new product, a changed condition. At review you do one of three things: keep, correct or remove.
Step 5: Close the loop
After publishing, keep the sheet running. Two simple signals show whether the answers work:
- Do the same questions still arrive by email and phone? If yes, the answer is hard to find or unclear. Move it, or rewrite the short answer.
- Do new questions appear that are not on the list? Add them to the next batch of five.
When someone asks a question that is already answered, reply with the link. It saves time, and it shows the team which answers are used.
Where the effort goes
The collecting and grouping take a few hours spread over two weeks. Writing ten answers with the template is a few days of part-time work for one person, plus a short review by the approver. The routine afterwards is small: a quarterly look at the sheet and the review dates.
If you also want to know how well your web enquiries are handled once people do get in touch, see where web leads get lost between the form and the reply. For handing the enquiries on, see handing leads from marketing to sales.
A short checklist
- Questions were collected for two weeks in one shared sheet, without personal details.
- Similar questions are grouped and counted, and ten are chosen.
- Each answer starts with a short answer and uses the same template.
- Each answer has a drafter, an approver and a review date.
- The team replies with the link when a published question comes up again.
- The sheet stays open to find new questions and unclear answers.
Sources
- Our related articles linked above.
- The approach described is a general working practice, not a standard; adapt it to your organisation. The examples are invented and do not describe a real client. No figures or client results are claimed in this article.
