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!