How to create the perfect FAQ page

If there's one thing you can do today to improve your store, it's to do an audit of your FAQs page. Don't have one? Congrats, your audit is complete. Now it's time to create your FAQs. This week on the podcast we’re talking about why you need an FAQs page, what questions you ask, and how to craft your answers.

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show notes.

• [07:04] Why do you need an FAQs page?
• [08:50] Use common customer support requests to determine which questions to add
• [09:25] Questions should be written from the viewpoint of the customer
• [11:59] Answers are directly on the FAQs page
• [13:27] What is the buyer journey?
• [16:49] Keep your answers succinct and at a reasonable reading level
• [19:11] Add some personality to your answers
• [23:04] Categorize your questions
• [24:15] Examples of good FAQs
• [32:27] Ensure your final question on the page has a link to your Contact Us page
• [34:45] Store shoutout: 20x200
• [35:56] Store shoutout: Topicals

resources. 

• Order Lookup
• Hemingway
• Pit Viper
• Jeni’s Ice Creams
• Topicals
• 20x200

transcript.

Rhian (00:00):
If there's one thing you can do today to improve your store, it's to do an audit of your FAQs page. Don't have one? Congratulations, your audit is complete. Now it's time to create your FAQs. This week on the podcast, we're talking about why you need an FAQ page, what questions you ask and how to craft your answers. Let's dig in.

Rhian (00:25):
Welcome to Commerce Tea, a podcast to help you succeed on Shopify. I'm Rhian.

Kelly (00:30):
And I'm Kelly. Grab a mug and join us as we talk about all things commerce.

Kelly (00:34):
(music)

Rhian (00:45):
Hey Kelly? How could I get to know my customers better?

Kelly (00:48):
By using Octane AI's new Shoppable Quiz, you can easily create beautiful quizzes to learn more about your customers and help them find products you know they'll love.

Rhian (00:57):
What kind of results can I expect from building a quiz?

Kelly (00:59):
You'll see increases in your conversions and average order value, growth in your marketing lists, and higher engagement on your marketing campaigns by using the personalization data you're collecting. And the results are profound. Brands on Shopify with the Shoppable Quiz have collected 16 times more emails, and discovered segments of customers for the 75% higher AOV than the average customer.

Rhian (01:22):
That's so rad.

Kelly (01:23):
Yeah. Plus Octane AI passes the quiz responses into the marketing tools you already use like Klaviyo and Privy. You'll also get to use this personalization data with Octane AI's powerful Facebook messenger and SMS automations.

Rhian (01:37):
Where can I learn more?

Kelly (01:38):
Visit octaneai.com/quiz to learn more and request an invite for early access.

Kelly (01:43):
(silence)

Rhian (03:54):
Good morning, Kelly!

Kelly (03:56):
Good morning. How are you doing this morning?

Rhian (03:58):
I am phenomenal. How are you?

Kelly (04:00):
I'm good. Did you get into anything fun this past weekend?

Rhian (04:05):
Alas, I did not. No, I can't say that I got into anything fun this past... I made a food.

Kelly (04:13):
Ooh.

Rhian (04:13):
Someone called me out for getting all of this red cookware and not using it, which was an accurate call-out. So, I have been cooking more.

Kelly (04:23):
Nice.

Rhian (04:23):
Yeah.

Kelly (04:24):
I also... Well, no, I'm not cooking more. I'm literally just cooking all the time.

Rhian (04:29):
I'm just...

Kelly (04:29):
It's the same thing. It's 2020.

Rhian (04:32):
I'm just cooking. I was getting delivery but... Methodology or something in that vein delivered. And then everyone ate in the house and everyone was happy. And then I was like, "You know what? I can actually cook food. I forgot."

Kelly (04:48):
I've been cooking since the beginning of the pandemic. We have not gotten takeout or delivery at all. It's been a lot of cooking.

Rhian (04:56):
And Kelly, tell me what's your favorite food to cook?

Kelly (05:00):
Spaghetti.

Rhian (05:02):
Spaghetti.

Kelly (05:04):
We eat a lot of spaghetti. And the nice thing is it's not like I'm like, "Hey Daniel, we're having spaghetti, again." It's more like, "What do you want for dinner?" "How about spaghetti?" "Oh, okay." So, we're very much on the same page about it.

Rhian (05:18):
That's the best case scenario. I feel like in my house it's like, "What are you making today?" I'm like, "Oh, spaghetti." "Mm." And I'm like, "How about lasagna?" "Mm." I'm like, "How about chicken tikka masala?" "I guess that's fine." I'm like, "Really? Really? This is... Are we this picky?" You know what? I should do. I should just stop asking anyone's opinion. Just make it.

Kelly (05:43):
Yep. Just Daniel's parents had this thing where... Well, she was making dinner and that's what it is. And then if they're not eating that it's YOYO. It's you're on your own.

Rhian (05:54):
Oh, that's a great idea.

Kelly (05:58):
Right? I love it.

Rhian (06:00):
Go find something. That's what I do for lunch with my daughter. She's like, "What should have I eat?" I'm like, "All of the kitchen is available to you."

Kelly (06:09):
Go eat the kitchen.

Rhian (06:09):
Make a sandwich or something. Have fun.

Kelly (06:13):
Good luck.

Rhian (06:14):
Good... So, today we're talking about FAQs, frequently asked questions. What's your most frequently asked question?

Kelly (06:27):
Why? Not usually appearing on websites but it is definitely the question I ask most often.

Rhian (06:36):
My personal favorite question to ask is, "What is happening right now?" But obviously, that's not a question you want your merchants to be asking themselves when they get to your store. That is not optimal. So, why do... [crosstalk 00:06:57]

Kelly (06:57):
If they're asking what is happening, then let's start with doing a tear down.

Rhian (07:01):
Yes.

Kelly (07:02):
And do a little audit of your website.

Rhian (07:04):
So, let's say you don't have an FAQ page, or heck, even if you do, why do you need one, first? Second, why do you need a good one?

Kelly (07:14):
So, first off, your questions... Your questions. Your... I'll get words out. Here we go. Your customers have questions and they want answers. So your frequently asked questions page is going to give your customers the answers that they're looking for. It could really make or break the purchasing experience. They could abandon their cart because they don't have answers to specific questions like, "Is this going to fit me?" Or, "Am I going to be allergic to something that's in this product?"

Rhian (07:45):
Yes. Yes. I was trying to buy something the other day and I couldn't figure out if there was gluten in it.

Kelly (07:51):
And so you don't order it.

Rhian (07:53):
And so I didn't order it. And the whole time I was like, "Man, I really want to try this out. Is there gluten in it?" And I obviously didn't end up checking out. So I was a customer who wanted an answer and there wasn't an answer served to me.

Rhian (08:06):
Now, two things could have happened there. One, I bounced, right? So, I did bounce off the page. That's one thing that could happen. Two, I could email customer support, which then creates customer support debt, which...

Kelly (08:21):
And that's another question that your team is going to have to answer that could have been answered with a question... Just to get an FAQ on the website.

Rhian (08:30):
I have found, and granted I'm coming from the software perspective, that if we get the same question more than twice, we just write a support doc for it.

Kelly (08:39):
Absolutely.

Rhian (08:40):
We just include it in the FAQs. Would you advocate for consumer goods that everybody, and merchants, that they do the same?

Kelly (08:50):
Absolutely. Yeah. If you were... You want to use your most common customer support requests to determine which questions to add in the first place. You have your customer support inquiries coming in. See what's being asked. Take those questions, answer them on your website.

Rhian (09:05):
Yeah. So, the content writes itself, because someone emailed you and you answered them, done.

Kelly (09:11):
You theoretically responded to their email. I hope. So, you've got this database of questions that are literally ready to go and you just have to basically format it on your website. Nice and easy.

Rhian (09:25):
And they're written from the viewpoint of the customer.

Kelly (09:28):
That is the goal. So, that's a really important distinction to make. And it seems like a weird thing, but it does really add to the customer experience. Take this question for example, "When will my order ship?" That's the question that the customer is asking. They're not asking, "When are your orders shipping?" Or, "When are our orders shipping?" "When do our orders ship?" Take it from the viewpoint of the customer. What are they asking you?

Kelly (09:57):
"My item arrived damaged. What can I do?" "I ordered the wrong size. Can I exchange it for a different size?" "Do you accept returns?" These are the types of questions that... This is the way you need to really format the question that you're actually writing out on the page.

Rhian (10:13):
And I can tell you the "When will my order ship" question is asked a lot. And the reason why I know this is because I have an app called Order Lookup, and this isn't a plug for the app, but we are currently... [crosstalk 00:10:25]

Kelly (10:24):
It is now.

Rhian (10:25):
Well, it is now, apparently. We are currently tracking 28 million orders.

Kelly (10:33):
That's a lot of orders.

Rhian (10:33):
It's a lot of orders.

Kelly (10:34):
I can't count that high.

Rhian (10:35):
I cannot count that high. But what's important to know is that means there's so many people looking up their order every day because they want to know when will my order ship? Has it shipped yet? They want to know that answer. They're not... If you don't serve them that answer, they are searching for that answer.

Kelly (10:53):
This is actually a bit of a diversion from talking FAQs. But this specific question is actually something that you can answer directly on your shipping rates at checkout. Because you name your shipping rates. So, say, "Ships in five to six days." "Delivers in one to two business days," whatever it is. You can put on there... Or "Plus five days for processing," however long it takes. [crosstalk 00:11:18]

Rhian (11:18):
Processing times. Make sure you add your processing times.

Kelly (11:22):
Exactly. If you're on Shopify Plus you can actually edit the checkout to include a note above the shipping options saying, "Please note that our orders take three to five days to prepare to ship." So, definitely recommend having that information front and center.

Rhian (11:35):
Would you put it in both places? Both in the FAQ and in the checkout?

Kelly (11:39):
Absolutely. Yeah. I would also put it on the product page.

Rhian (11:41):
Oh, yeah. You did... Something like that that can turn a good experience into a negative experience, you want to get ahead of and really set expectations. And that's a crucial part of having a great customer experience is setting expectations and then meeting the expectations or actually exceeding the expectations.

Kelly (11:59):
Exceeding them. Exactly. So, answering the questions directly on the FAQs page. This is important because it seems like, "Well, can I return the item?" "Yeah. Read our returns policy." Not really helpful.

Rhian (12:15):
No.

Kelly (12:16):
So, I would recommend actually answering, a shortened version of, "Yes. Our return window is 14 days and excludes..." I don't know, specific items. Or, "We unfortunately cannot accept returns because our items are custom prints on demand." Whatever the reason is. And then, you can still include a link to your returns policy, or your shipping policy, or whatever the question is relevant for.

Rhian (12:41):
Would you put a size guide in there?

Kelly (12:44):
Yes. First off, if you're selling apparel or anything that requires buying a specific size, please make sure you have a size guide on the product page.

Rhian (12:52):
Oh, yes.

Kelly (12:53):
Customers should not have to leave the product page to get that information. If you have to, if you need to do heavier theme customization, it's not built into your theme and you need to put that size guide somewhere, put it on the FAQ's page or on its own page and link to it. Maybe open it up in a new tab so it's not distracting people from shopping. The goal here is to get your customers the information that they need so they can make an educated decision on placing an order and choosing what they want to buy without distracting them from the buyer process, the buyer journey.

Rhian (13:27):
You talk about the buyer journey a lot.

Kelly (13:30):
I do.

Rhian (13:31):
For those of us who may not be familiar with that, I know... Explain it more. Explain it more.

Kelly (13:37):
So the buyer journey is where your customers come into your website and where they leave the website. Ideally, they're leaving on that order confirmation page. Where they come in depends on the source. So, if they're finding your homepage via Google, or they're just typing it in, the buyer journey starts on the home page. A lot of people run Facebook ads specific to collections or specific to product pages. So that might be where they start the buyer journey. But the whole idea of the buyer journey is that you're going from homepage, to collection, to product page, to cart, to checkout, and you're progressing through the checkout. So you're just basically going through the entire purchasing process. Is it always in that specific order? No, of course, it really depends on how your site is set up. But overall, that is what the buyer journey is.

Rhian (14:24):
Something that's important to note too, if you're sitting there being like, "Oh, this seems like a lot of work, when it comes to building out this robust FAQ. In my buyer journey, are people really going to go there?" And I will tell you when I was consulting, and I still see it now, that the site links, which are the, when you're on Google and there's the blue link, which is the title, and then there's a meta-description underneath, and then there's the little ones under that, which you only get by traffic. Google just kind of gifts those to you. You can't get them any other way.

Kelly (14:57):
So kind.

Rhian (14:57):
The FAQ is often on there. And that should be a cue to you. If you are a merchant and FAQ...

Kelly (15:07):
A cue.

Rhian (15:08):
Yeah. It should be a cue. Or if returns is on there, that means it's something people are asking about a lot. And that's not saying that's bad, but it's saying that you need to serve an answer because people have a high possibility of coming through, if they're searching for your brand name, through your FAQ page. So make sure your FAQ page looks good, sounds good, and is on brand.

Kelly (15:33):
Yes, 100%. And that's why it's important to stress that your buyer journey is not just those purchasing pages. Your About Us page could be involved in there. Your Contact page could be in there. If you have a quiz or some intermediate stage to help people figure out what it is that they're looking for, that's going to be part of your buyer journey. It's going to vary from merchant to merchant.

Rhian (15:54):
So when you're writing the FAQs, are we writing a novel here? Or are we writing succinctly? Are we something in between?

Kelly (16:02):
So, you know when you're looking for a recipe, something to make, you're like, "I want to make some kind of baked chicken," or "I want to make some kind of taco meal in an instant pot."

Rhian (16:14):
Yeah.

Kelly (16:14):
So you Google it and you land on a website and it's like, "The leaves are starting to change color. And I took my dog George for a walk..."

Rhian (16:25):
Narrative.

Kelly (16:25):
Don't do this!

Rhian (16:26):
Don't do it.

Kelly (16:27):
It's terrible enough to have to scroll past that for five minutes to get to the actual recipe on a website. Your FAQs should not be a blog. They should just be "What shoe size do I need to order?" "Here's the size guide." Not, "Our shoes are crafted with the finest leather." There's a place for that, but it's not that question.

Rhian (16:49):
There is a place for that. And I will also say it's important, and this goes across your whole site, but especially for your FAQs, make sure to keep the reading level at a place that is accessible to everybody. So I recommend fourth to sixth grade reading level and I use the Hemingway app to make sure that I'm writing at that level. The other thing, too, is to remember people are coming... Well, people may be coming through mobile. They may be coming through desktop. But if they're coming through mobile, what looks like a short paragraph is actually a really long paragraph on your mobile phone. So I call them micro paragraphs. So break up your copy kind of into, I don't know, one or two sentence micro paragraphs where it makes sense to have a little bit of a break or where you would take a breath if you were reading it. Have a break right there. And I know it goes against everything you ever learned in school, but when it comes to the internet, the rules are different. And with that, we'll be back after a quick break.

Rhian (17:56):
(music)

Rhian (17:57):
Kelly, I'm going to be really honest. I need to save time and make my marketing workflow more efficient. I don't want to continue to dump money into ads if they're not converting. Do you have any suggestions?

Kelly (18:08):
As a matter of fact, I do. With Justuno you can capture, segment, and retarget your website visitors, then personalize their shopping experience. Why spend hours on writing email copy when you're not customizing the buyer journey?

Rhian (18:21):
Okay, I'm in, but does Justuno work with my marketing tools?

Kelly (18:24):
Yes. Justuno integrates with email tools like Klaviyo and Omnisend, as well as SMS providers, such as Postscript and SMSBump. You could even capture both email and phone in the same pop-up. I recommend the Justuno Plus plan. It gives you access to their AI component, which creates smart product recommendations based on things like most purchased and most viewed. You also get access to a Justuno strategists to assist with a game plan and technical support.

Rhian (18:51):
Where can I learn more?

Kelly (18:52):
Go to justuno.com/tea to sign up and get 20% off your plan for the first year. Again. That's J-U-S-T-U-N-O .com/ T-E-A

Kelly (19:06):
Okay. So that actually leads us to another thing about writing style. Your FAQs, the answers to your questions, can still show some personality. They should follow the same brand, voice, and tone that you carry throughout your full web experience, both in the website, social media, and on email. So have a little fun when answering the customer's question. It doesn't have to be just straightforward, boring. This is not your terms and conditions page. You have one of those, right?

Rhian (19:38):
Yeah, you should have a terms and conditions page.

Kelly (19:40):
Consultant an attorney.

Rhian (19:41):
Consult an attorney! We are not lawyers. We are not lawyers. So funnily... Funnily enough... That's right. That's right. I actually just went to a page that I know has really snappy copy to say, "Oh, I want to pull an FAQ out of here." And they don't have an FAQ page.

Kelly (20:01):
Oh, I'm going to pull up another website and see if I can find one because I have some favorites. Oh, I don't see one on this website either.

Rhian (20:10):
Uh-oh. We should probably email them, I feel like. "Hey guys."

Kelly (20:14):
Maybe I should just send them a list of questions and be like, "Here. I just created your FAQs page for you."

Rhian (20:21):
Yeah. Okay, well that didn't work out how I was expecting it, but you know what? Things don't work out.

Kelly (20:27):
Oh, they do have one. It's just in the footer. Got it.

Rhian (20:29):
Oh, okay. What does yours say?

Kelly (20:31):
Okay. So I went to Jenny's Ice Creams because...

Rhian (20:34):
Of course you did.

Kelly (20:36):
I love ice cream. Let's see. It doesn't look like they are... Okay. Here's one. "I have a major nut allergy. Is Jenny's safe for me?"

Rhian (20:47):
Ooh, good question.

Kelly (20:48):
Again, allergies, really important to answer.

Rhian (20:52):
Yes.

Kelly (20:52):
"How much alcohol is in flavors made with alcohol?" "Is a flavor with alcohol safe for my child to eat?" It looks like the answer is, "Is a flavor safe for a child to eat?" There's a paragraph before this, but I'm not reading it. "We leave that entirely up to each parent to decide."

Rhian (21:11):
That sounds like there might be some alcohol still in that.

Kelly (21:14):
It's like 0.5%.

Rhian (21:16):
I'm reading into that answer.

Kelly (21:18):
It's not nothing.

Kelly (21:23):
Yeah. See, they... I think Jenny's is an example of they're answering the questions, but it's a very different experience from their product descriptions. So they could have had more fun with that. Like, "You're the parent. You decide." Not just, "We'll let you decide." Just have some fun with the writing.

Rhian (21:43):
Right. I agree. You have to have that personality that goes through it. What's this sunglass company that everyone's raving about right now?

Kelly (21:53):
Pit Viper.

Rhian (21:54):
Pit Viper. I feel like they will have a killer FAQ page. And if I'm wrong, I'm going to be wrong twice. Oh, here we go. Under Cranky People Stuff. There is the FAQ. It's in the footer. There's an FAQ page. They have a lot of personality. So this is funny. "Why are you sold out? When is the next restock?" "We are very popular, and very, very cool. We will be restocking in the fall." "I didn't get an order confirmation/tracking number." "Many mail services think we are inappropriate. Check your spam folder." So there...

Kelly (22:32):
I like this one.

Rhian (22:34):
Which?

Kelly (22:34):
Shipping Specifics. "I'm a big dumb idiot and I put in the wrong address. Help." So we're going to link to this FAQs. If that doesn't work... And they give her something to do... "If that doesn't work, email us with your order number and an explanation for how you managed to screw up so bad."

Rhian (22:53):
Yeah, this has a lot of personality in it. I'm glad we pulled this one up. If not for just the funnies for y'all to read at home.

Kelly (23:04):
So I think this actually brings up another point because Pit Viper does this in a lot of, and Jenny's Ice Cream does the same thing, is they categorize their questions. So it's not just... In the case of Pit Viper, they're actually... They just have Shipping Specifics as a heading as a scroll halfway down. Not the best example, but Jenny's Ice Creams, they have categories. Top FAQs, Company, Events and Catering, Product Info, Shipping, and Gifting. So you can find the specific questions you're looking for based on what categories instead of having to sift through an entire long list of questions.

Rhian (23:45):
And that just makes the buying experience that much faster and that much better for your clientele.

Kelly (23:54):
Exactly.

Rhian (23:54):
You want people amped on your product. You don't want people irritated when they're buying, on their buyer's journey. You don't want to irritate the customer on their buyer journey. You want to make them feel delighted, and happy, and not already upset before they get your product. That's not... That is suboptimal.

Kelly (24:13):
That is not the goal here.

Rhian (24:14):
Not the goal.

Kelly (24:15):
So, let's go through some example questions of, I would say, the most popular FAQs that you should really be adding to your website. Sound good?

Rhian (24:25):
That sounds perfect.

Kelly (24:27):
We talked about one example already. "When will my order ship?" That's a really important question to ask, or answer, rather. "How long will it take for my order to arrive?" I think it's also a good idea to add a section about the company. "What makes you different?" "Why purchase from you, basically?"

Rhian (24:45):
So you think that should be on the FAQ? Now, you don't want to duplicate that content, though, on the About Us. So that's got to be its own little set of content. Maybe microfy it.

Kelly (24:56):
Exactly, the TLDR. Too long, didn't read. Answer the question. Link to the about page.

Rhian (25:02):
Yeah, if you're a sustainable company and you've already laid it out in great detail everywhere else, say it again for posterity's sake, in case people didn't get it the first few times. Also that's great for Google, because they're reading it again. It doesn't hurt.

Kelly (25:16):
If you're selling items that often are one off creations or not going to go back and stock, explain that. "Is there a waiting list for sold out items?" If there is, if you have in-stock notifications available through a backend stock app, mention that in there, that you can sign up for restock notifications. If you don't explain that each of your products are one of a kind and they will not be restocked once they're back in stock. I think that's a really good example.

Kelly (25:41):
Oh, another really important one right now is COVID-19.

Rhian (25:45):
Oh, yes.

Kelly (25:47):
"Are your operations affected by COVID-19?" Answer that question. Has it impacted your shipping times? Your processing? Whatever it might be, make sure that it's very clear. I'm seeing a lot of merchants add that as their very first question right now.

Rhian (26:01):
And setting that expectation. We already talked about setting shipping expectations, but especially around COVID-19, it's so important, because the last thing you want to have happened is it take an extra 10 days and you weren't expecting it. I would hedge on the side of being ultra conservative in terms of your shipping times.

Kelly (26:29):
Yeah. Again, you want your item to be delivered sooner than expected, as opposed to later than expected.

Rhian (26:35):
Unsurprisingly, I ordered a bathing suit for my daughter the other day from JOLYN, and they have a huge banner up top that's like, "Hey, we've got COVID shipping delays." And I'm like, "Okay, I totally get it. We'll get the product when we get it." And I got it three days later, so there wasn't really a shipping delay for me, but granted they're based out of Southern California as well. But it was good that they set that expectation up front. They were like, "There is a seven to ten day delay, FYI."

Kelly (27:00):
Yeah. As we near the holiday season...

Rhian (27:03):
Oh, my gosh.

Kelly (27:04):
You're going to want to make sure, what are your shipping... Or what are your order cutoff dates? If it varies by product, make sure that information is right on the product page, please. But you're going to have some general information, like our custom prints need to be purchased by December 1st to arrive in time for Christmas, or whatever the answer is. But again, those cutoff times, anything that's going to impact the holiday shopping season, you want to make sure you're answering all those questions. You can constantly change the contents on your FAQs page.

Rhian (27:35):
I have a question because I've been hearing whispers of this. I've been hearing whispers in the DTC community that shipping cutoffs this year are going to be very soon.

Kelly (27:54):
They are. So I don't work for USPS. I don't work for FedEx. I don't... That's not my life. But there are already a ton of shipping issues.

Rhian (28:05):
Yes.

Kelly (28:05):
And this is for quote unquote, "normal shipping times," during the year. Obviously COVID has changed a lot of that because a lot of people are ordering as opposed to shopping in store. But as the holiday shopping season picks up, there are going to be more and more people shopping. There are going to be more orders placed. There's going to be a lot more mail in general. So the shipping times are going to increase. The costs of shipping are going to increase as well.

Rhian (28:34):
I know this isn't the point of the episode, but something I want to get your hot take on, possibly a spicy take on...

Kelly (28:40):
I like hot takes.

Rhian (28:41):
I love a hot take. Do you think Black Friday, Cyber Monday, will get moved up this year?

Kelly (28:47):
Oh, totally.

Rhian (28:47):
It's like a marketing event. Let's be honest. Obviously, it won't be the day after Thanksgiving, but I really feel like we should be seeing Black Friday, Cyber Monday type sales or events in October, dare I say? Which is next month, I just realized.

Kelly (29:02):
Oh, totally. I think what's really going to start... I know October is next month, that's wild. I think what's really going to kick off the holiday shopping season, and this sounds crazy, but Amazon Prime Week is the week of October 5th.

Rhian (29:17):
Ooh.

Kelly (29:18):
It is the beginning of October. Now this was supposed to be back in July, I think.

Rhian (29:22):
Yeah. But they couldn't hang. [crosstalk 00:29:26] For a lot of reasons.

Kelly (29:25):
Exactly. There was enough going on from COVID. So their sales season is going to significantly impact the sales strategies for merchants all throughout the holiday season. You also have big box brands, like target. They're going to be closed on Thanksgiving, but they're going to be offering sales online. So now you're competing with these bigger box brands, with these bigger ad spends, on getting the attention of your customers.

Kelly (29:52):
So I recommend creating a few different strategies for how you're going to be offering your sales, and being ready to pivot if you need to pivot to market in a different way. There's also the fact that there is an election this year. That is going to impact... You wouldn't think it would impact the holiday shopping season, but it is absolutely going to impact the season. It is going to impact your customer communications, for one thing. If you haven't noticed already, people tend to be a little bit more tense at the moment, just because they're tired of being inside. You add an election on top of that, and you add we don't know what's going to happen as a result of the election. There are a lot of unknowns that need to be addressed. There's still a lot of people who are unemployed.

Rhian (30:38):
So many people who are still unemployed, and it's critical to not forget about any of that. We're still... I feel sometimes like e-commerce, we get to be in a little bit of a bubble because our industry was impacted differently.

Kelly (30:55):
Vastly differently.

Rhian (30:57):
Vastly different than the rest of society, basically. But for those of you who are manufacturers who had to close down operations, I don't want to say, and be doom and gloom, and say, "Expect another shutdown," but don't think it couldn't happen. And plan for if it does. And maybe that means eating it and over manufacturing now. What are your thoughts on that, Kelly? Is that too doom and gloom? [crosstalk 00:31:29]

Kelly (31:29):
Honestly it's not.

Rhian (31:30):
I am trying to not be doom and gloom and I try to be super positive, but I'm also a realist. And I want y'all who listen to us to be successful.

Kelly (31:39):
At the taproom, we decided to write a blog post about what to expect for Black Friday, Cyber Monday. There are vastly different articles that are being published right now. That was like, 'This is going to be the most successful BFCM ever." And there's also, "Everything is going to crash and burn and we won't have anything good happening in our lives." So we decided to put out a, "Here's what's realistically going to happen." Again, it is a prediction, but also "Here's some things you can do about it." I'll link to that blog post in the show notes. I think that's going to help answer some questions, but really, it's up to you. It's up to your financial situation for your business. If over manufacturing now is going to stretch you thin, you don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're not able to pay your team, for example.

Rhian (32:25):
Right. You have to keep your cashflow alive.

Kelly (32:27):
So I have one final tip to round out your FAQs pitch. And that is make the last question on your FAQs page, "What if my question didn't get answered here?" Or something along those lines. And you can use this as an option to link people to the Contact Us page so they can reach out to you. They can reach out to you via email, via phone, via chat, whatever your options are. But basically being like, there's not a dead end if they don't have an answer to their question.

Rhian (32:58):
So important. Also do not do the thing where you force the email client on the desktop to open, to send an email.

Kelly (33:12):
So don't do a mailto link?

Rhian (33:15):
Am I alone in loathing this?

Kelly (33:18):
Yeah. Maybe not. I use mailto links all the time. I have mixed feelings about it. So I use Superhuman for my email.

Rhian (33:29):
So do I. I just started, because of you.

Kelly (33:31):
That does open up on Chrome, and I don't really appreciate it. I also have six email accounts connected to Superhuman at the moment. And so it will start the email in the wrong email account.

Rhian (33:46):
Oh, I've done that before. This is my challenge with the mailto situation, is I'll send it from the wrong email. It'll be chaos. You might get an email from hello@commercetea being like, "What is happening?"

Kelly (34:02):
Literally your most frequently asked question, "What is happening?"

Rhian (34:04):
What is happening? Okay. So Kelly and I have divergent opinions on this, but that's okay. We can still be friends.

Kelly (34:13):
We can have a happy medium here. We can say, "Send an email to hello@mystore.com or click here to send an email." Take your pick.

Rhian (34:23):
Take your pick. I love it. Pick your poison. Okay, well, as y'all know, we round out every episode with some store shout outs. Kelly, what is your store of the week?

Kelly (34:35):
My store of the week, I can't remember if I actually called this one out in the past or not, but if I did already, well, they get doubled fun. The store is 20x200, and they sell art. That's all different styles of paintings and prints. And I've been trying to figure out what to put on my walls for a while, and they have such a really cool selection of art on here that's really fitting to anybody's taste. They have a really unique order process as well, where you can pick a custom frame for it. I also built the website, so I'm a little biased, but their FAQs page is actually a really good example of what to do for your FAQs.

Rhian (35:22):
Yay. I love that. Okay.

Kelly (35:26):
That's 20-X-200-.com. And again, it will be in the show notes too.

Rhian (35:30):
20X200. I'm going to check it out. So my store of the week is Topicals. It's mytopicals.com. And it is skincare specifically designed for women of color or people of color. And this is the copy... Okay, first of all, the website is absolutely freaking gorgeous. They use emojis where there should be emojis. I get the brand, I get the vibe, but there's also really powerful messaging here.

Rhian (36:02):
"Topicals is transforming the way you feel about skin. A science backed skincare brand. You don't have to hide. We belong by your side. In the street, in the pocket of your hoodie, on your way out to the best night of your life." You have folks... In the bottom, there's social proof images.

Kelly (36:21):
I love everything about this.

Rhian (36:22):
Isn't this stunning? It's so stunning. And there's a mental health component to this. At the bottom of the page is says, "Topicals is committed to raising awareness about the connection between skin health and mental health. Folks with skin conditions are two to six times more likely to experience anxiety and depression. Why? Because we're taught to aim for perfection when life and skin is fluid and messy AF." Love this store. Love everything about store.

Kelly (36:50):
Can I be picky about it?

Rhian (36:52):
Of course you can be picky about it.

Kelly (36:53):
Their FAQs, they answer a lot of questions. It's a little difficult to read. The italicized texts is tough to read.

Rhian (37:00):
It is. It is. We'll message them. Rhian giving unsolicited advice.

Kelly (37:07):
I have a suggestion for your store. [crosstalk 00:37:10]

Rhian (37:10):
1985.

Kelly (37:10):
You didn't ask...

Kelly (37:14):
Amazing. So hopefully this was helpful. I didn't think we could do a full 30 minute episode on building an FAQs page, but we have reached the end of this episode. So hopefully you have some nice takeaways. And if you don't have an FAQs page, you are going to create one now. And if you do have an FAQs page, just giving you some ideas of how to improve it.

Rhian (37:33):
Oh, also if you have a really stunning FAQs page, email it to us.

Kelly (37:39):
Hello@commercetea.com. We would love to see it. We would love to promote it.

Rhian (37:44):
And maybe feature it in a blog. I don't know. We'll see what happens.

Kelly (37:47):
Maybe so. All right. Until next week. Pew pew pew!

Kelly (37:58):
Thanks for tuning in and thanks again to our sponsors for supporting this episode. You can subscribe to Commerce Tea on your favorite podcasting service. We post new episodes every Tuesday, so grab your mug and join us. See you next week.

Rhian (38:18):
Clocked In is a time clock for Shopify. With Clocked In, your team members can easily clock in and out of their shifts from anywhere. You can manage your team's hours as they work remotely with an intuitive interface that can be used from desktop, tablet, or mobile. Check it out clockedin.io or in the Shopify App Store.