RE: Is a referral to an FAQ acceptable?
Howdy folks,
I just finished work on our basic FAQ / Support Site, and now I am sort of wondering...
Would any of you be upset if after you e-mailed support asking something basic such as the DNS servers, you received a reply pointing you to a *specific* URL answering your question?
We get a *ton* of requests asking us for our DNS server for example. Would any of you be upset if when you e-mail support you get an e-mail back pointing you to the *specific page* in the FAQ?
Sincerely,
Vladislav Davidzon
Senior Network Administrator - ThinkHost Web Hosting Services
http://www.thinkhost.com - honesty, reliability, trust.
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Chad Simper posted this at 17:36 — 16th July 2000.
He has: 424 posts
Joined: Mar 1999
Vlad,
We once asked ourselves the same question and customers actually prefer it, in our experience. When you point them to a URL like that, there is often a much more detailed answer than you would provide via e-mail and they like the detailed explanation.
Plus, having those FAQs will actually cut down on your support time once clients learn they are there and have answers to a lot of their common questions.
This is just from our own experience, but I would think it would probably apply to you and your firm as well.
Jes posted this at 18:52 — 16th July 2000.
They have: 120 posts
Joined: Apr 1999
Personally I would only be fine with this if there were some kind of human touch still added to it. A brief message somehow *not automatically generated of course*.
In the case of just an url I would personally feel that the company is trying to distance itself from me, the customer, it's livelyhood. Not a good thing. I would probably leave. Can't say for sure though, haven't had a host like that.
Call me old fashioned, but I like the "human touch" even over the net.
Jes
TheGraphicsExpe... posted this at 19:02 — 16th July 2000.
They have: 184 posts
Joined: Jun 2000
Well, in my experience being yelled at--told to see a URL, I think it's fine. As long as there is, like Chad and Jes said, a human touch to it all.
Mike Fisher
Hypertrophy (design)
[email protected]
ICQ: 38389521
"Taking over TWF, one post at a time."
Chad Simper posted this at 19:52 — 16th July 2000.
He has: 424 posts
Joined: Mar 1999
I'm not suggesting just sending a URL... You would probably want to say something like "take a look at this URL... It should answer most of your questions. If it doesn't, please let us know".
However, if you have the FAQs and customers know where they are and how to use them, the chances of you getting a message about it are greatly reduced.
chicken posted this at 21:51 — 16th July 2000.
They have: 98 posts
Joined: Jan 2000
Personally I hate not knowing things, and would rather find the info I need via support and FAQ pages than wait for a simple reply to a question.
"How do I..."
You could start breaking them into the FAQ section by:
Emailing them the info, but also with a link to the FAQ where the info could be found or the super secret way of directing them to FAQ's is to require that your clients send support requests from a form and ABOVE the form in big enough letters: "Did you check out FAQ first?"
Live Hosting Chat! at http://www.HostHideout.com
Ted posted this at 11:21 — 17th July 2000.
They have: 74 posts
Joined: Apr 2000
As long as you are definately pointing the customer to the answer, not a problem as far as I am concerned. Getting pointed to an FAQ that does not answer the question is annoying to me.
thinkhost posted this at 03:49 — 18th July 2000.
They have: 84 posts
Joined: Apr 2000
Thanks to everyone who has responded -- your responses have been EXACTLY in line with what I was thinking. Thanks!!!
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