Using a faq software for great product documentation

An FAQ or frequently asked questions holds the typical questions of a user or operator. This includes onboarding related issues, typical use cases but also problems and pitfalls.

What is an FAQ and why is it important?

The FAQ stands for frequently asked question(s) and contains the typical questions asked by a user or customer of your product or faq software application.

Creating and maintaining a great faqs page will help your support team to lower the number, frequency and amount of help requests by your users.

What is the difference between an faq software and knowledge base?

The frequently asked questions and answers are structured like a questions and should provide specific answers to the question or problem.

The knowledge base articles are broader and contain more information, whereas the FAQ page is very specific.

A knowledge base portal is typically structured into multiple levels and categories, whereas the FAQ is only a list of questions. So a FAQ software might be quite limited or part of a bigger documentation software suite.

How to create an faq?

Basically any text editor as Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or even Microsoft Excel can be used to create a Word FAQ document and export it to a FAQ pdf file.

The next section contains a FAQ template that can be copied into your editor. Check with your customer support or product management to get typical issues and the relevant answer.

Put them in a Word document, or on a section of your product documentation tool and the first version of the frequently asked questions page is ready.

If you are already using a FAQ software, there might be some examples or templates provided by your software vendor.

Free FAQ template

Basically, the faq is just a list of questions and the related answers.

Depending on the context and the structure of your FAQ site, it might contain the following elements:

• Question: as the user would ask your support agent
• Answer: short, precise, in the terms and language of your reader base; if possible add image or screenshots; check with your customer service department
• Categories: it might be helpful to group and categories the FAQ entries (e.g. onboarding, login, billing, reporting, …)
• Links and related pages: add links to specific pages as knowledge base or explanation articles

What are common questions?

Common customer queries can be grouped by the module of your software, by the user’s persona (e.g. end user, manager, administrator, IT operations) or the progress of the user’s onboarding. Here are some samples:

• How can I login to your software? Can I use single-sign-on (SSO) with my Microsoft login or Google Workspace account?
• How can I export the data to Microsoft Excel? How can I upload my spreadsheet and use it for calculation?
• How can I integrate my CRM or ERP application?
• Why does your SaaS web application not render properly on my Android tablet or iPhone? Where can I download the iOS App?

What are good examples of an FAQ?

The following pages are just some random examples that provide a faq content page with specific knowledge entries created by a FAQ software:

Microsoft Teams FAQ

Targeted for the IT administrator of the Teams’ user, this page provides answers to common questions. There are no images. Some answers link to other documentation pages.

URL: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/faq-support-remote-workforce

Asana Common questions

This page is structured as a big question/answer page starting with the list of questions, and linking with relative links (using # / anchor) to the answers. The questions range from “Am I in a workspace or an Organization?” to “How can I change my Time Zone in Asana?” and are mostly user-oriented. There is another FAQ related to billing. The answers are described in detail, with additional information and content elements (tables, images, “tip” boxes) and link to the other help documents.

URL: https://asana.com/guide/help/faq/common-questions

Do I need a specific FAQ product?

Using a specific faq software or faq SaaS application is beneficial since it is online, can be used by different users of your team or customer support department at the same time and provides more advantages as e.g.

• linking between different FAQ questions and other pages inside of your product documentation
• automatically make the question and answers searchable
• Many FAQ tools and documentation tools provide interlinked features to lower the technical support volume and help your customers to self-troubleshoot their issues. So a good documentation software can help to lower customer support requests and improve customer satisfaction.

What are important criteria when choosing a FAQ software?

When evaluating a documentation software, knowledge base software or FAQ solution, there are many different things and features to be taken into consideration. Use the following elements as input to your evaluation process.

• Simple vs enhanced: if you are starting or have a small product, starting with a simple solution as putting it into your CMS as WordPress, or a Word document exported to a PDF file might be enough. If you have a bigger product, multiple products, different languages, and multiple employees, a specific software product would be helpful.
• Specific FAQ solution vs. support suite: if your support team already purchased a support platform as Zendesk, FreshDesk or other support suites, then a FAQ can be created and maintained using this product. If only a FAQ is your need, than a specific product should be enough.
• Feature: the faq or any documentation software might contain a great search and customer portal for your users – and a good and easy to use backend to manage the faq pages.
• Analytics and reporting: can the visitors search requests be tracked as customer experience and customer satisfaction – and used to improve the knowledge base and faq section?
• Multiple languages: if multilingual faq entries need to be created, check for provided features of the software as translation management and interlinking for the answers.
• Integration: if relevant, can the FAQ software or knowledge base portal get integrated easily into your software or web application? Can it be integrated with other tools and SaaS application that are used inside your organization?

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