F#ck the FAQ

That's not very lady like, is it? No, it's not. Sorry in advance. But sometimes it slips my mind. Does the steam come out of my ears, when I'm looking for the answer on a website. If I get lost in the Frequently Asked Questions again.

FAQ is a widely accepted English term in the world of customer experience. Now I understand that well, because F.A.Q. - as in Frequently Asked Questions - sounds a bit weird. In Dutch we call this V.G.V. ('Veel Gestelde Vragen') and this abbeviation looks too much like the TGV. Let's be honest, few customers experience their digital search on websites as that of a high-speed train. More of an old-fashioned little train between 'middle of nowhere' on the heath and 'nowhere land' by the sea.

So there I went. Finding my way through the FAQ. Getting a quick answer to a question I had: how to convert my subscription? I didn't understand the information I was getting. I also had the feeling that this answer wasn't about my question and problem. Of course I searched further, clicked and clicked without finding my anser. And after a few minutes - yes, I'm sometimes impatient and I'm not the only customer - I decided to call. Maybe this call was the shortcut I needed, because I couldn't figure it out on my own. It felt like I was stupid. Of course, I would have preferred to have found the answer myself. The company would also have preferred that I didn't call. Not only did they try to hide their phone number (but I'm a master-googler, HA!), but the employee also made this clear on the phone. In no time she found the answer and she didn't understand that I hadn't found the answer myself. I could have done this too in the 'My account' area, she told me.

If you lose me in your own FAQ, it's not my fault, is it? Too often I see that the flow is set up from an internal perspective. Or that it's written in words that I don't use as a client. Or that I want to do something that is not allowed online. Like cancelling a subscription. You can only do that by phone during office hours. That FAQ remains a mystery to me. If you look at it phonetically it looks suspiciously a lot like F#CK. Unfortunately, I can't make anything else out of it.

 

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on 30 May 2018

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