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E-BRANDING 5: CUT THE FAQs
We’re all individuals, as the Monty Python team reminded us. When we have a question, it’s our question and we want an individual answer. Maybe a thousand people have asked it before, but it’s still irritating to visit a website, click the “contact us” button and get redirected to a page that says “check here first to see if it answers your question”. It rarely does, and even if we do find an answer, it makes us feel as if we’ve been fobbed off.
The idea FAQs, frequently asked questions, were an early feature of websites, and in the 1990s they were quite helpful. They were designed to help first-timers to understand how the website work. Since then they have been expanded on some sites, in an attempt to answer every question that a customer could possibly ask. The expense put into creating these massive, interactive FAQ sections must have been huge, and yet when you come to the box at the end that says “Did this answer your question”, the answer is generally, “Well, not really, no.” Replacing people with FAQs puts a barrier between your brand and your customers, something which is likely to send them off in another direction. Innocent drinks have a banana phone. They really do, and it’s shaped like a banana. You can call it at any time and talk to someone
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100 Great Branding Ideas 14dec.indd 136
12/14/11 11:14 AM