Introduction

FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions are commonly asked questions about a process or a business. 

FAQ are written in pairs of questions and answers. You can create FAQ out of the questions your customers ask if you think it might be useful to other customers. 

For example, ‘How do I sign up for Vtiger CRM?’ may be a frequently asked question.

These FAQ can be uploaded on a portal or a website that all your customers have access to.

Important Fields in an FAQ 

Creating an FAQ

You can create FAQ manually in the CRM, through Import, or from Workflows. 

Follow these steps to create an FAQ manually in the CRM:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Help desk.
4. Click FAQ. You will land on the List View of the FAQ module.
5. Click +Add FAQ.
6. Enter the question, answer, and status of the FAQ. 
7. Click Save.

An FAQ will be created and saved in the CRM. You can add other details to the FAQ later.

Other ways of creating an FAQ

Apart from manually creating an FAQ, you can create FAQ through the following sources:

• Import

When you have a large number of FAQ to write, it is not easy to publish them manually by writing one at a time. In this case, you can import FAQ from your local computer.

Write all your FAQ in an XLS or CSV file on your local computer. The column names in the file must be the same as the field names in the CRM. For example, to map the Question field in the CRM to the question in your XLS or CSV document, you must create a column called Question.

To know more about Importing, click here.

• Workflow 

You can automate the creation of FAQ through Workflows. A workflow has three main components:

• Trigger - What causes the workflow to execute
• Conditions - The conditions that must be met to create an FAQ
• Action - Creating a FAQ

For example, you can create a workflow for this scenario - When a case is closed, and its Title ends with a question mark, create an FAQ. You can copy the Case Title to Question and Case Summary to Answer.

To know more about Workflows, click here.

• Mailroom

If you are receiving emails that must be converted to FAQ, you can achieve that through Mailroom automation. 

To do this, you must set up the following:

• Mailroom rules for FAQ
• Auto-forwarding in your email client

When you do the above, all the emails landing in your email client are auto-forwarded to the mailroom. The mailroom will then scan your incoming emails and create FAQ records. 

For example, when an email’s subject contains the phrase - ‘How can I’, you can automatically convert the email to an FAQ.

To learn more about Mailroom, click here.
To learn more about Auto-forwarding, click here.

Different FAQ statuses

An FAQ can take one of these statuses:

Enhancing your FAQ

Now that you have created an FAQ, you can enhance it to add value. Based on the type of information you want to display, you can add tables, screenshots, images, and links to other articles, websites, etc. 

This can be useful when you have to make references to a screen or an external help document, or a website.

Adding screenshots 

Follow these steps to add a screenshot to an FAQ:

1. Click the Image icon in the Answer textbox. 
2. Click the Upload tab.
3. Click Choose File to browse and select for the image on your local computer.
4. Click Send it to the Server.
5. Specify image properties such as the alternative text, height, and width of the image, alignment, etc., in the Image Info tab (optional).
6. Click OK.

The screenshot will be added to the FAQ.

Adding links

Follow these steps to add a link to an external document:

1. Select the text that you want to link the external document to in the Answer textbox.
2. Click the Link icon in the toolbar.
3. Type the URL of the external document in the URL field under the Link Info tab.
4. Click OK.

A hyperlink in blue will be added to the text you selected. This indicates that the link is embedded in the text.

List View in FAQ

In Vtiger CRM, you can look at all the FAQ in the form of a list in the List View. This view sorts and lists all FAQ based on the last modified date and time.

Columns in the List View 

The columns that are visible by default in the List View are:

1. Question - Displays the FAQ’s question.
2. Answer - Displays the FAQ’s answer.
3. Status - Displays the status of the FAQ.
4. Category - Displays the category under which the FAQ is listed.
5. Created By- Displays the name of the FAQ’s creator.
6. Modified Time - Displays the date and time when the FAQ was last updated.

List actions

You can perform many quick actions such as Edit, Comment, Export, Print, etc., on the FAQ records in the List View.

To learn more about List View actions in Vtiger CRM, click here.

Searching for your FAQ

The search bar in the List View is a unique feature on its own. It is one of a kind because it filters, searches, and delivers the result brilliantly.

The search bar helps you search for a record as well as filter the rest of the records using field names that you specify. This feature comes in very handy if you have a large number of records in the CRM.

To know more about the search bar in List View, click here.

Converting Cases into FAQ

When customers ask you common questions, you can make an FAQ out of the question and display it in the Customer Portal. But when the same question is asked through a case, then you can convert the case into an FAQ.

Follow these steps to convert a case into an FAQ:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Help desk.
4. Click Cases.
5. Select and open the case that you want to convert into an FAQ.
6. Click the More icon on the top right of the Summary View.
7. Select Convert to FAQ.

An FAQ will be automatically created. 

The case title is copied as the question and in the case’s comments as the answer. You can view the newly created FAQ under Main Menu > Help desk > FAQ.

To learn more about Cases, click here.

Accessing an FAQ

Your customers or contacts can view FAQ in the Customer Portal and in the Live Chat widget on your website. Let us learn about them in detail.

1. Customer Portal

The customer portal has all the information that might interest the customers of an organization. It is the one-stop destination for your customers to create a case, view the status of their cases, access FAQ, etc. 

To learn more about the Customer Portal, click here.

Giving customers access to the customer portal

To give customers access to the portal, you must enable the Portal User field in Contacts. When you do this, your customers will receive credentials on their contact email address, using which they can log in to the customer portal.
 

Follow these steps to give access to the customer portal to a contact:

1. Log in to your CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to Essentials.
4. Click Contacts.
5. Select and open a contact record for which the customer portal must be enabled.
6. Click the Edit icon in the top right of the Summary View.
7. Look for the Portal User field and enable it. 
8. Enter a valid Support Start Date and Support End Date. Customers will not be able to log in to the customer portal beyond the support end date.
9. Click Save.

Viewing FAQ in the customer portal

The customer portal can be accessed by using the login credentials received by email. 

Follow these steps to view FAQ in the customer portal:

1. Click the URL in the email. It will take you to the login page of the customer portal.
2. Enter the credentials specified in the email to log in. You will land on the customer portal home page.
3. Click the FAQ tab on top of the screen. You will see all the FAQ published in the portal.
4. Click more… to view other FAQ.

To learn more about using the Customer Portal, click here.

2. Live Chat widget

The Live Chat widget provides quick help to your customers. Your customers can find solutions to their queries through FAQ, or they can directly talk to an agent. 

Enabling the Live Chat widget

The Live Chat widget will be hosted on your website through which the customers can seek help. To enable this widget, you must do the following:

1. Install the extension. 
2. Copy the tracker code from Settings > Websense > Trackers.
3. Inject the code on your website. 

When you do the above, the Live Chat widget will appear on your website.

To learn more about Live Chat, click here.

Viewing FAQ in the widget

Your customers can visit your website, click the widget, and type their query. If you have an FAQ for the query, a related FAQ list will pop up on the widget.