Introduction

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

FAQs are written in pairs of questions and answers. You can create an FAQ from your customers' questions 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 FAQs can be uploaded on a portal or a website that all your customers have access to.

FAQ Editor in Vtiger

The FAQ editor allows you to format content by adding different font styles, headings, font sizes, and colors. You can also add numbers and bullets to your content.


Actions in Article Editor
You can perform the following actions in the Summary View of an article:

• Edit - When you hover on the title of the FAQ, you will find the edit icon. By clicking the edit icon, you can edit the title of the FAQ and save it.
• Follow -  By clicking the follow icon, you can follow and unfollow a FAQ. 
• Add Tags - You can add tags by choosing from the drop-down or create your own tags.
• Open in a new tab - You can open a FAQ in a new tab.
• Click to copy the direct link - This is the direct link to the FAQ. By clicking this icon, a URL copied successfully message will be displayed. You can now share this link with others.

• Draft: The FAQ is written and not completed yet.
• To be reviewed: The FAQ is written and ready to be reviewed for technical and grammatical errors.
• Reviewed: The FAQ has been reviewed (by the concerned person for technical review, and grammar review, etc.)
• Published: The FAQ has been reviewed and published on the website for customers to view.
• To be deleted: The FAQ that needs to be deleted.
• Obsolete: The FAQ is not required anymore.

• Public: When visibility is set to public, FAQ is visible to everyone on the internet.
• Logged-in Contacts: When visibility is set to logged-in contacts, FAQ is visible to all the contacts who are currently signed in or using the CRM at that moment
• Employees: When visibility is set to employees, FAQ is only visible to your organization's employees.
• Bot Only: When visibility is set to the bot, FAQ is only visible to the bot for training.

• Click to follow - You can click this icon to follow a FAQ.
• Tags - You can add tags to a FAQ record.
• Open in a new tab - You can open the FAQ in a new window.
• Click to copy the direct link - You can copy the FAQ link and share it.

Activity 

Edit Icon

More Icon

• Follow and Add Followers - You can follow a record and also add followers to a record.
• Print - You can print a FAQ record.
• Duplicate - You can duplicate a FAQ record.
• Attachment - You can attach documents to a FAQ by clicking Documents under attachment.
• Add or Link - You can add another FAQ or link other FAQs to a FAQ record

Widgets

• Analytics - You can get your analytics for FAQs by simply creating a chart or minilist.
• Details - You can see all the details of your FAQs.
• Documents - You can link, and add Documents to your FAQs. You can also click the record lists or open record lists.
• FAQ - You can link FAQs to a particular FAQ.

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 the CRM.
2. Go to the Help desk.
3. Select FAQ. The FAQ List View opens.
4. Click +Add FAQ. The Add FAQ window opens.
5. Type the Question in the Question field.
6. Type the Answer in the Answer field.
7. Add Questions variants.
8. Add FAQ Label.
9. Select a Status from the drop-down.
10. Select the Category of the FAQ from the Category drop-down.
11. Select the Feature of the FAQ from the Feature drop-down.
12. Select the Version. 
13. Select the FAQ Visibility from the drop-down.
14. 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 FAQs 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 learn more about Importing, click here.

• Workflow 

You can automate the creation of FAQs 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 the Question and the Case Summary to Answer.

To learn more about Workflows, click here.

• Mailroom

If you receive 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 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 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. It is one of a kind because it filters, searches, and delivers the result brilliantly.

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

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

Converting Cases into the 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 the CRM account.
2. Click the Main Menu.
3. Go to the 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 the 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 cannot 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 FAQs published in the portal.
4. Click more… to view other FAQs.

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 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. 

The Live Chat widget will appear on your website when you do the above.

To learn more about Live Chat, click here.

Viewing FAQ in the widget

Customers can visit your website, click the widget, and type their query. A related FAQ list will pop up on the widget if you have an FAQ for the query.