Helpful Tips to Answer Common Questions (Fighting Misperceptions)

By Mark Land, M.S., RAC-US, AAHP 

Answering common questions or “frequently asked questions” (FAQs) is an engagement concept that probably dates back forever. The goal is always to answer once but report many times. Ideally developing answers to FAQs allows those with technical or otherwise specialized knowledge to transfer their knowledge to those on the frontlines of consumer engagement. Over the years answering FAQs has evolved to today’s use of automated chatbots and other intelligent agents sharing information otherwise available on your website with inquirers in ways that attempt to answer their specific question. 

All of us have experienced a chatbot doing its best but falling short. Those who have manned or supervised a consumer information line have also experienced a caller with a chronic or undiagnosed disease requesting advice from a customer service agent. These examples are the two ends of the information need spectrum. We don’t want to disappoint callers with insensitive responses to their unique questions, nor can we diagnose or prescribe treatment as we are not health care providers. Answers to FAQs need to strike a balance between these two extremes. 

In general at AAHP, we recommend that FAQs should be developed with consumer safety in mind. Can the consumer understand the response? Does the consumer benefit from the information. What does the consumer understand from the information and so forth. From a regulatory standpoint, responses to FAQs are an extension of product labeling and should not extend beyond approved labeling for acute OTC conditions. 

More to the point regarding crafting responses to questions, one must take into consideration the audience. Many times questions for one audience can be repositioned for another audience. For example, an FAQ from a consumer may be, “May I give the same dose of a medicine to a child not referenced on the product label.” Conversely, a manufacturer may ask, “What are best practices for establishing dosing instructions for children?” 

Later in this issue we discuss basic FAQs and answers that AAHP uses in initial educational meetings with legislative offices. These statements are fundamental but demonstrate how methodically one must proceed when introducing homeopathy to a new audience. The same care must be taken when preparing answers to FAQs for consumers about self-care products for health conditions. 

AAHP has a FAQ section on our website. We are working on projects to make other information like historic articles available to readers via a topic search function. Look for more to come on that in upcoming issues.