Write one page that lists the beliefs customers bring to your trade in their own words, explains plainly what is true and why, admits where a belief is partly right, and link it wherever the question comes up.

The same conversation every week

Every trade has beliefs customers arrive with. A furnace only needs servicing when it stops working. Sealing a new deck is optional. A small leak under the sink can wait until spring.

Each one sounds reasonable, and each one has cost somebody money. Whoever answers the phone explains it again, politely, several times a week.

The explanation is good, but it is heard once, by one person, in a hurry. Then the next caller arrives with the same idea.

A page on the website can explain it calmly, once, for everyone, with the reasons laid out.

Where the beliefs come from

The last is the hardest to shift. Most wear happens out of sight, and a customer who has seen no symptoms has every reason to think nothing is happening.

Why a page works better than the phone

On the phone, a correction can sound like a sales pitch. The customer hears a business telling them to spend money and wonders whose interest it serves.

On a page, the same explanation has room for the reason behind it: what wears, why it matters and what leaving it costs. A reason is easier to accept than an instruction.

Customers can reread it and show it to whoever shares the decision. And people type these exact questions into Google, so a plain page answering them can bring in people who did not know the business existed.

Write the belief the way customers say it

Use the words you hear on the phone as headings: my furnace is working, so why service it? Customers recognise their own thinking and read on.

Avoid calling them myths in the headings, or anything that makes the reader feel foolish. Most of these beliefs are sensible guesses, and the customer is right to ask.

A neutral title for the page works better too, such as common questions about servicing.

Then say what is true, and why

Each answer needs three parts: the short answer, the reason behind it, and what it means in time or money.

For the deck: new treated wood usually needs time to dry, then a coat of sealer, because sun and rain grey and split bare boards, and replacing boards costs far more than sealing them.

Keep each answer to a short paragraph or two. The point is to settle the question, not to teach the trade.

A worked example

A scuba equipment servicer repairs and services regulators, buoyancy jackets and gauges for divers and dive shops, from a workshop in an industrial unit near the coast.

Four beliefs came up on most calls: it breathes fine, so it is fine; it hardly went in the water this year; service is just a clean; and the maker's free parts offer makes service free.

The page answers each in turn. Seats and O-rings inside a regulator harden and wear out of sight, and the first symptom can be a free flow on a dive, with air pouring out uncontrolled.

Gear in a cupboard still ages: rubber dries out, and salt left inside crystallises. Service means the regulator is taken apart, cleaned, fitted with new parts, adjusted to the maker's figures and tested.

And the free parts offer covers the parts only, usually on condition that the regulator is serviced on schedule. The labour is charged as normal.

The page now goes out with every service reminder, and staff send the link after a call instead of repeating the explanation.

Be honest where the belief is partly right

Some beliefs are half true, and saying so is what makes the rest of the page believable.

A small drip under a sink often can wait a day or two, with a bowl under it and the shut-off valve found. It cannot wait until spring, because water spreads inside cabinets and walls long before anyone sees it.

A page that concedes the true part reads as advice. One that turns every belief into an emergency reads as a sales brochure, and customers notice.

No scare stories

It is tempting to illustrate each point with the worst case: the burst pipe, the cracked heat exchanger, the rotten deck.

Used sparingly and stated plainly, a consequence helps the reader understand. Used as a threat, it makes the page sound like the sales pitch customers were wary of in the first place.

Stick to what usually happens. Where an interval comes from a manufacturer or a building code rather than your own preference, say so.

Where to use the page

Link it from each service page the belief relates to, and from the booking or quote form.

Send it after a phone call where the question came up, include it with quotes, and add it to reminder emails for customers who have agreed to receive them.

Keep it to the five to eight beliefs you actually hear, and add a new one when it starts coming up on calls. A page of twenty reads like a lecture.

The counter-case

A business that rarely hears the same misunderstanding twice may only need a line or two in its existing questions page.

Some beliefs are better handled in person, where the customer's own equipment or home makes the difference, and the page should say that the answer can vary.

For the beliefs that come up every week, though, one plain page in the customer's words, with the reasons, does the explaining once for everyone.

Writing it this month

  1. List the beliefs you hear on the phone.
  2. Keep the five to eight that come up most.
  3. Use the customer's words as each heading.
  4. Give the reason, not just the instruction.
  5. Admit where a belief is partly right.
  6. Link the page from services, quotes and reminders.
  7. Add new beliefs as they come up.

Step four is what changes minds. A diver told to service a regulator every year hears a bill; one told what happens to its seats and O-rings in storage hears a reason.

A page that answers a worried caller's money questions in advance works the same way as explaining claims, deductibles and direct billing.

Frequently asked questions

Why write a page about customer myths?

Because the same mistaken beliefs come up on calls every week. A page explains each one calmly, with the reasons, and customers can reread it and share it.

Should I call them myths on the page?

Better not. Use the customer's own words as headings and a neutral page title. Most beliefs are sensible guesses, and nobody reads on after being made to feel foolish.

What should each answer include?

The short answer, the reason behind it, and what it means in time or money. A reason is easier to accept than an instruction to spend.

What if a belief is partly true?

Say so. Conceding the true part, such as a small drip that can wait a day or two, is what makes the rest of the page believable.

Should I use worst-case examples?

Sparingly. A plain consequence helps understanding, but a page full of disasters reads like a sales pitch. Describe what usually happens and say where intervals come from.

Where should links to the page go?

From the related service pages and the booking or quote form, and in quotes, follow-up emails after calls and service reminders sent to customers who agreed to receive them.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Explaining the same thing on every call?

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