TL;DR:
Build the FAQ from what customers actually asked, not from what you guess they ask.
Group tickets by the question behind them, then count each group to decide what goes first.
Write each answer once, and link to it from replies instead of retyping.
You answer the same question for the fifth time this week and each time you retype nearly the same reply. That is the signal to write an FAQ. The goal is not a long page. It is a short one where the top ten questions cover most of the tickets you get.
When an FAQ is the right tool
An FAQ works for questions that repeat and have a stable answer: where to find a setting, how a policy works, what a message means. It does not work for questions that need the customer's own account details, because the answer changes each time.
What to collect first
An export of recent tickets, as a CSV if your helpdesk offers it. Look for an export option in the reports or settings area. If there is none, copy the subjects into a spreadsheet by hand.
Only the columns you need: ticket id, date, subject, and the first customer message.
A month of tickets is a reasonable window, so a seasonal rush does not distort the counts.
Remove names, emails and any account details before the sheet is shared. The FAQ itself never needs them.
Step by step: from tickets to published answers
Add a column called Question: Read each ticket and write the question behind it in a few plain words, such as "How do I reset my password". Reuse the exact same wording when two tickets ask the same thing.
Group by question: Sort the sheet by the Question column so identical wording sits together. Do a quick second pass to merge near duplicates like "reset password" and "forgot password".
Count each group: In a new area, list each distinct question and count it. With questions in column D, the formula
=COUNTIF(D:D, F2)counts how many rows match the question typed in F2.Rank and cut: Sort the counts from largest to smallest and keep the top ten. A question asked once belongs in a ticket reply, not the FAQ.
Write answers once: For each question, write an answer of two to five sentences. Start with the direct answer, then the steps. Reuse your best existing reply rather than starting from scratch.
Publish and link: Put the answers where customers can find them, give each one its own link, and from now on paste the link into replies instead of retyping.
Worked example: ten common questions from a month of tickets
Say a small team exported 120 tickets for the month (an example figure). After tagging each with its question and merging near duplicates, the counts look like this.
Rank | Question | Tickets |
|---|---|---|
1 | How do I reset my password | 22 |
2 | Where is my invoice | 17 |
3 | How do I change my email address | 14 |
4 | How do I cancel | 12 |
5 | Why was I charged twice | 10 |
6 | How do I add a teammate | 9 |
7 | Which file types can I upload | 8 |
8 | How do I export my data | 7 |
9 | Why did my login stop working | 6 |
10 | Where do I update my card | 5 |
Add the counts: 22 + 17 + 14 + 12 + 10 + 9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 = 110. So these ten questions cover 110 out of 120 tickets, and the remaining 10 tickets were one-off cases. That is the number that tells you the FAQ is worth publishing: it would have been the answer to 110 of the 120 messages.
Notice what the order tells you. The password question comes first, so it goes at the top of the page and gets the clearest answer. If two questions sit close together, such as the double charge and the invoice, consider grouping them under one heading called Billing.
Here is a model answer for rank 1, written once:
How do I reset my password?
On the sign-in page, choose the forgot password option and enter your email. We send a link; open it and choose a new password. If no email arrives in a few minutes, check your spam folder, then contact us and we will help.Mistakes that make an FAQ unused
Writing the questions in your company's words instead of the customer's. Copy phrases straight from the tickets.
Burying the direct answer under a long introduction.
Listing forty questions. A page this long is hard to scan, so keep the top ten and add more only when the counts justify them.
Never updating it. Put a reminder to redo the count each quarter, and edit an answer the same day a product change makes it wrong.
Retyping answers in replies, which lets the FAQ and the replies drift apart.
Doing it faster
Tag questions as tickets arrive rather than in one big sitting. A shared sheet with one extra column takes seconds per ticket and the grouping is nearly done by month end. If you want a second pair of eyes while sorting, DuckyHelper can read the sheet on your screen and talk through which questions look like duplicates.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions should an FAQ have?
As many as the counts support. Ten is a good start. Add a question only when it keeps showing up in tickets.
What if the tickets are messy and one ticket asks three things?
Count it once under each question it asks. The totals will then add up to more than the number of tickets, which is fine as long as you know that is what you did.
Get started
