We've all been there: It's another follow-up phone call from a client asking what the food will be like on the train portion of the journey for the vacation that she booked with you recently. It's the seventh call you've had this week asking a similar question about a booking that you've made.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were some kind of easy repository that would answer these types of questions so that you could spend more of your time addressing other needs?

There is something you can do to ease your workload and clarify many of your clients' questions without having to spend as much of each day doing so. You can use a frequently asked questions (FAQ) list. Websites started offering FAQs more than a decade ago to address those questions that are asked most commonly. This keeps clients from having to pick up the phone or send an email, and it keeps you and your colleagues from having to answer the same questions repeatedly.

If your website is not currently using FAQs, then this is something you may consider adding. If you get specific types of questions on several different topics, you could even create separate FAQ pages for each topic, making it easier for your clients to find the information they need, rather than burying it in one excessively long list.

Even if your company is not able to publish a FAQ on the website, you could still create FAQs and save them as PDF documents for easy email inclusion. For instance, clients who have just booked their first ever trip to Peru might appreciate an FAQ list answering some of the questions that they hadn't thought of yet, such as, "What currency is used in Peru?" and "What can we expect the weather to be like in Cusco in December?"

As you are creating an FAQ list for the first time, try to step into a client's shoes. If you were that client, what questions would you have about a certain destination, or booking procedures, or traveling with children, etc? Brainstorm with your colleagues to come up with a comprehensive, but useful list. What kind of information would you find helpful as a new client versus as a returning client?

Destination-specific FAQs might be more useful for some businesses, while other businesses may benefit more with destination comparison FAQs, hotel FAQs, airline fee FAQS, terms and conditions FAQs, or more. The most important thing is to make sure you are addressing questions that are already being asked, or follow-up questions that are likely to stem from the initial questions that are asked frequently. Do not waste time answering questions that are unlikely to arise.

If you spend a little bit of time going through some of your most commonly-asked questions, and then translate them into one or more FAQs with answers, you will not only save yourself and your clients a lot of time, but clients will also appreciate having good, organized information at their fingertips.

They will recognize you and your company as being experts on the topic. It truly is a win-win situation.