This is where a good techwriter can prove the value we add to an organization. If you're not making customer support and Quality Assurance your best friends, you're not leveraging all your assets. I also like to liaise with the training department. Anyone who uncovers problems with the product, or who has to deal with users and their complaints is someone I want to mine for information that will make the documentation better and ultimately get fed back up the line to make the product better.
Many bugs can be fixed with documentation, saving the company the cost of having the developer do it, at least until the next release. I ask customer support to refer clients to the manual when they can, and to ask "Did you look it up in the manual before you called?". If we can get serial callers to start using the manual, that's a huge win. Every notice and web site should have "check the manual" as the first thing to do when you need technical support. Users will get smarter if we give them the tools to do so. --Beth -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of John Garison Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 9:07 AM To: unlisted-recipients:; no To-header on input Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [TCP] FAQs ... It seems that the call volume dropped about 50% the day after I posted my document, and he and his staff were freed up to concentrate on the stuff that really needed their attention, and not on the mindless drivel that they usually had to cope with. John G Someone wrote: >> When I spoke to the tech support staff, they insisted the >> biggest customer complaints and most common tech calls were >> "user error." So, I started making a list of "frequently >> committed user mistakes"--I just didn't call it that on the >> website. Catch the Buzz: http://bethbuzz.blogspot.com STC Conference presentation archive: http://www.301url.com/podcasting Beth Agnew Professor, Technical Communication Seneca College of Applied Arts & Technology Toronto, ON 416-491-5050 x3133 http://www.tinyurl.com/83u5u ______________________________________________ Are you a Help Authoring Trainer or Consultant? Let clients find you at www.HAT.Matrix.com, the searchable HAT database based on Char James-Tanny's HAT Comparison Matrix. Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] for details. Interested in Interactive 3D Documentation? Get the scoop at http://www.doc-u-motion.com -- your 3D documentation community. _______________________________________________ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Need help? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
