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Subject:RE: These users have us stumped! From:Shea Michael EXT <Michael -dot- Shea -dot- extern -at- icn -dot- siemens -dot- de> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 24 Oct 2002 09:27:01 +0200
Bruce writes:
In my opinion - your client is asking a bit much, if they expect a free-bee.
But that is easy for me to say, since I don't have to answer to them ... yet
it is an interesting situation to be in.
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I have to agree to some extent with Bruce and some of the earlier posters. Throwing the problem on tech pubs is one solution, but not the best.
I write documentation for telecommunication equipment and one customer has complained about operators not being able to troubleshoot problems. This customer does have legitimate complaints which I need to address, but I have also been told that this customer hires operators with no telecommunication experience and refuses to pay for training. Some kind of balance needs to be struck. Documentation is often provided for free or for less than the actual production costs. If the documentation must cover more than the product then as someone suggested there needs to be some kind of cost-benefit analysis. Your choices fall into:
1 Expand the docs to cover topics beyond the operation of the product
2 Offer additional training for novices
3 Suggest that the customer learn from the experience and either hire more experienced staff or expand their own in-house training
This is a difficult balance weighing costs to your department and company, costs to your customer, and the cost of potentialy losing your customer.
Michael Shea
XpressLink Documentation
c/o ICN AS BA ST2
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Michael Shea
ROSEMANN & LAURIDSEN GMBH
Am Schlossberg 14, D-82547 Eurasburg, Germany
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