RE: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users

[Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com]

Keith,

I respectfully suggest that your concept of online communication is too 
narrow.  Online communication includes such tools as forums, wikis, and 
blogs, as well as those you cite.  A forum in particular is an excellent 
communication medium, not merely between the company and its customers, 
but among the customers themselves.  Moreover, the unidirectional approach 
to communication that we've been accustomed to for decades (company to 
customer) is now multi-directional (company to customer, customer to 
company, customer to customer).  Companies that don't understand that will 
begin to lose customers;  Microsoft, among others, seems to get this (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qltEtl7H8).  Again, check the sites and 
blogs I mentioned in my previous post.

Multi-directional communication is another reason wikis are a great tool 
for delivering documentation.  Customers can comment directly on the page, 
and in some environments, directly edit the page.  I'm hard-pressed to see 
what Facebook can contribute to documentation (although I'm willing to be 
enlightened), but I can see Twitter and blogs being excellent tools that 
can help draw users to forums and wikis. 

As for writers providing tech support, everyone on the forum is doing that 
(and here at least, in addition to tech support, everyone includes people 
from QA and development, as well as consultants), to the benefit of the 
company, the customer, and the employee.  Just think, you have visible 
proof of the value you're providing.  I started getting active on our 
forums almost from the beginning.  Initially, I just watched them to see 
what feedback I could collect on documentation.  As I watched, I found 
that I could answer some of the questions.  In some cases, the answer was 
to point to the documentation, in other cases I can answer directly based 
on my experience with the product, or my knowledge of its design, 
development, and functionality.  I generally check the forums three times 
a day, and collectively, rarely spend more than half an hour reading and 
responding.  In the meantime, I have enhanced my value to the company, and 
my visibility and credibility with other organizations within the company. 
 

Take a look at a few open source projects, and you'll see forums, wikis 
and blogs in action.  More and more software companies are doing the same. 
 See Adobe, Madcap, and Atlassian for three examples.  Anne Gentle's 
_Converstaion and Community:  The Social Web for Documentation" is also 
worth reading on this subject.

Robert Johnson
Principal Writer
Percussion Software
Woburn, MA






Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com> 
09/25/2009 12:45 PM

To
"Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com" <Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com>, 
"techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, 
KevinMcLauchlan <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
cc

Subject
RE: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users






You see, to me, communicating through online means like Facebook and 
things like that aren't really communicating directly with the customer. 
By that I mean in person. My feelings are that using things like IM and 
Twitter and suchlike are no more personal than sending snail mail. More 
personal than creating an online help system yes, but still not direct 
contact in my book. (Yes, I am *old* - accident of nature.)

Second curmudgeonly thought of the day: what Robert wrote about seems to 
me to smack of having a tech writer trying to carry out two functions. It 
sounds like expecting him to not only turn out technical documentation, 
but also to act as tech support. I've been seeing more job opening 
listings like this recently - companies wanting tech writers who will also 
confer with users to provide help on using the products. To my mind, that 
is not an enhancement of the tech writer's position but rather an attempt 
by the company to find ways to cut the personnel roster even further, by 
forcing one employee to perform two functions.

> 
>  Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com
> noted: 
> [snip]
> > 
> > I don't think the issues of business etiquette and the
> art of 
> > schmoozing 
> > customers are quite as important in an online
> community as 
> > they are in the 
> > executive suit.  The online environment is much
> more 
> > free-wheeling.  


 


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