Increasing Customer Contact

[Chuck <PETCH -at- GVG47 -dot- GVG -dot- TEK -dot- COM>]

About a month ago, Jane Torpie asked how she could increase her customer
contact, particularly how to convince management that it is worthwhile. I set
her article aside, intending to reply when I had time, and now I have time.

Here are a few suggestions that have worked for me.

1. Use the phone. It costs little or nothing to interview customers by
telephone. Prepare a list of questions in advance and then ask your Customer
Service department to give you the names and phone numbers of some customers.
(By the way, be prepared. Your Customer Service friends may give you the
numbers of some irate customers as a joke; they did it to me. But surprisingly,
the customers were still cooperative. I think some customers were amazed that
I called them on my own initiative.) Some customers will be only minimally
helpful, and others will give you volumes of information. The more you call,
the better the chances of finding a helpful customer to interview.

2. Find an ally in Sales or Marketing and ask if you can go along when they
make a visit to a nearby customer. I have done this several times. There's just
no substitute for being there in person.

Finally, if you have to justify taking time to visit customers, you're probably
working for the wrong company. But seriously, just say, "I can't do a good job
of writing about a topic I haven't seen firsthand and for customers whose needs
I am not familiar with. If you want the best documentation possible, you need
to give me the opportunity to see the product and its users in their typical
environment."

Chuck Petch