Docs Make Profit

[Richard Dimock <red -at- ELSEGUNDOCA -dot- ATTGIS -dot- COM>]

Arlen wrote:
***********
Certification is a Red Herring (tm). Let's talk about ways to highlight our
relationship to the bottom line. You want respect? The shortest path to an
executive's respect runs directly through the corporate treasury. Prove good
writing saves money. If it doesn't save money, it'll never get paid for. If it
does, they'll buy more than we can possibly supply.
***********

Aye, laddie! It is truth ye be typing. And if the Corporate Treasury drops
more cash into the executive's own pocket, the respect path is short indeed.

We have been working this Profit angle for some time.

Customer Satisfaction is a true goal in our corner of AT&T. All managers and
execs watch the results of our "CSAT" surveys. (You know it is an active term
when they assign an abbreviation or acronym to it.) The exec's bonuses are
directly tied to the improvement in Customer Satisfaction. Plus higher CSAT
eventually means higher sales and repeat sales. (We are the "Computer" arm of
AT&T. Small Change when compared to the communications arms.)

We have linked our customer surveys and reader surveys to show how we contribute
to Customer Satisfaction. We have gotten Docs questions placed on the big
Customer Satisfaction survey. The results have shown dissatisfaction with our
docs, and that got the managerial attention! Our budget grew, the Docs
satisfaction ratings rose, our budget grew, etc. I'm talking several years here.

A frequent request has been for on line manuals, which we kept hoping to
produce. When the requests kept rising in number and urgency, our Docs
management rammed through a new CD-ROM conversion and production project. Coming
on top of the heavy normal production, the CD-ROM project stressed us all. But
we got it done, and our customers are delighted.

So are the execs who see a rising Customer Satisfaction rating, and rising
bonuses. There may or may not be a rise in writer's pay - that is done on an
individual basis. But it DOES make our employment more certain over a longer
run.

This has been hard work on top of normal workload, but it IS PAYING OFF!
Now we have new people on board to stabilize the CD ROM process and to take
us onto the Web. Onward and upward.

I would like to hear from others about ways you have successfully gotten
across the idea that Docs Make Profit.

Dick Dimock
AT&T Global Information Solutions
Better slap a disclaimer on this puppy. My opinions, not my company's.

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