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Subject:Re: Yahoo has no staff tech writers From:"Chuck Martin" <twriter -at- sonic -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 9 Oct 2002 10:12:43 -0700
"David Cooper" <david_cooper_consulting -at- sympatico -dot- ca> wrote in message news:171718 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
>
> "I worked at a company once that charged for technical support (as well as
> for training), something that is becoming more common. Technical support
was
> seen as a profit center. What I realized about this is that when a company
> uses this business model, there is absolutely no incentive whatsoever to
> improve the products' usability. Meanwhile, customers and users suffer."
>
> I'm imagining a bunch of VPs sitting around the boardroom table:
>
> VP A: I have a great idea that will improve the usability of our product
> 10-fold. It'll knock your socks off.
>
> VP B: Whoa, hold on there, cowpoke. Tech support has been raking in the
> dough as a direct result of our crap interface. Are you sure you want to
> destroy all that?
>
> VP A: Right, right...ok. Next item on the agenda?
>
VP's jobs are more directly connected to the bottom line than anyone other
than the CEO. I doubt such conversations are so farfetched, although I am
sure part of the conversation would also include how much additional
resource would be required to create the 10-fold usability increase.
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