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

[Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Like I say, your mileage may vary. This whole discussion is nothing but an expression of a difference in personal definitions of things.

You don't have to try to convince me that social networking is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I have never disputed the usefulness of tools like wikis and forums and all that; I just say they don't meet my definition of personal or direct contact. I figure that what you and I are doing right now is every bit as "personal" as contact with a customer through some social network. If the other guy can't see me rolling my eyes and pantomiming choking while I respond to him, it isn't personal.

No, I'm not. Really. I swear it.

I don't consider what I do as providing tech support. I provide information. I don't provide tech support because the user working on a problem can't ask me what next if he tries what's in the documentation and still can't get it to work. Support is when there is two-way interaction *and* I help work on solving unknowns. I've never had such a job. If I did I would still feel more removed from the user than you do.

As for seeing what value I'm  providing, I know I have always provided an extremely valuable product/service. The problem with that is the same it's always been - value to the customer isn't the same as value to the employer. I know good and well that what I do is very important to the customer, but no matter how much good feedback I get, there's still no way to quantify how my work improves the company's bottom line, so I still have no leverage in budget discussions. 


--- On Fri, 9/25/09, Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com <Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com> wrote:

> From: Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com <Robert_Johnson -at- percussion -dot- com>
> Subject: RE: Follow-up to question about getting feedback from users
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Date: Friday, September 25, 2009, 2:19 PM
> 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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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help  
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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