TechWhirl: Technical Communication Recap for August 15, 2014

[TechWhirl Admin <admin -at- techwhirl -dot- com>]

Iâve been thinking a lot about customer experience this week, from the
perspective of a customerâof home improvement, personal training, and
veterinary services in particular. The folks on the ground, the ones who
deal with the customer face-to-face (or phone-to-phone), have the most
challenging jobs ever.


The guys (and they were both guys) who came to replace my central A/C
system not only had to know an extraordinary amount of technical
information (about electricity, motors, coolants, EPA regulations and
more), but also how to communicate the essence of that to a particularly
uneducated consumer facing a very significant expenditure.


I started working with a personal trainer about two months agoâ a
professional who has to deal with the intricacies of human physiology,
maintaining current knowledge of nutrition, and working with a wide variety
of clients who may or may not want to be there in the first place. When to
push someone a bit further, and when to pull back is not an easy choice to
make.


Anyone whoâs ever owned a pet knows the importance of finding a vet who can
treat what needs to be treated, offer recommendations, and the right amount
of solace when itâs time to let that furry (or feathered or scaly) member
of the family go. Itâs an extraordinary combination of scientific knowledge
and empathy for animals and their humans.


I donât know how much instinct, training, or what kind of resources all of
these professionals rely on to provide customer serviceâ I do know that,
happily for me, all of them know how to create exceptional customer
experiences.  They probably consume a fair amount of technical and
professional content in performing their jobs, and I wish the folks who
created it knew how much people like me appreciate it. These are exactly
the kind of content creators who should be recognized with a Customer
Experience Recognition Award <http://awards.techwhirl.com/submit/>. If itâs
you or someone you know, check out awards.techwhirl.com.


Our leisurely summertime pace continues, with some useful and relevant
articles on agile and tech comm and DITA resources, as well as the latest
poll question on content strategy. Take up the commentary, or catch up on
some new conversations in the email discussion list <http://techwr-l.com/>,


Have a great weekend!

-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl
In Case You Missed it: This Week @ TechWhirl

*New features and articles on http://TechWhirl.com <http://techwhirl.com/>*
*:*


   - Tech Writer This Week for August 14, 2014 | http://sfy.co/sdQy
   - DITA Resources, by Jacquie Samuels |
   http://techwhirl.com/dita-resources/
   - Agile and Tech Comm: Task-Focused Content in a Feature-Focused
   Process, by Alyssa Fox | http://bit.ly/1uG7Htf
   - Content Strategy Versus DITA Content Strategy (poll)|
   http://bit.ly/1ss9pPw

Social Media and the Chance to Follow TechWhirl:

   - Our Google Plus Page â whatâs happening behind the scenes |
   http://goo.gl/SO0R4
   - Will you be our Friend? Please, you know you want to click |
   http://goo.gl/tDrW7
   - Want all this TechWhirl goodness a few characters @ a time |
   http://goo.gl/itjDg
   - Updates from TechWhirl delivered to your email in box |
   http://bit.ly/tjshxU
   - Or, try our RSS feed (great on Flipboard) | http://goo.gl/msLzu

Sponsored Posts

   - MadCap: Guest Post: Letting Code Determine the Width of a DIV Tag
   <http://www.madcapsoftware.com/blog/2014/07/22/guest-post-letting-code-determine-the-width-of-a-div-tag/>
   - Scriptorium: Content strategy mistake: replicating old formatting with
   new tools
   <http://www.scriptorium.com/2014/08/content-strategy-mistake-replicating-old-formatting-with-new-tools/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=content-strategy-mistake-replicating-old-formatting-with-new-tools>
   - Adobe Systems: New public bugbase for FrameMaker
   <http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2014/07/new-public-bugbase-for-framemaker.html>
   - EasyDITA: When to use the Topic, Concept and Task types in DITA
   <http://easydita.com/when-to-use-the-topic-concept-and-task-types-in-dita/>

SPONSOR-Luv

We want to send a very special âthank youâ to our sponsors for their
support. Thanks to all of you!



*Platinum*: Adobe Systems Incorporated
<http://www.runaware.com/clients/adobe/techsuite/>

*Gold: *ComponentOne Software <http://bit.ly/doc-to-help>, Madcap Software
<http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/flare/overview.aspx#whatsnew>

*Silver*: easyDITA <http://easydita.com/>, HelpIQ <http://www.helpiq.com/>

-- 

TechWhirl.com

*Helping the world explore the art of content and communications*
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