Re: DISCUSS: TW and tech support

[Bill Burns <BillDB -at- ILE -dot- COM>]

Jane Bergen writes:

> I'd like to know how other software developers (and maybe it's
> applicable to some hardware manufacturers) handle getting user
> feedback
> received by tech support to funnel through to the tech pubs
> department.
> Right now I get NO (NONE, NADA, ZIP) feedback. I have no idea if users
> are getting help with the docs (including online help) or if they are
> even using them. I was discussing this "dark hole" with the head of
> our
> tech support and he told me to come up with a plan.
>
Our client's CSC staff uses a database to track calls, enter cases, and
perform diagnoses on customer problems. When a follow-up project begins
for a product line, the marketing folks run a report on that particular
product (or the latest product in the line) to determine the most common
support issues that arise. They then give us this data so we can address
new concerns in the documentation. The data is especially helpful when
the tech support staff uses the documentation to solve the problem,
because they can also provide additional feedback about how effectively
the docs address the issues.

When I was at Micron, the tech support line had a similar tracking
system (Clarify). If your tech support uses something like this, you
could probably run reports on the most common symptoms and the
resolution to those problems. So if you can get access to the same data,
you can run your own reports, and tech support isn't saddled with
additional work.

Bill Burns
Senior Technical Writer
ILE Communications Group
billdb -at- ile -dot- com


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