Re: DISCUSS: TW and tech support

[Beth Agnew <bagnew -at- INSYSTEMS -dot- COM>]

At InSystems we have a comprehensive call logging database that captures
all of the information from any customer-related or technical support call.
Many departments in the company use this central database to find out about
various customer issues. Desired features for the next releases are noted
as are complaints (and praise!) about the documentation. When the customer
support people take a call, they only have to check boxes or pick from a
dropdown list for the various fields.

At regular intervals, I can run a query on the data to find out what
comments came up related to documentation, what features people are asking
for that might be related to usability, and so on. In addition to that, I
spoke personally to our customer support reps to encourage them to check
that little documentation box if they thought the issue might be solved by
better documentation, help files or whatever. So far, they've been
wonderfully co-operative, and I feel as though I'm up to date on what is
 going on from their perspective.

(Yeah, I'm spoiled!)

--Beth

Beth Agnew
Senior Technical Writer, InSystems Technologies Inc.
65 Allstate Parkway, Suite 100  Tel: (905) 513-1400 ext. 280
Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 9X1        Fax: (905) 513-1419
mailto:bagnew -at- insystems -dot- com    Visit us at: http://www.insystems.com

See my friendly face at:
 http://www.bayside.net/users/cbsites/techwr-l/a.htm#agnewb