|
JoAnn Hackos, PhD
CIDM Director
www.infomanagementcenter.com
Is there a point at which customers reject the technical information that we provide?
Will all the cutbacks in the quality of information lead to angry customers who make their
displeasure known? When will the customers bite back?
During the past two to three years, information-development managers have correctly responded
to cutbacks in staff and other resources by prioritizing what they can and cannot deliver in
support of customers.
Managers first attacked production costs. As part of their cost-cutting effort, they have
eliminated print documents wherever possible, replacing them with Web or CD delivery. Even when
documents are printed, managers have worked to reduce page counts, along with eliminating costly
enhancements like color and creative illustrations.
In addition to reducing the cost of goods, managers have sought tools to automate production
activities, introducing XML or SGML or using specialized output generators. Information developers
no longer have direct responsibility for production tasks that can be handled faster and more
accurately by tools.
But cost reductions at the end of the process are typically not sufficient to absorb significant
reductions in force. Managers find themselves searching for ways to write less, supported by product
managers who insist that customers "don't read the manuals anyway."
A practical approach leads many managers to develop reuse agendas, looking for ways that
modular content can be reused in more than one deliverable. We have seen the increased use of
FrameMaker's facility for labeling text and graphics with conditions that support differences
in detail where core content can remain identical across outputs. We have seen increased interest
in developing modular content using XML so that information objects are created once and reused in
many contexts.
But, finally, all the potential for increases in efficiency and reduction of processes are not
enough. Managers must focus on opportunities to eliminate content that may not be absolutely
necessary for customers. At this point, they decide that conceptual or background information
must be eliminated. Troubleshooting information, difficult to produce in the best of times, falls
by the wayside in favor of step-by-step procedures in support of only the most generic tasks.
At a company that develops a consumer-directed machine that is supported by embedded software,
the consumers recently rebelled against the latest cuts in information delivered with the products.
The information developers had cut as much as possible to reduce the cost of goods included with
the shipped product. They had cut information in response to reduced resources and direction from
product managers. Finally, the customers made their displeasure known to customer support, calling
with requests for basic information no longer available in the documentation.
The costs of calls to customer service are significantly higher than the costs of delivering
information with the product, especially when the product is in a highly competitive commodity
market. Commodity products have slim profit margins, easily eroded by customers who can no longer
perform basic tasks they had once been able to perform using the documentation.
As a result of customer complaints and increased calls for help, product management decided
they had cut too far. They have instructed the information developers to focus on quality, usability,
and accuracy.
Is such a turn around, especially in a commodity market, the beginning of a trend? Are we
beginning to experience customers biting back?
In another case, customers responded with a 40 percent fall off in customer satisfaction
with an entire product line when information became inaccessible on a badly redesigned Web site.
The information-development management now had direct evidence that effective, usable, accessible
information makes a difference.
Cost cutters caveat - customers do bite back.
Note: To read more about unintended consequence or "revenge" effects, see Why Things Bite
Back by Edward Tenner (Vintage Books 1996).
|
