RE: Documents I'd like to see...or write...

["Karen E. Black" <kblack_text -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

I've been "borrowed" by a manager to "help" her write a user/training manual 
for Customer Service Reps who answer calls from clients about completing an 
online order for a direct-mailing service. I had a couple of meetings with 
her, spent a day thinking and surfing, and came up with about 30 specific 
scenarios that the CSRs may get calls about. Not all calls will require a 
complete walk-through for the customer with the CSR.

Her: "Well...no. Just document everything."

Me: "Everything?"

Her: "Yes, this should explain everything that a customer can do that the 
CSR might need to help with. I can do it, but you're better at the verbage. 
And it has to be in Word, so we can make changes to it when we want."

(BTW, a lot of people here say "verbage." I don't want to tell them that 
it's "verbiage," and it means EXCESS prose, something I tend to remove when 
I edit someone else's work.)

Documenting everything is much easier, takes 4 times as long, and requires 
very little imagination. Oh, well. Imagine a CSR manual that lets him or her 
click a link and say, "Here's what you need to do to get to the next step." 
Maybe someday....

Karen E. Black
Technical Writer, Verbage Editor and Foilage Whacker
www.dhltd.com
--------------------------------------------
"Higgledy Piggledy, my white hen;
She lays eggs for gentlemen.
You cannot persuade her with gun or lariat
To come across for the proletariat."
--Dorothy Parker

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