Re[2]: useful customer feedback

[bkane -at- ARTISOFT -dot- COM]

     <snip> If you have a technical support line, you should be getting
     > all the feedback you need.

     David is right on target! Who knows better what the
     customers are having problems with than the techies?
     Of course, there are always customers who won't open
     the book at all. And there's the problem of
     convincing the techies they should tell you what
     they're getting calls about. They're so busy, they
     don't take the time.

     Here are some things we have done to get more useful
     feedback:

     -  Tell the product beta testers they must fill out
     a questionnaire, and put doc-related questions in it
     -- and also place persuasive text in the beta docs
     intro asking them to fax us copies of pages with
     markups on them, or send e-mail about mistakes they
     find. Some beta testers are so thorough and
     dedicated, they fax back almost every page with
     comments.

     -  Start a documentation bulletin board on the
     company e-mail, where everyone in-house can post
     problems they find or hear about from customers.

     - Ask a tech support supervisor to assemble a team
     of techies to help us draw up a new and better
     troubleshooting section. Then give them credit on
     the copyright page.

     - Attend usability tests and take notes on where
     testers have problems, then improve documentation of
     those things -- through better wording for clarity,
     better formatting so they'll notice the
     instructions, or better indexing so they can find
     the instructions. Also, interview them after the
     test to further explore what gave them problems.

     - Hang out with techies during their breaks and ask
     questions.

     All of these things have helped a lot!

     Beth in Tucson
     bkane -at- artisoft -dot- com