RE: WWP and support

[Dan Emory <danemory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:03 PM 8/11/99 -0500, Beth Friedman wrote:
>I don't know anything about this product.  I don't know anything about what
>constitutes reasonable tech support.  But I do know a bit about accounting,
>and from an accounting point of view, there's a major flaw in Mr. Slone's
>logic.
>----------Snip
>If the documentation and the help files are adequate, the phone support
>will be limited to two types -- the RTFM guys (the ones who call tech
>support instead of trying to figure it out themselves) who will quickly use
>up their 10 free hours and who can probably be handled with a lower level
>of support personnel, and the core users who will probably only call with
>real problems.  And if those real problems are documented in some sort of
>knowledge base on the Web site, the incidence of calls related to that
>problem are likely to decrease.
====================================================================
The core problem, as I've analyzed previous posts on this subject on the
list, is that the Quadralay's documentation is poor. Added to that,
apparently the latest release has moved around some functions, and users who
began with earlier versions are having trouble finding where they were moved
to in the documentation. If that is actually the case (I don"t use the
product either), then Quadralay has two choices if it wants to maintain good
relations with its customer base:

1. Get out, as quickly as possible, upgraded documentation, OR

2. Acknowledge that they goofed, and offer free support, via an email
exchange, if the caller can demonstrate in his/her email that the needed
information is missing from the documentation. Email exchanges could
substantially reduce tech support costs, since incoming requests for help
can be batched so that a single response fits all help requests in a
particular category. Free support on this basis should continue until the
documentation is brought up to acceptable standards.
==========================================================================
>I don't use your product, and I don't have any stake in what you do.  But I
>hate seeing scare tactics being treated like real facts.
=====================================================================
I disagree. I think Ben Sloan's analysis of the support problem for a niche
product like Quadralay was excellent, and certainly couldn't be described as
scare tactics. He neglected one factor, however:

If a company makes a business decision to cut back on free tech support,
they'd first better damnsight make sure their documentation passes muster.
Quadralay apparently failed to do that, and they'll continue to suffer the
consequences until they upgrade their documentation.

The Quadralay case history should give a warm fuzzy feeling to the Tech
Writers (like myself) on the list, since it proves that business decisions
which adversely affect documentation quality will come back to haunt the
bean counter types if they fail to assess the full implications of such
decisions on the bottom line.
     ====================
     | Nullius in Verba |
     ====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory@primenet.com
10044 Adams Ave. #208, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
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