Tech Writer Today Magazine - TechWhirl
Technical writing and technical communications news, articles and resources for technical writers and technical communicators.
inContact Survey of Consumers Underlines the Need for Today's Companies to Better Understand Consumer Preferences and Customize Services. The survey of U.S. adults aged 18 years or older shows that consumers are making less of their buying decisions based on brand loyalty, but rather on which companies can match their desired experience, at a time of their choosing. Continue reading ...
"Customer Service Experience" and "Customer Experience Management" may seem like just the latest, trendiest buzz words in business, but a simple Google or Bing search on customer service complaints, produces more than 62 million results, indicating the obvious—that customer service has an enormous impact on businesses. Less obvious, but important in our world, technical communication can have an enormous impact on businesses as well. Continue reading ...
This was a week of varied, but relevant and lively discussions on the TechWhirl email discussion list, the kind of week that shows the broad range of the technical communication field. Section 508 compliance, strategies for organizing help systems, handling production of multi-language documents, tool questions and answers, trends and careers…all of which meant we had conversations with newbies and veterans, in all sorts of industries. TechWhirl’s customers are technical communicators, and our community on the email list is just one way that we stay in touch with our customers. Continue reading ...
In his 2002 textbook, Efraim Turban defined customer service very simply: "Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation." If you agree with this concept, then according to our draft definition of integrated technical communication, customer service and technical communication are inextricably intertwined. However, a trip through the Techwhirl discussion list archives, shows that technical writers in the last 20 years often complain of the difficulty in writing for audiences they never get to meet. This week's poll looks at the roles we can or do have in customer service. We want to know if practicing technical communicators are actively involved in planning customer experience or service strategies, which would seem to be an excellent use of our particular skill sets. Continue reading ...
As a technical writer, are you finding yourself wishing for just a bit of respect from the engineers, SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), or other technical people you work with? Are you finding that these folks seem to stonewall you on every question you have or every goal you’re trying to achieve? Are they obstreperous? Difficult? [...] Continue reading ...