RE: User feedback / meeting the readers etc.

["Swallow, William" <WSwallow -at- courion -dot- com>]

Putting a survey in the back of a manual won't get you much, as you've seen.
What usually works best is to isolate a group of customers (hopefully a
diverse one) and give them something in return for their feedback. T-shirts
and other swag are OK, but usually product discounts or some other more
meaningful rewards work better. 

Some of the best feedback a doc group I worked with ever got was from a user
forum that our company hosted. It was a couple of days which involved
presentations by various groups from the company, with the sole purpose of
gaining critical feedback from the customer base. I believe one customer
even went back after the conference and ran through an entire manual with
comments!

***************** 
BILL SWALLOW 
Technical Writer 
C O U R I O N   C O R P O R A T I O N 
1881 Worcester Road 
Framingham, Mass.  01701 
T E L * 508-879-8400 x316 
F A X * 508-879-8500 
www.courion.com 
***************** 

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