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If you filled out the survey, and asked for more information about their
system, I am sure they'd respond. You can mention that you heard about
the system from a member of the Silicon Valley Chapter, STC. You can use
my name, but it would probably mean nothing to them.
The main points of their system are:
* Both printed and online documentation contain a link to a feedback
website. The online documentation, as I
remember, includes this link [see above] on *every page*. The website
has an online survey.
* The technical writing staff is specially trained to respond to *any*
feedback that reports a problem. They
handle every problem that is reported, either by fixing a doc bug or
pointing the customer to Cisco
technical support. The key point is that they *respond* to feedback.
* Cisco also asks commenters if they are willing to be contacted for a
more in-depth interview. Technical
writers conduct these interviews, by phone if possible.
This idea was part of a Cisco-wide initiative to improve customer
satisfaction.
Why I was impressed:
* Follow-up: If a customer submitted, a Cisco doc team member always
responded.
* Action: If the customer was having a problem, the doc team member took
ownership to get a solution. This
doesn't mean that the writer solved the problem, just that he or she
made sure the customer was satisfied.
* Follow-through: The doc team fixed doc bugs on an ongoing basis.
* Reward: Customers who responded in the advanced, in-depth interview
received a free book from Cisco.
I think that any "feedback" mechanism has to have these features. It's a
commitment, to be sure. Still, nothing less will do. If you don't start
out with the idea that any input gets answers back, you'll not only stop
getting input, you'll make customers angry. If you act as if problems
are "somebody else's", you'll also make customers angry. If problem
reports go into a black hole, customers will stop trusting you.
I'll get on my soapbox here: Why is everyone so
upset/angry/frustrated/confused/depressed about Adobe and Framemaker?
IMHO, it's because Adobe refuses to say what their plans are, but shows
every indication that they're going to scrap FM. They don't seem to
listen to their customers; in fact, they seem to take the attitude that
they're doing *us* a favor by providing us with FM, Acrobat, and
Photoshop. I think that big software companies find they have
insufficient competition these days, so they take the attitude that they
can do whatever they want, and we're stuck with them.
Tech writers and tech writing departments can best fight this attitude
by switching away from the "accepted" tools and start using ones from
companies that care, or even free/open source ones.
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