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Subject:Re: Quantifying Documentation From:"Lis Fraser, Room #1WN13, Local 2014" <LIS -at- MDA -dot- CA> Date:Wed, 12 Oct 1994 10:43:25 PDT
About a year ago I went through the process of trying to "prove" to
management that technical writers could save the company money. Although
it was difficult gathering any exact "numbers" on how much good manuals
could save a company, it became very clear that a significant amount9
of savings was in post-delivery support costs. When Allen-Bradley
reworked their documentation, they experienced a decrease in
customer service calls from 50 per day to 2 per month! And as a bonus,
they experienced a substantial increase in European sales because
the sales force was better able to learn the product and therefore,
becames more effective at selling it. There was another company that
I had spoken to that experienced a 60% decrease in the number of
service calls and an 80% decrease in the length of the calls when they
developed a high quality documentation set.
If anyone else has any more information on quantifying documentation, I'd
also really be interested.
