Value of Documentation (was <No subject given>)

["Engstrom, Douglas D." <EngstromDD -at- PHIBRED -dot- COM>]

Wayne:

This is written in reply to our exchange:

>I worked at one company where, from the
>business standpoint, the value of good documentation was  negative.
>They had educated/manipulated/persuaded their customers that the way to
>handle their products was to have a field engineer fly out to the
>customer site and, for a substantial fee, do what had to be done.
>
I'm amazed that any company can get away with this. Not only do you
alienate
your customer base, but sooner or later the support costs will eat you
alive.

Among consumer-goods companies, you're probably right.  Among industrial
users, I don't think this situation is all that uncommon.  It's a
question of playing to customer expectations.  If buyers of the product
anticipate that any problems or configuration changes will have to be
done by a field engineer, they may be sensitive to the timeliness,
quality and cost of that support, but it won't occur to them to question
the basic situation.  As the vendor, if you can charge for support (most
industrial companies can, a feat that has eluded most software
publishers) you can turn it into a substantial profit center.  Just be
sure to call it "consulting...."

Obviously, there comes a point when enough of the shine comes off the
technology and there get to be enough competitors that customers start
to say "Wait a minute, if you had  done a decent job, we'd be able to
handle this ourselves."   But, that is a situation that can take a very
long time to develop.


Doug Engstrom                           "It's hard not to rock the boat when you're
engstromdd -at- phibred -dot- com           sailing against the undertow."
                                                                --- The Indigo Girls

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My opinions only, not those of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
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