[Grovenet] Outsourcing Computer Tech Support

[Katie Allnutt]

I understand what you are saying about manuals shipped with the  
product but even the online manuals, which in theory could be updated  
after it is shipped, have the same flaws.

And if you put the cart after the horse.... if they would write a  
good manuals then more people would actually use them for something  
other than just finding the toll free number.  Maybe its a guy thing  
not to read the manual but most of my friends (female ones) say they  
try to look things up first.  If you can get it from the after market  
books or on line it is faster than calling tech support and most of  
us are in a hurry.

Katie

On May 13, 2008, at 11:14 AM, Jeff Howden wrote:

>> From: Katie Allnutt
>>
>> If the computer and software people would simply write good manuals
>> they could save a ton of money on tech support....
>
> Writing good manuals only works for the small percentage of users  
> who will
> actually read the manual.  Of that percentage, some will only read  
> it to
> find the toll free number to call support.
>
> Well written manuals won't work for the percentage of people who  
> run up
> against unexpected results or plain-old errors caused by bugs in the
> software.  Part of the problem is that due to development/delivery
> timelines, the manuals must be written while the software is being  
> written.
> Provided the project managers absolutely do not permit deviating  
> from the
> specification, you will end up with a product that has a manual that's
> relatively accurate in describing the product's capabilities.   
> However, if
> quality control doesn't catch deviations from the spec or the project
> manager permits feature creep during development, then the manual  
> written
> for the product may not even closely resemble the actual product  
> it's sent
> with.
>
> Jeff
>
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