customer experience and product instructions
DESCRIPTION
Product instructions are part of the Use cycle of the customer experience but how do you know if they are meeting the needs of your customers? How do you know if your product instructions are meeting your customers needs?TRANSCRIPT
Product instructionsThe missing piece of the Customer Experience
Sharon Burton 951-369-8590 Twitter: [email protected]
Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp
Thank you for attending!
▪ Sharon Burton
▪ I solve post-sales customer experience problems▪ Research how people feel about product instructions▪ Support clients in creating better product instructions▪ Teach communication at various universities
Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp
Supporting role today…
▪ DCL is supporting us today▪ If you have questions, they will help you in the questions
window
▪ Let’s say “Thank you” to Data Conversion Labs for hosting this webinar
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s▪ Universities ▪ Utilities
Quick Overview
Because we’re a mixed audience
We have a wonderful audience
▪ We have people from technical publications, marketing, and customer experience
▪ I’m going to spend a bit of time introducing your fields to each other up front
▪ It turns out, we’re all doing very related things
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This is who we are and what we do
▪ Customer experience▪ The sum of all experiences a customer has with a company▪ cxpa.site-ym.com
▪ Marketing▪ Communicated the value of a product or service
to customers▪ marketingpower.com
▪ Technical communication ▪ Create information about technical processes or products,
typically instructional▪ stc.org
The cost of acquiring and keeping customers
The place to start so we all have a common language
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Getting customers is expensive
It costs 6–7 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one – Bain & Company
▪ Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the cost of convincing people to buy your product or service
▪ Basically, it’s the total cost of sales and marketing divided by the customers you got
▪ B2C is typically less, B2B is typically more
Losing customers is even more expensive
A 5% increase in customer retention can increase profitability by 75% —Bain and Co
▪ Customer churn is customers leaving from the back door as you welcome new ones in the front door
▪ Customer churn is one of the most expensive things you can have
▪ An entire industry exists to analyze churn
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% —Marketing Metrics
▪ Existing customers are already engaged with your products or services
▪ They have a lower cost to keep
▪ They should buy more stuff
▪ Higher lifetime value to the business
▪ Can be your evangelists
Reduce return rate
The average U.S. consumer spends 20 minutes trying to make a device work before giving up and returning it to the seller—2006 study by Dutch scientist Elke den Ouden
▪ Returns have increased 21 percent since 2007, according to a Accenture research report (Dec 2011)
▪ 5% of returns are related to actual product defects
▪ 27% reflect “buyer’s remorse”
▪ 68% of returned products are “No Trouble Found”
Customer experience increases sales
81% of companies …delivering customer experience excellence are outperforming their competitors — Peppers and Rogers, 2009 Customer Experience Maturity Monitor
▪ Customer experience is the outcome of all of the touch points that your customer has with your organization *
▪ The perception that customers have across all of their interactions with your organization *
▪ It’s a customer-centric view of your company from every touch point
* From Customer Experience Overview, 2011, Bruce Tempkin and Jeanne Bliss
Customer experience is a big deal
Product instructions are a critical part of the customer experience. If customers can’t use the product, you get a high churn rate — Sharon Burton
▪ Product instructions are the central to the post-sales customer experience
▪ Technical communication is a subset of customer experience ▪ We have so much in
common▪ Tech comm is concerned
with the post-sales part
What do people think about product instructions?
I have some answers
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There’s just not a lot out there
You will get a link in email tomorrow to the free version of the research
▪ I’ve run a poll the last 2 years▪ Focused on consumers
▪ Surprisingly, there is just not a lot of research into what people think about product instructions
▪ Everyone has an opinion, though!
Use product instructions
About 91% of customers use the product instructions
Doesn’t make sense
About 66% say sometimes product instructions make sense
1 in 3 don’t understand your instructions
Reflect on the product
51% worry the rest of the product was also skimped on
Reduce confidence in the product
About 24% report they don’t feel confident about the product
1 in 4
Wouldn’t purchase again
About 50% wouldn’t purchase from the company again
Half your customers
Angry and regretful
About 90% are angry or regret the purchase when they can’t use the instructions
Defective or broken
About 25% feel the product is defective
1 in 4
Won’t pay more
About 66% won’t pay more for useful product instructions
Clear instructions feel good
71% think the company cares about them
7 out of 10
What do we do?
How do we know if our product instructions are any good? What do we look for?
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Product-centric vs user-centric
Product User
The Widget was designed to… Using Widget, you can…
The Widget returns a message. You see…
The Widget prints the report. Your report is printed
The Widget does… You can…
•People buy your product to solve issues
•Talk to your customers directly
•My favorite recent quote:
“No one wants an iron. They want wrinkle-free clothes.”
Active voice, present tense
Passive voice or future tense
Active voice or present tense
The Widget will print the report.
Your report prints.
These steps may prevent the brake pedal from functioning.
During these steps, the brake pedal does not work.
The email will be sent if a network is found.
Your email is automatically sent the next time a network is found.
The Widget will save the file. Your file is saved.•Talk to your customers directly
•Future tense makes timing uncertain.
“Your report should print. We hope. Frankly, call us if it does. We couldn’t get that to work for us.”
Appropriate for the audience
Specialized audience Consumer audience
Use the Windows authentication mode to gain access to your credentials.
On the Start menu, click Settings. Open the Authentication folder and double-click Credentials
The data transfer rate is determined by the error checking algorithm used.
Sometimes your photos may not upload as fast as other times. If your photos are too slow to upload, try a faster internet connection if available, such as at a coffee shop.
•Do NOT “dumb down” the information
•Understand your audience and speak
appropriately to them
The average reading level in the US is 5th grade. If you are writing to general consumers, write to that reading level.
Short – just short
▪ Short sentences are easier to understand▪ Fewer ideas in a short sentence▪ No more than 25 words per sentence
▪ Short paragraphs▪ Paragraphs are groups of related sentences▪ No more than 3 to 5 sentences per paragraph
▪ Short sections▪ Sections are groups of related paragraphs▪ No more than 3 to 5 paragraphs before a section heading
The 4 things you must cover*
▪ We know people read the instructions ▪ But not like a novel▪ They don’t want to know how the story ends
▪ They want to know:▪ “Why do I care?”▪ “How do I…?”▪ “What is it?”▪ “Why did it do that?”
▪ Answer these 4 questions
* From Bonni Graham presentation “The 4 user questions”
Ways people consume information
▪ There are 4 ways people consume information▪ Visual – pictures, line drawings, flow charts▪ Auditory – sound, conversational writing▪ Read/write – words, sentences, labels in pictures▪ Kinesthetic (hands on) – touch, descriptive writing, texture
in pictures
▪ Most people have a strong preference 2 or more▪ Some people are only one▪ Some rare people are all 4
▪ It is not true that because of [insert thing here], we all want pictures or videos
Support all 4
▪ Steps to do tasks
▪ Graphical elements▪ Conceptual graphics especially good▪ Videos can be good
▪ Conversational writing style▪ Podcasts especially good
▪ Textured word descriptions
Putting it together
So what does this all mean?
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Customer Experience challenges
▪ CAC costs are high for most companies
▪ It’s cheaper and easier to sell to existing customers
▪ Reducing customer churn increases sales
▪ Customer experience is concerned with how a customer interacts with a company across the board
▪ Customers use product instructions
▪ Product instructions impact the customer experience
▪ People are upset and angry with the quality of product instructions
▪ Clear and useful product instructions are a competitive advantage
Useful and helpful product instructions are:
▪ User focused, user-centric
▪ Active voice, present tense
▪ Appropriate to the audience▪ Not as simple as possible or dumbed down
▪ Short sentences, short paragraphs, short sections
▪ Support all 4 information consumption modes
▪ Address the customer questions
Thank you!
Thoughts?
Comments?Sharon Burton 951-369-8590 Twitter: [email protected]
Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp