Send Surveys to Improve Your Documents
A common problem we technical writers have is our lack of contact with the end-users.
If you are like me working for a large corporation, the end-users are handled by the marketing and sales department, plus, the field reps and tech reps. They usually do not want you as a tech writer to get in touch with the customers directly.
Such precautions have a point.
What if the customer asked you a feature question and you ended up saying something like “oh yes we’ll have that feature within 6 months.” That could become a serious liability for the rest of the team.
There are many other things that could be said with total goodwill that can complicate the relations with the customers. Thus the marketing and sales departments have a point in keeping the technical writers away from the end-users.
However, the same lack of communication has a downside as well: if the documents lack something, technical writer would be the last to know since writers have no idea what is going on the “other side of the wall” that separates the writing team from the end-users. There is usually a considerable lag between customer complaints and updated documents that address such complaints.
One way to overcome this problem is to talk your management into sending documentation surveys to your customers so that you can update your documents before the issues boil over.
There are also applications like Adobe RoboHelp Server to track which help file topics are used and which are not. But since I do not use it myself, I’ll pass it by just mentioning that such an alternative may also give you an idea about how your customers actually use your help files.
One way to improve your documents is by sending user surveys to your customers. If you are a technical writer working in a large corporation you probably will not be allowed to send such a survey directly to the end-users. You need to have the cooperation of the management and departments like marketing, sales, and technical support.
However, let’s assume that you secured such buy-in, as the parlance goes. You secured the necessary permission to do it.
Which questions should you include in such a survey?
I will assume that you are writing a survey to test the efficacy of a help file. You want to know whether the customers are actually using the help file at all. Moreover, you’d like to find out what they like and what they do not like about the help file. Once you have the data, you can get on with the business of improving your help file.
Here are some sample questions for you:
- How frequently have you used our [XYZ] help file within the last year?
- If you have never used the help file, which of the following explains why you haven’t used it?
- If you have used the help file, what was your main purpose? (Select all that apply)
- How would you rate your agreement with the following help file features?
- What are the topics that you’ve searched for but could not find in the help file?
- Overall, how satisfied are you with the information in the help file?
- How can we improve the help file?
It is always best to come up with your own questions depending on the specific industry you are in.
Sending user surveys to your customers is probably the only reliable way to improve your technical documents.
Let’s assume the document you are trying to improve is the help file. Here is a sample question and possible multi-choice-answers:
SAMPLE QUESTION: How frequently have you used the [XYZ] help file within the last year?
POSSIBLE MULTI-CHOICE ANSWERS:
- Daily
- Weekly
- Once a month
- Couple times a year
- Once a year
- Never
Write. Test. Update.
