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Tap Customers to Ease Document Delivery Angst
By Mark Hall

Author Bio

"Never trust a dog to watch your food."
—Patrick, age 10

You've worked like a dog authoring a document, only to find out later that it's been edited beyond recognition, or that the feedback you're hearing from your customer is far from glowing. You can still hear the criticism ringing in your ears: comments like "This isn't the information I expected," or "It isn't in the right format for the client." These comments leave you with glazed-over eyes and that sinking "how did this happen to me?" feeling.

If the above scenario sounds familiar to you, by seeking to connect with your customers, both internal and external, you may be able to avoid (or at least minimize) such anguish in the future.

Connect With Internal Customers

Internal customers for writers typically include project (or product) managers, subject matter experts, publication managers, and production staff. External customers include the end-users (i.e., readers of the documentation), their management, and any outside consultants hired to assess the suitability of the documents.

To connect with internal customers, schedule one-on-one meetings where you can get to know them on a personal level (don't wait too long for that next team-building exercise to come along!); and ask them specific, deliverable-related questions like:

• What were your thoughts on the [your doc type] document [I/my team] delivered for your previous projects?
  
  
• Did you hear any first-hand comments on the document relative to its organization, content, format or style?
  
  
• How would you personally change the document in the future to make it more effective, and why?

The answers to these questions will serve to solidify your understanding of your internal customers' needs and expectations. And along the way you'll be building personal connections and gaining allies that you can call on to corroborate your assertions during those sometimes trying project meetings. One can, after all, never have too many empathetic partners when the deadline is looming.

Connect With External Customers

Gleaning feedback from external customers—i.e., actual document readers—can be more problematic. Since in many organizations technical writers are (for various reasons) not given direct access to customers, you will often need to work with their proxies: customer service representatives, account executives, and outside consultants.

Customer service representatives often provide the frankest, most unbiased feedback. Account executives, especially those with a sales mentality, might tend to put a positive spin on comments they've heard from customers. Outside consultants can be hard to access, too, unless you know someone that knows them.

But whenever you have an opportunity, and preferably early in the document creation cycle, seek to ask these persons the following types of questions:

• What customer comments have you heard relative to the [your doc type] on your past projects?
  
  
• What suggestions for improvement have you heard relative to the document?
  
  
• What aspects of the document would you personally change to make it more effective, and why?

As you speak to internal and external customers of previous projects, continually ask if you can contact the actual readers of the publication. Do it under the auspices of the customer support or sales department if you must, but keep on asking. As the saying goes, the worst they can say is "no." And the payoff for a "yes" is certainly great. You will no longer have to base your document content and style decisions solely on second-hand feedback.

You have undoubtedly delivered some good, even great documents in the past, even without speaking to colleagues outside the construct of the project team. But you may be in store for more success if you can connect more fully with your key internal and external customers. And perhaps your new-found success will have you singing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus rather than that woefully dreadful document death march.

Comments or questions? Write Mark Hall at mark@hallmark-consulting.com.