COMMUNITIES

SUPPORT

THE EVOLUTION OF

AND DOCUMENTATION

FEATURING

CUSTOMER

POINT AT WHAT

D O C U M E N T A T I O N

SUPPORT?

DOES BECOME

WHEN IT ’S PART OF A OF SERVICES THAT PROVIDE USER ASSISTANCE FOR A

PRODUCT OR SERVICE

ANSWER :

FUTURE

First let’s trace the history

This is

DID You know: some scholars believe cave paintings documented animal migration

patterns and hunting successes

It solved the problem of recording early history

AND THEN

WRITTEN CONTENT

Did you know: Egyptian scribes were high on the social ladder alongside priests.

It solved the problem of documenting religion and agriculture but was only used

by a few educated people

WRITTEN CONTENT

ON PARCHMENT

DID you KNOW: Parchment allowed the production of manuscripts which eventually

led to universities

Which solved the problem of distributing documentation and making it possible to educate people on more complex subjects

ON PARCHMENT

THEN A MAJOR

GUTENBERG’S

PRESS

Did you know: The Press led to a flood of printed

material in just a few short decades

GUTENBERG’S

PRESS

Which solved the problem of documenting and distributing

scientific discoveries through scholarly journals

MODERN TIMES

IN

THE FIRST COOKBOOK

FRENCH CUISINE

Thus began the first modern day trend to document repeatable

processes for tradesmen

THE FIRST COOKBOOK

FRENCH CUISINE

Which solved the problem of training many people on

how to make things

CENTURY THAT

LATER

USER MANUALS BECAME POPULAR

1950’s the documentation of technology products trained

people on how to use them

USER MANUALS BECAME POPULAR

1950’s Which solved the problem of quickly training people on

how to use complicated tools

SOON THE DIGITAL

MEDIA

Documentation page counts increased and rich media was needed to teach people even more

complicated tools

MEDIA

Which solved the problem of shipping large documents at a low cost and added the ability

to use rich media

RECENTLY... AND

Static html documentation that serves as customer

support

Which solved the problem of updating documentation and support materials without the need to reship updated media

TODAY’S NEEDED FOR SO WHAT IS

RESEARCH STUDY :

TOP CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS ABOUT ONLINE SUPPORT

“I go to Google

instead” “If I find the info it’s

not accurate or is out

of date”

“There’s not enough

content here to help

me”

NOT WORKING

It’s Time for a new approach isn’t it?

PROBLEM THE

WHAT’S

SITES ARE

TODAY’S

WEB SUPPORT

AS ARE

PDF SITES

SO THERE’S

So people leave your

site in search of the

answer elsewhere

Content is not rated

and there is no

feedback mechanism to

alert you to incomplete

or bad content

Which leads to a

scarcity of content or

irrelevant content

IT’S LIKE HEARING THE SAME PRE-RECORDED MESSAGE

OVER AND OVER AGAIN

TODAY’S WORK IN

THAT DOESN’T

ENVIRONMENT

Customers call support

agents instead of

solving the problem on

your support site

Customers get upset

and leave your site and

potentially arrive on

your competitor’s site

Less relevant content

means lost revenue

opportunities

WHICH MEANS

WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE

WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE

UNFRIEN LY AND

IT DOESN ’T HAVE

BECAUSE…

TO BE

E

WITHTHE TIMES

V O L V E D

SUPPORT HAS

ADAPTED TO MARKET

AND HAS

SUPPORT TO

TODAY SO

IN ORDER TO SATISFY TODAY ’S

YOU NEED SUPPORT SITES.. .

THAT MEET

CHALLENGES

WHILE

COSTS AND

REVENUE

LIKE SITES FROM

OR MORE

SUCCINTLY...

THE WEB

Search that learns how to

be better over time

Quick resolutions to customer issues

For increased adoption and

content contributions

Rich media enables quicker learning

A ALYTICS

A G I N G

CURATION

AGING

How old is our content

across the site?

Allow content to be

rated by users

OR

PDF’S

COMMUNITY

ISN’T IT CHOICE EASY

FUTURE THE

FU URE THE

T

T I ‘S PERSONAL

& MOBILE

Support on the run and at your fingertips

& INSTANT

Gestural interfaces to interact with

objects for support

TEACHES AND

BASED ON YOUR

CREATING WHILE

SUPPORT CURRICULUMS

T H E

GAME THIS IS

AFTER ALL

SHOULD BE FRIENDLY

THAN YOU K

MIKE PUTERBAUGH

HAL WENDEL

JESSE RUBIN

MAR FIDELMAN MINDTOUCH.COM/BLOG

@markfidelman

Slideshare.net/fidelman

K