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Solving Problems Before They Happen

Andrew Thomas, Dir. Product MarketingContent Management Technologies

05/07/2013

Putting Personalized Tech Docs on the Front Line of Customer Support

• Introductions

• The Content Problem

• Why Retention and Support Matters

• Making the Case for Personalized Tech Docs

• Solution Requirements

Agenda

Introductions

3

• Father of two teenage boys

• Recently adopted a rescue dog

• Consume all forms of media

• Write bad poetry in my spare time

• Implemented DITA at Adobe for all product documentation

• Product Manager for SDL WorldServer TMS

• Product Marketer for SDL LiveContent

• HUGE NERD

Who Am I?

Email: athomas@sdl.com | Twitter: @work_ajt | LinkedIn: andrewjthomas

• Delivering printed materials?

• Single sourcing?

• Translating into multiple languages?

• Index and/or glossary?

• Creating content in XML? DITA?

• Using a CCMS / XML CMS?

• Using personas?

• Cross-departmental?

• Mobile delivery?

• Voice of the customer / feedback model / social presence?

• Customer experience and/or customer satisfaction initiative?

Who Are You?

The Content Problem

6

Channel Explosion

Tech docs

FAQ

Sales

Engineering

Support

Marketing

Specs

Price

7

Now Add Language and Locale

YourMessage

The Customer Journey

The Customer Journey

Keeping Customers Satisfied

Initial Problem

Searching Resources

Resolution

Determining Solution

Initial Endorsement

Consistent Praise

Recognized Fan

Brand Advocate

Battle for Content Creators

• XML has been hard up until now

– Maybe a little history of XML usage here?

– Maybe some stats on XML growth? (not sure if those even exist)

• Primary roadblock has been the steep learning curve

– XML editing tools are complex

– XML is not user friendly

• How do we solve that?Sales & Marketing

Customer Support

Research & Development

Training & Learning

PRODUCT CONTENT

Why Retention and Support Matters

12

Customer Retention drives revenue, lowers cost

Source:  Frederick Reichheld – “Business marketing strategies”

VALUE OF ANEXISTING CUSTOMER

IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER RETENTION

“Retention is a lot more cost effective than acquisition” Carrie Johnson – Forrester Research

Self-Service is Cheap

Source: “From the November 2011 issue of Inc. magazine.”

Call center technical support

Web self-service

Customer service channel

(Approximate cost per contact)

Customer Satisfaction

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin

Bad Experiences are Expensive

Source: “From the November 2011 issue of Inc. magazine.”

Number of positive customer interactions required to overcome a bad one

“After a poor customer experience, more than one-quarter of consumers (26 percent) posted negative complaints on a social networking site such as Facebook or Twitter”Harris Interactive, 2011 Customer Experience Impact Report

Bad News Travels Fast

Source: “From the November 2011 issue of Inc. magazine.”

Average number of people a customer will tell about a bad experience

“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com

Customer Satisfaction

Satisfaction is the key

Source: “From the November 2011 issue of Inc. magazine.”

Customer Satisfaction

70%Share of customers who say they are willing to spend more at companies that provide superior customer service

Making the Case for Personalized Tech Docs

18

19

Preferred channel to Access Product Information

Reasons for Using Product Information

Speak to a customer service agent

Chat online with a customer service agent

Look at product manual

Search engines

Search on company website

Source: “SDL Survey 2012.”

20

Preferred channel to Access Product Information

4

Reasons for Using Product Information

Human Interaction

Online Interaction

Source: “SDL Survey 2012.”

21

4

Reasons for Using Product Information

Learning about a product before use

Troubleshooting

Discovering new functions and features

Reasons for Using Product Information

Source: “SDL Survey 2012.”

22

My Son, Age 14

A Quick Overview• Has never known a world without the internet• Got his first cellphone when he was 11• Texts more than he talks• Uses a Samsung Galaxy 3, an iPod Touch, a Mac laptop,

and has access to several other screens

How does he find product information?• Searches YouTube first• Goes directly to the manufacturer’s website• Searches Google• Asks me

23

My Mom, Age 62

A Quick Overview• Prefers paper and real world objects to digital• Still uses a dumb phone• Only texts occasionally (since it’s often the only way to

reach her grandkids)• Got an iPad for her 60th birthday, owns an old PC

How does she find product information?• Asks someone at the store• Reads the printed manual• Goes directly to the manufacturer’s website• Asks friends and family

• Stats on multimedia usage/learning

• Embedded video to drive home the point?

Good Content = Better Support

“Media rich targeted information”

“makes it easier to solve a problem on my own.”

Source: Golan Harris -SDL Structured Content Product Information Survey

87.3%

Companies that use Good Content

Business Benefits• 6x the number of positive mentions in

social media• Significantly increased profit margins• Customer satisfaction almost doubles• Support escalations fractions of

others

Common Solution Features Implemented

Component-based contentLinked across languages

Dynamic, “live” filteringUnique product configurations

Localized for language and cultureVaried user role and function offerings

“..in a perfect world it’s both and everything in between..” Carrie Johnson – Forrester Research

Solution Requirements

26

Multichannel

• Revisit personalization infographic but with additions

– Show how search results lead to pre-filtered content

– Show how content can be rendered appropriately based on the platform (video-only for the phone, video and two-column view for the tablet, traditional tri-pane help for the pc)

Multilingual

• XML has been hard up until now

– Maybe a little history of XML usage here?

– Maybe some stats on XML growth? (not sure if those even exist)

• Primary roadblock has been the steep learning curve

– XML editing tools are complex

– XML is not user friendly

• How do we solve that?

Multimedia

Combine text and video for a better experience

• First mention of DITA

• Show how re-use drives consistency AND lowers cost (less content to manage)

• Probably an infographic

Reuse Content for Efficiency, Consistency, & Quality

Sales and Marketing

Product Development

Customer Support

Training and Learning

• Talk about multichannel customer experience (tablets, phones, pcs)

• Talk about emerging channels that we don’t even know yet (TVs, something new?)

• Traditional pub requires one-off effort for _each_ channel

• XML frees the content from the format (form vs function / page vs topic) which allows companies to address new channels more easily/cheaper

Separate Content from Format

AUTHOR

CONTENT

CHANNEL

• Talk about multichannel customer experience (tablets, phones, pcs)

• Talk about emerging channels that we don’t even know yet (TVs, something new?)

• Traditional pub requires one-off effort for _each_ channel

• XML frees the content from the format (form vs function / page vs topic) which allows companies to address new channels more easily/cheaper

Separate Content from Format

CONTENT

CHANNEL

AUTHOR

• Maybe an infographic?

• Need to demonstrate the power of semantic markup / XML here

• Friendlier for search engines (flat HTML and PDF is harder to search than XML)

Create Findability not Searchability

“My camera won’t work”

<quote>My <b> camera </b> won’t work </quote>

My

camera

won’t work

• Infograph showing one publication being filtered for various user types (beginner vs. advanced, mac vs. pc, etc.)

• Show how this can add a human element to the content (like our kitty cat vs. cold biz buildings photo example in the demo)

Document Personas, not Products

Mac User

PC User

AdvancedUser

BeginningUser

Dynamic Content

Personalize Results

• Revisit personalization infographic but with additions

– Show how search results lead to pre-filtered content

– Show how content can be rendered appropriately based on the platform (video-only for the phone, video and two-column view for the tablet, traditional tri-pane help for the pc)

PC User Advanced User

RESULTS

SEARCH

RESULTS

SEARCH

Empower Content Owners

Easy Editing and Incremental Publishing enables rapid response

How can you know your customer if you don’t know how they use your content?

Gather Publication Analytics

Upcoming Events

38

SDL Innovate 2013June 13-14The Fairmont San Josewww.sdl.com/innovate

May 8 – San Diego May 9 – San Francisco

May 21 – Washington DCMay 22 - Atlanta

Bridging the Gap Between DITA and CXMA series of complimentary half-day events featuring industry experts and market leading organizations

www.sdl.com/bridgingthegap

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