baby friendly travel,airline complaint,XJT,ExpressJet,false advertising,airline advertising,nonstop flight,airline deception,deceptive advertising,handicapped accessibility

Dr. Girlfriend is very pleased. ExpressJet did their due diligence and discovered that there were significant training issues that needed to be addressed. They then called Dr. Girlfriend and let her know that they understood how important it was to her that she be able to trust them to do their jobs.

As she related to me:

ExpressJet just wrapped up a phone conversation with her this afternoon where they answered all the issues in her letter. The XJT representative went a step further than simply acknowledging her letter, stating that the deficiencies she had presented in detail were verified with both airports, with ground crew, and with the flight crews.

They also took corrective disciplinary action with the Flight Attendant who had exacerbated the situation by not being baby friendly, and the rep told Dr. Girlfriend that they were focusing on family friendly actions.

Further, ExpressJet refunded her entire ticket cost and let her keep the partial $75 refund already credited to her account earlier by Ryan, the Sacramento XJT manager, for the initial innaccurate flight information.

Dr. Girlfriend told the representative that, after their actions and his call, she wouldn’t hesitate to try ExpressJet again within a few months.

This is the whole point of my blogging about Corporate Authenticity: it is the consumer’s right to detail issues so that others are made aware of them. Those ‘others’ include the corporation, potential clients and investors, and employees who may not be entirely aware of the impact of their actions.

And it verifies the cluetrain manifesto.

This Issue Is The Most Important Thing To ME

When I was working as a private investigator ten to fifteen years ago, there was one compelling fact I always held in my head while working a case:

My clients’s issue is their number one problem right now. No matter how routine or mundane this issue may be, no matter how awkward a social situation, no matter how personally risky my actions may be to help them, this is my client’s number one problem. And they’re trusting me to help them.

Reinforcing that standard in customer care is critical in any company. For those out there who wonder why I’m so passionate about Adobe and their work with RoboHelp, it should be clearly understood that I am bringing my research - my raw data and resources - out for others to examine. They can make their own decisions after considering all the information.

This works well for the consumers when Adobe, as ExpressJet, answers the problems with solutions. Solutions which make for a stronger product or in their case, support process.

Otherwise, as cluetrain states, consumers will go elsewhere. And become vocal.

workflow collaboration,tech writer,tech writing

While I may have differences of opinion about Adobe’s handling of RoboHelp with Bill Swallow, he’s spot on in his recent post about how to become a better Technical Writer.

Or, in my opinion, how to become a better part of the Workflow.

Quoted from Bill’s blog post waxing techcomm:

If you’re at the end of the information chain, start climbing to the beginning. That is where the action’s at, and that is where you can make your biggest impact. Before specifications are born, before project plans are drafted, there is design work going on.

Get in there and get your hands dirty. As a tech writer, you have a greater likelihood of having a good user-focus than others, because you’re (hopefully) tailoring the documentation to fit the users’ needs.

As features are being dreamed up and initially designed, review them. Provide useful feedback that will improve the implementation and usability of that feature. Take the good ideas and make them better.

Can’t climb to the beginning of the chain? Look for other ways of adding value. Improve a poor process. Improve internal communication. Centralize internal knowledge. These are all quite common problems in an engineering organization.

I think that there are great ways that Technical Communicators can impact the entire workflow. Collaboration with other team elements is critical, and a well-worded support document can radically impact the after-sales support of a product.

Analysis

Bill’s approach about getting in on the beginning should dovetail into working out a workflow collaboration method that the product manager can adopt. If a tech writer can, through the use of a simple devblog, keep everyone informed and stop the email forwarding that plagues software development, all will start off on the right foot. The tech writer becomes the golden child instead of the whipping boy/girl.

Should the PM adopt a method to track changes that is open and viewable to the entire team, everyone benefits from the transparency and ‘everyone gets the memo on the TPS Report.

I worked for a company that was less than functional in obtaining change requests for documentation. Needless to say, creative approaches were critical in getting the information in time for changes to the product to be represented in the documentation, particularly with a single help author / tech writer and eight different product lines!

Here’s some basic information for those of you who may just be starting out, or for engineers who consider DITY technical writing:

The Tech Writer’s Style Guide <- humorous examples of what not to do.

Introduction to Technical Writing/Documentation <- short and sweet.

Adobe,Adobe Support,technical support,product support,adobe premiere,Adobe Flash,flash,user support

Adobe Support Fails Corporate Authenticity

Adobe clients who are furious with their product issues have no method of receiving help. Again and again I’ve seen them write that after weeks of being ignored, they post into the user forums hoping for an escalation.

In software, core compentency must be combined with quality product support, or as these angry customers point out, they’ll go elsewhere. And not only will they leave, they’ll also scorch you online. My previous post about Corporate Authenticity talks about this in detail.

End User Support is NOT a Cost Center

As users become collectively disenfranchised (to steal a term) other options become more attractive. Simply purchasing a maintenance agreement year after year reinforces the level of support that you receive. Product support should be a heavy factor in purchasing software from any vendor.

Simply put, there is no common sense in supporting poor customer service and poor technical support.

How Much Does Adobe Spend | How Does Tech Support Spending Rank?

ASP Online has a Technical Support Cost Ratios survey worth a glance:

Overall, software companies currently spend a little over 8% (median) of their revenues on tech support, almost exactly the number we reported in our 1997 survey. Not surprisingly, several variables impact this ratio.

Small companies typically spend more on support (20% of revenues), in part because their support staffs spend a good deal of time on such non-support tasks as software testing, customer service, documentation, training, and internal MIS functions.

I’m currently researching Adobe’s revenue spending on tech support. Note that the small company ratio is roughly two and a half times what the average spending is.

Update: After reviewing Adobe’s 10-K SEC filing, it turns out their support revenue spending is 3% of the total budget.

Again, Adobe Misses The Cluetrain

The issues we spoke about previously regarding Adobe RoboHelp pale in comparison. This is just pure poor handling and, as cluetrain.org states, these users have a voice.

From Cluetrain.org - Talk is Cheap:

“Customer loyalty” is not a commodity a company owns. Where it exists at all — and the cases in which it does are rare — loyalty to a company is based on respect. And that respect is based on how the company has conducted itself in conversations with the market.

Not conversing, participating, is not an option. If we don’t engage people inside and outside our organization in conversation, someone else will.

Start talking.

Check out this thread on Adobe’s forums. If they take it down, click here for the .pdf of the text. The core related to how the sales promotion wasn’t able to be taken advantage of by a consumer.
cj0nes posts in response:

Let’s recap the situation - try to absorb some of what I’ve written this time - and see if I am still a “whiny jerk”. Adobe’s promotion stated that if I get Premiere Pro 2 before August 28, I am eligible to receive a free CS3 upgrade. It is not unreasonable to assume that this means that Premiere Pro 2 will be available up until August 28.

I emailed with several questions about this, and didn’t receive a reply until 5 WEEKS LATER. The reply did not even answer a single one of my questions.

The first of July passed, and suddenly Premiere 2 became unavailable. Their free upgrade offer also, suddenly, disappeared from their site, even though it is still in effect. Questionable ethical conduct, don’t you think?

Personally, I would have to take the view of either this customer completely fell through the cracks (unacceptable) or he was victim of a bait and switch (also unacceptable). Where is the knowledgable customer support manager?

In a prior life at eHelp, Var Galpchian handled these issues directly - all day long - while I worked there. That’s how they won awards in their product support category. She was the central nexus between Customer Care and Technical Support.

Another thread titled ‘Adobe Support Sucks‘ says it all, this time concerning Adobe Flash. Here’s the .pdf of this thread in case it gets removed.

Am beginning to HATE Adobe!!! Spent 5 hours on the phone today (mostly on hold) - being given BAD information. Tried to get through to a manager to report the situation, was repeatedly put on hold - only to be recycled thru the Help Desk again. Have been a LOYAL ADOBE CUSTOMER for over 15 years, and am currently running CS2 and Studio 8 (Macromedia) on a PC.

Had a Flash Prof. 8 problem and all Adobe Tech Support could recommend was for me to upgrade (again) - which I did in Feb 07. Am totally frustrated…you simply cannot penetrate that wall of incompetence to get thru to anyone who can really help.

The East Indians are nice enough, but I seriously cannot understand what they’re saying half the time, and end up just saying ‘yeah’ to keep the conversation moving along.

It should be noted, that at the time Macromedia was absorbed into Adobe, according to their final SEC 10-K filing, MACR included their stateside employee count:

At March 31, 2005, we had 1,445 full-time employees worldwide with 1,151 of these employees located in the United States.

The user’s Adobe support failure rant continues:

Adobe’s support for LEGITIMATE REGISTERED PAYING CUSTOMERS is worse than Microsoft…and even DELL!!!

Maybe I’ll start doing all my flash work in SwishMax…at least you can reach those people - and they’re in Australia! Absolutely no reason from Adobe to snub their customer base.

There is accountability within the web. For Adobe customers ‘cheezed off’ by the corporation, please first Contact Adobe Support. If your product issue is not resolved, feel free to post away within the Comments section below.

Where is RoboHelp? Missing From Adobe’s Business Segment Datasheet

First Adobe fires their RoboHelp tech support team, now they don’t even list the product in Adobe’s 2007 Business Segment Datasheet.

This is a formal document listed within the Adobe Investor Relations section, no small issue.

Copy here if it’s taken down…

RoboHelp Product Manager (whoever it is today) or RJ Jaquez, Product Evangelist, care to comment? Are you still working there?!?

Update:

I thought this might be a typo, so I checked the Adobe Investor Datasheet, which lists products and their release cycles. No RoboHelp there either! Remember, these are SEC required filings…

Copy here in case it’s changed…

Update 2008: See who else is reading this blog with Is there SEC Interest In Adobe’s Corporate Authenticity and RoboHelp? Also, check out When a Blogger Criticizes Your Company… for a look at how other corporations handle online criticism.

Regarding RoboHelp check out Backlash Grows From High Cost Poor Quality Adobe Technical Support and Adobe Product Support Woes Continue. Have fun, thanks for stopping in!