Web 2.0 Tech Support: Part 3
Continuing my previous Web 2.0 Tech Support case study, let’s look again at the example of MadCap Software’s Technical Support. It’s not only the outbound use of Web 2.0, the internal use of Web 2.0 within MadCap is prevalent and highly structured.
Of course MadCap has been able to use this capability as a force multiplier regarding support staffing. I started this discussion last year with my blog post Does Tech Support Count? Can Good Service Sell in the 21st Century?
One of my commenters stated:
…I just don’t get why companies think that offering crappy, expensive support is a business model that will sustain customer relationships. Saving a few pennies in support will cost big bucks down the road.
But there are exceptions. Companies like Spectrum Brands (Remington shavers), Newegg, MadCap, and Versatrans - just to name a few - have outstanding support and are truly support leaders in their respective industries.
On top of that, they make great products or follow through with assistance or replacements every single time. Those companies have a bright future.
Update: Sarah O’Keefe has an excellent white paper titled Friend or Foe? Web 2.0 in Technical Communication which has a lot of overlap with my initial Tech Support / Good Service article last year. My analysis was initially inspired by Sarah’s post and her white paper is an excellent resource. Great minds think alike, Sarah. 
Web 2.0 Technical Support Overview
One of my former business partners once told me that the key to any type of web commerce was giving people what they need within three clicks of their initial portal or entry point.
This kind of logical organized thinking simply reeks of competency…
Update: I just found out Thursday that MadCap Software has won the ASP Online Support awards.
Web 2.0 Tech Support: PHP-based Forums
First, PHP works quickly and is easy to search. There are ‘user forums’ out there which are awful to find information within their siloed content.
MadCap’s isn’t like that. The user community for MadCap is vocal, and I’ve said before, provides a rabid fan base for the products. These power users are the core around the community, and are global.
By giving the user a quick path to browse as a guest versus becoming involved, it eases the usability of the forums. It’s been my experience that the response level has been less than 24 hours for answers to be posted. And that’s on a weekend.
Additionally, the MadCap Tech Support staff lurk on those forums like tiger sharks around a school of bluefin tuna. If the MVPs can’t answer something well enough or fast enough there will inevitably be a request by one of the Tech Support staffers to examine the trouble closer.
By the way, the MadCap TS staff obviously enjoy including the users in the fun. Not many companies allow posting a well planned April Fools Day joke on a corporate website like this:
MadCap Ping Pong Released!
Madcap Software is proud to announce the Upcoming release of Madcap Ping Pong, With Madcap Ping Pong, your days of losing at Ping Pong are over.
The first product to provide help authors with instantaneous, controllable back spin.
This software will be the first product to have its own XML based Deflection Editor. Madcap Ping Pong skips right over the net other HATs get caught in.
Knowledge Base: Top choice for Do It Yourself’ers
Most release bugs or top issues will be found here first. Additionally, the KB uses MadCap’s Feedback server, allowing Web 2.0 interaction with their community. That means that all users can comment on procedures, just like our comments within blogs.
Note that Adobe’s LiveDocs interface also has the ‘comment’ feature, however I don’t believe it works in the same crisp transparent method as MadCap’s Feedback Server.
Online Help for all products
Documentation for all products is easily found two clicks from the top site level. Aside from the typical single user assistance, this is great for their reseller tech support and internal corporate IT departments who operate as first level tech support.
There have been complaints about the Adobe Online Help used to support… their Online Help Authoring Tool. WritersUA had a review that mentioned this also.
You might ask: Is it fair to critique RoboHelp’s online help? I mean, who uses online help anyway? Oh, wait. This is a help authoring tool. We all hope that our users use our help.
Shouldn’t RoboHelp set a very high standard for help development? And shouldn’t it demonstrate the best practices that are well-established in the help industry that it has dominated for so long?
Yes, of course it should.
Embarrassing.
That’s not the case here. Entries are meticulous. Well structured styles and css usage. In fact, a beginning technical writer could find several excellent structure and style suggestions to review here as well.
Again, with MadCap’s internal online help using the same Feedback server as the KB, Web 2.0 blog-post style interaction with the public in the forms of comments, etc.
System Requirements / Install Checklist
Install Checklists are great for internal IT departments evaluating a product’s ease of use or User Experience reviewers. System requirements also work for IT departments configuring corporate Documentation workstations.
Both of these categories avoid unnecessary tech support calls. This call avoidance works into real dollars saved.
Software Patches
Here’s a top level choice with dropdown for product choices. A lot of regular users can simply download the latest version and try to duplicate their problem prior to contacting
Additionally, this makes it easier for Forums responders to hyperlink directly to the patch someone may need.
eLearning Recorded Demos
Self explanatory, helps those who normally read help files and aren’t clingy technophobes. Hey, given enough stress about a deadline, that includes me as well.
Those of us who are clingy technophobes - well, you might have to pay for the support to be reassured in person. But… the person will be a San Diego-based HAT industry veteran.
Web 2.0 Support Feedback
Self explanatory, but important. Feedback is a direct view into the community fishbowl. Top level feedback also serves an important role because anyone in the executive team can tap into the pulse of the company fairly quickly. At some corporations this is overlooked, however I’m well aware that transparency at MadCap is like Blue Sky Software was - feedback is a fishbowl.
From my conversations with Var Galpchian, MadCap’s TS Director, if someone’s cheesed off she wants to know about it. And then she wants to find a solution. Today.
Web 2.0 Product Manager Blogs
In response to questions from clients, I was looking into Company blogging last year. MadCap Product Managers Mike Hamilton and Sharon Burton even have direct blog links on the corporate technical support site.
I’m glad to see that MadCap has stepped up to the plate. Adobe and Microsoft have encouraged corporate blogging for years. As Mike Hamilton’s blog states, on the road he and his team work to bring users into the fun. Check his article about Ping Pong Palooza:
In keeping with that interest, and our somewhat irreverent ways, we have commandeered a “meeting room” in the hotel Monday night and we have already arranged to get a ping pong table delivered and set up. You can watch the MadCap staff battle each other (while you drink our beer and soda) or if you are a brave soul you can challenge one of the MadCap staff to a game.
Are there other examples of truly excellent Web 2.0 integration within Technical Support? I’d like to examine them, as well as Rich Internet Application integration. Let me know.
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Posted by Charles in Software, Technical Communication, Technical Support, Web 2.0 |
