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What’s Next? Socially-Enabled User Assistance, Interactive Documentation, and Location Aware Help

June 17, 2011 Blog 1 Comment

Take a peek at my latest presentation slide deck from Web Content: Going Mobile, held June 6-7, 2011 at Gleacher Center in Chicago. I was the closing presenter and ripped through 149 slides in 45 minutes. A personal best. What's Next? Socially-Enabled User Assistance, Interactive Documentation, and Location Aware Help View more presentations from Duo Consulting

Aging, Magic, Trivia, And Techy Topics Featured At Annual WritersUA Conference

April 5, 2011 Uncategorized No Comments

by Cheryl Landes, Founder, Tabby Cat Communications The first WritersUA conference I attended was in 1996 in Seattle, when it was known as WinWriters. I was a guest, thanks to taking an advanced RoboHelp class from Neil Perlin in conjunction with the conference. Back then, the topics were on the cutting edge—with seemingly endless enthusiastic discussions about tips on using help authoring tools (HATs) and the future of online help. As a relatively novice help writer at the time, my head swam with information, but I learned a lot that …

[Webinar] Collaborate Your Way to More Effective Customer Support: Friday, February 4, 2011 10:00 AM PST

January 31, 2011 Blog 1 Comment

Join Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, for a lively discussion with digital community advocate, Alan Porter about the changing face of customer support on the web. You’ll learn how innovative organizations are leveraging the power of collaborative authoring, user-generated content, social currency, feedback and ratings to improve customer service and support. You’ll discover the importance of collaborating with your customers to produce experiences that meet — even exceed — customer expectations. And, you’ll find out how collaborative support communities can help organizations create loyal customers, improve productivity, increase sales, and …

Hey AT&T! Buying Residential Telephone Service Shouldn’t Be This Hard

January 27, 2009 Blog 8 Comments

By Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler and The Content Wrangler Community For the most part, I love AT&T. I love that they were smart enough to join forces with Apple in launching the iPhone—the most successful mobile phone deal in history—and I love that they’ve learned how to provide some convenient customer-focused services (e.g. paying your bill from your mobile phone, receiving bills via email, ordering services online without the help of a customer service agent). Unfortunately, my love affair with AT&T ends there. The Offer: Residential Phone Service Recently, …

How a Normal Upgrade to Flash Player Ruined Two Days of My Life

July 22, 2008 Blog 2 Comments

By Bobby Lee, special to The Content Wrangler A hesitant purchase Our office recently purchased an upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite 3. We had held off on purchasing—and then installing—this software package because we work with a number of variable data printers, each with different production software. Many of our print partners were unable to accommodate InDesign CS3 package builds and unfortunately, Adobe CS3 did not allow us create backwards-compatible files in the CS2 format our partners required. Because our partners were still working to upgrade their variable data setup …

What Is Customer-Centric Content Management?

December 20, 2006 Blog No Comments

Ann Rockley answers the question, What is Customer-Centric Content Management?, in this December 2006 article in The Rockley Report.  Other articles in the issue include: Who Wants What Your CM Puts Out?, by Bob Boiko Six (Sigma) Reasons to Embrace Enterprise Content Management, by Emma Hamer

Customer Support Horrors: Verizon Reps Don’t Do Math

December 18, 2006 Blog 1 Comment

There’s been a lot of focus lately on improving customer-facing content. Managing the processes that govern such information is the purview of those who preach the customer-centric content management gospel. These professionals are busy. Very busy. Why? Because customer support needs fixed. In most organizations today, support is an island to itself—an inefficient and expensive silo where useful information is often difficult to find, retrieve and use. Providing an easy and efficient way for support representatives to add content to the knowledge base is one challenge. Alerting technical writing and …

37signals Fails To Deliver The Customer Service They Offer

June 9, 2006 Blog No Comments

37signals makes some really useful web-based software tools. I thought several of their products were so useful I took time to explore their website to learn more. They tempted me with cool, elegantly designed interfaces, and an offer to “get in touch”. I tried to take them up on their offer to chat via telephone. I sent them an email (actually three) requesting an appointment to discuss my needs. Each email garnered a reply— “we don’t provide any phone support, sales, etc. We’re entirely email based.” Then they encouraged me …

At Target.com “Customer Service” Remains a Mystery

June 7, 2006 Blog No Comments

Target.com is the online storefront for the popular discount brick-and-mortar retailer whose bullseye logo was recently deemed one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Unfortunately for online shoppers, finding a human being to assist you on the telephone at Target.com is next to impossible. A search of the “Help Center” for the term “customer service” yields less than desireable results. Advice to Target: Try making your toll-free customer support number available to your customers. Your customers “Expect More” and deserve it as well.

International Web Support Sites: How Does Yours Stack Up?

September 16, 2005 Blog No Comments

How does your web site rank among the top sites internationally? Would you like to find out? Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) and The Association of Support Professionals (ASP) are collaborating to produce the first Year’s Ten Best International Web Support Sites Awards Program. When you (or one of your customers) enter a web site into the competition, independent experts will provide detailed feedback on how well the site supports customers worldwide and what could be improved. And, if your site is selected as one of the Best International Web …

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