The document discusses the importance of product instructions for customer experience. It provides research showing that most customers use product instructions but often find them confusing or unhelpful. This negatively impacts customers' confidence in products and likelihood of repeat purchases. The document recommends writing product instructions from a user-centric perspective using clear, concise language and supporting different learning styles through a mix of text, graphics, and other media. The goal is to address customers' main questions and provide an overall positive customer experience.

1. Sharon Burton
951-369-8590
Twitter: sharonburton
Sharon@sharonburton.com
www.sharonburton.com
Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp
Product instructions
The missing piece of the Customer Experience

2. Thank you for attending!
Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp
▪ Sharon Burton
▪ Been in the Communication industry
for 20 years
▪ I solve post-sales customer experience problems
▪ Research how people feel about product instructions
▪ Support clients in creating better product instructions
▪ Teach communication at various universities

3. Supporting role today…
▪ DCL is supporting us today
Tweet: #ClearWriting
▪ If you have questions, they will help you in the questions window
▪ Let’s say “Thank you” to Data Conversion Labs for hosting this
webinar

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▪ Reference
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▪ STM
▪ Technology
▪ Telecommunications
▪ Universities
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8. Quick Overview
Because we’re a mixed audience

9. Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp
We have a wonderful audience
▪ We have people from technical publications, marketing, and
customer experience
▪ I’m going to spend a bit of time introducing your fields to each
other up front
▪ It turns out, we’re all doing very related things

10. This is who we are and what we do
▪ Customer experience
▪ The sum of all experiences a customer has with a company
▪ cxpa.site-ym.com
▪ Marketing
▪ Communicated the value of a product or service to customers
▪ marketingpower.com
▪ Technical communication
▪ Create information about technical processes or products, typically
instructional
▪ stc.org

11. Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp
The cost of acquiring and
keeping customers
The place to start so we all have a common
language

12. Getting customers is expensive
It costs 6–7 times
more to acquire a
new customer
than retain an
existing one –
Bain & Company
▪ Customer Acquisition
Cost (CAC) is the cost of
convincing people to buy your
product or service
▪ Basically, it’s the total cost of
sales and marketing divided by
the customers you got
▪ B2C is typically less, B2B is
typically more

13. Losing customers is even more expensive
A 5% increase in
customer
retention can
increase
profitability by
75% —
Bain and Co
▪ Customer churn is customers
leaving from the back door as
you welcome new ones in the
front door
▪ Customer churn is one of the
most expensive things you can
have
▪ An entire industry exists to
analyze churn

14. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
The probability of
selling to an
existing customer
is 60 – 70%. The
probability of
selling to a new
prospect is 5-20%
—Marketing
Metrics
▪ Existing customers are already
engaged with your products or
services
▪ They have a lower cost to keep
▪ They should buy more stuff
▪ Higher lifetime value to the
business
▪ Can be your evangelists

15. Reduce return rate
The average U.S.
consumer spends
20 minutes trying
to make a device
work before giving
up and returning it
to the seller—
2006 study by
Dutch scientist
Elke den Ouden
▪ Returns have increased 21
percent since 2007, according
to a Accenture research report
(Dec 2011)
▪ 5% of returns are related to
actual product defects
▪ 27% reflect “buyer’s remorse”
▪ 68% of returned products are
“No Trouble Found”

16. Customer experience increases sales
81% of companies
…delivering
customer experience
excellence are
outperforming their
competitors —
Peppers and
Rogers, 2009
Customer
Experience Maturity
Monitor
▪ Customer experience is the
outcome of all of the touch
points that your customer has
with your organization *
▪ The perception that customers
have across all of their
interactions with your
organization *
▪ It’s a customer-centric view of
your company from every
touch point
* From Customer Experience Overview, 2011, Bruce Tempkin
and Jeanne Bliss

17. Customer experience is a big deal
Product
instructions are a
critical part of the
customer
experience. If
customers can’t
use the product,
you get a high
churn rate —
Sharon Burton
▪ Product instructions are the
central to the post-sales
customer experience
▪ Technical communication is a
subset of customer experience
▪ We have so much in common
▪ Tech comm is concerned with
the post-sales part

18. What do people think
about product instructions?
I have some answers
Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp

19. There’s just not a lot out there
You will get a link
in email tomorrow
to the free version
of the research
▪ I’ve run a poll the last 2 years
▪ Focused on consumers
▪ Surprisingly, there is just not a
lot of research into what
people think about product
instructions
▪ Everyone has an opinion,
though!

20. Use product instructions
About 91% of
customers use the
product
instructions

21. Doesn’t make sense
About 66% say
sometimes
product
instructions make
sense
1 in 3 don’t
understand your
instructions

22. Reflect on the product
51% worry the
rest of the product
was also skimped
on

23. Reduce confidence in the product
About 24% report
they don’t feel
confident about
the product
1 in 4

24. Wouldn’t purchase again
About 50%
wouldn’t purchase
from the company
again
Half your
customers

25. Angry and regretful
About 90% are
angry or regret
the purchase
when they can’t
use the
instructions

26. Defective or broken
About 25% feel
the product is
defective
1 in 4

27. Won’t pay more
About 66% won’t
pay more for
useful product
instructions

28. Clear instructions feel good
71% think the
company cares
about them
7 out of 10

29. What do we do?
Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp
How do we know if our product instructions are
any good? What do we look for?

30. Product-centric vs user-centric
Product User
The Widget was designed to… UsingWidget, you can…
The Widget returns a message. You see…
The Widget prints the report. Your report is printed
The Widget does… You can…
•People buy your product to solve issues
•Talk to your customers directly
•My favorite recent quote:
“No one wants an iron. They want wrinkle-free clothes.”

31. Active voice, present tense
Passive voice or future tense Active voice or present tense
The Widget will print the report. Your report prints.
These steps may prevent the brake
pedal from functioning.
During these steps, the brake pedal does not
work.
The email will be sent if a network is
found.
Your email is automatically sent the next time a
network is found.
The Widget will save the file. Your file is saved.
•Talk to your customers directly
•Future tense makes timing uncertain.
“Your report should print. We hope. Frankly, call us if it does. We
couldn’t get that to work for us.”

32. Appropriate for the audience
Specialized audience Consumer audience
Use the Windows authentication
mode to gain access to your
credentials.
On the Start menu, click Settings. Open the
Authentication folder and double-click
Credentials
The data transfer rate is determined
by the error checking algorithm used.
Sometimes your photos may not upload as fast
as other times. If your photos are too slow to
upload, try a faster internet connection if
available, such as at a coffee shop.
•Do NOT “dumb down” the information
•Understand your audience and speak appropriately to them
The average reading level in the US is 5th grade. If you are writing to
general consumers, write to that reading level.

33. Short – just short
▪ Short sentences are easier to understand
▪ Fewer ideas in a short sentence
▪ No more than 25 words per sentence
▪ Short paragraphs
▪ Paragraphs are groups of related sentences
▪ No more than 3 to 5 sentences per paragraph
▪ Short sections
▪ Sections are groups of related paragraphs
▪ No more than 3 to 5 paragraphs before a section heading

34. The 4 things you must cover*
▪ We know people read the instructions
▪ But not like a novel
▪ They don’t want to know how the story ends
▪ They want to know:
▪ “Why do I care?”
▪ “How do I…?”
▪ “What is it?”
▪ “Why did it do that?”
▪ Answer these 4 questions
* From Bonni Graham presentation “The 4 user questions”

35. Ways people consume information
▪ There are 4 ways people consume information
▪ Visual – pictures, line drawings, flow charts
▪ Auditory – sound, conversational writing
▪ Read/write – words, sentences, labels in pictures
▪ Kinesthetic (hands on) – touch, descriptive writing, texture in pictures
▪ Most people have a strong preference 2 or more
▪ Some people are only one
▪ Some rare people are all 4
▪ It is not true that because of [insert thing here], we all want
pictures or videos

36. Support all 4
▪ Steps to do tasks
▪ Graphical elements
▪ Conceptual graphics especially good
▪ Videos can be good
▪ Conversational writing style
▪ Podcasts especially good
▪ Textured word descriptions

37. Putting it together
So what does this all mean?
Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp

38. Customer Experience challenges
▪ CAC costs are high for most companies
▪ It’s cheaper and easier to sell to existing customers
▪ Reducing customer churn increases sales
▪ Customer experience is concerned with how a customer interacts with
a company across the board
▪ Customers use product instructions
▪ Product instructions impact the customer experience
▪ People are upset and angry with the quality of product instructions
▪ Clear and useful product instructions are a competitive advantage

39. Useful and helpful product instructions are:
▪ User focused, user-centric
▪ Active voice, present tense
▪ Appropriate to the audience
▪ Not as simple as possible or dumbed down
▪ Short sentences, short paragraphs, short sections
▪ Support all 4 information consumption modes
▪ Address the customer questions

40. Thank you!
Thoughts?
Comments?
Sharon Burton
951-369-8590
Twitter: sharonburton
Sharon@sharonburton.com
www.sharonburton.com
Tweet tag: #MissingCustExp