The total customer experience is critical to the success of a company; it relates tightly to customer loyalty and increased sales. Companies with better customer experience see their revenues improve through increased spending from existing customers and reduced customer churn. Product instructions are part of the Use cycle of the customer experience but how do you know if they are meeting the needs of your customers? Learn more about: • What your customers think about your product instructions: o 95% of your customers are using the product instructions o 71% of your customers think if the instructions are confusing or incomplete, the overall quality of the product is poor o 71% of your customers think clear instructions means a company cares about them • What good product instructions include and why • 5 signs your product instructions are hurting the customer experience

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

2. Thank you for attending!
▪ 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
Tweet tag:
#ForgottenCustExp

3. 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
Tweet tag:
#ForgottenCustExp

4. 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

5. The cost of acquiring and
keeping customers
The place to start
Tweet tag:
#ForgottenCustExp

6. Getting customers is expensive
It costs 6–7 times
more to acquire a
new customer
than retain an
existing one –
Bain & Company
▪ CustomerAcquisition
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

7. Keeping customers
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

8. Upsell/resell rates
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

9. 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 aAccenture research report
(Dec 2011)
▪ 5% of returns are related to
actual product defects
▪ 27% reflect “buyer’s remorse”
▪ 68% of returned products are
“NoTrouble Found”

10. 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, BruceTempkin
and Jeanne Bliss

11. 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

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

13. 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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

24. Product-centric vs user-centric
Product User
TheWidget was designed to… UsingWidget, you can…
TheWidget returns a message. You see…
TheWidget prints the report. Your report is printed
TheWidget 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.”

25. Active voice, present tense
Passive voice or future tense Active voice or present tense
TheWidget 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.
TheWidget will save the file. The 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.”

26. Appropriate for the audience
Specialized audience Consumer audience
Use theWindows 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.

27. 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

28. 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 BonniGraham presentation “The 4 user questions”

29. 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

30. 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

31. Putting it together
So what does this all mean?
Tweet tag:
#ForgottenCustExp

32. In sum
▪ 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

33. 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

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