How Technical Communication Helps Companies Grow

by Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp — all-in-one help authoring tool

Some think of technical communication as an inconvenient necessity. But if you make a strategic focus on tech communication it can transform your business. Mainly, the value of technical communication focuses on how it can save company money. Yes, technical communication can reduce costs:

• well-thought product training and help materials reduce the need for the user to contact the support desk;
• well-written manuals protect the business from litigation;
• sometimes technical communicators are considered as a cheaper alternative to expensive technical specialists.

However, these aren’t very persuasive arguments for investing in good quality technical writing. Good product information is essential for sales and marketing, it increases customers’ loyalty, best practices help employees do their jobs better.

Marketing and Sales

Traditionally, information about a product in manuals, help sites, and knowledge bases have been considered relevant only after the purchase and hasn’t been used in marketing and sales strategies. But present days showed that this view should be shifted as a response to changes in the way people buy goods.

Customer behavior has influenced modern marketing greatly. Nowadays, buyers are more informed and view brands through every interaction they have. Tech writers provide an online presence for a product that is now used before purchase. A user sees a product in search, and it is sometimes more effective than advertising at making customers aware a product exists. Through accurate, clear, and well-presented content, tech communicators can persuade customers that this product is worth spending money on.

User Experience

Customer experience is big news in organizational management circles, and with the prevalence of good examples from Apple or Amazon, customers’ expectations are increasingly high. Quality experiences are essential to attracting potential customers, making the sale, and retaining customers.

Technical communication is in the middle of customer experience. It is one of the very solid ways in which a customer interacts with a product — by reading the manual, following a tutorial, or referring to the help when they’re getting to know the product.

The value of customer experience doesn’t just apply to consumer products. Plenty of research suggests that business-to-business products and services also benefit from improved customer experience.

Technical communication habits are the essential basis of positive customer experiences. For businesses to achieve excellence in customer experience, these skills need to be applied across all content.

Best Practices to Improve Employees’ Experience

Employee engagement is a significant factor in customer experience. When the company is small, no one needs to write anything down, but when the company grows, new employees have poor access to information such as how a product works or why it’s set up in a particular way for a customer.

This is why a first recommendation is often to create a high-level, agreed product description. Even more, mature organizations can suffer from loss of quality due to gaps in knowledge.

Good communication is essential for getting things done or for cost reduction.

Access to structured technical documentation enables teams to set up the product reliably, training is reduced, and the capacity of experts is increasing.

Have a nice day!

Bradley Nice, Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — best online documentation tool for SaaS vendors