Contributors
@jamaicawinshipgmail-com @andreea-macoveiciuc-content-expert @danielisler1gmail-com
Business Benefits
Increase customer satisfaction and reduce the burden on customer service.
Decide what you want your product help area to facilitate, like customer support contact, community assistance and interaction, or access to product documentation.
Your goals will depend in part on your specific product, your audience and its needs or preferences, as well as the size and capacity of your product and customer support teams.
Choose a primary method of providing technical support to customers.
Regardless of the goals of your product help area, all product help areas need to provide your customers with a way to get in touch with you. Technical support options may include:
- Calling your team
- Emailing your team
- Interacting on social media
- Submitting a help ticket
- Logging on to live chat.
Decide how you’ll create and maintain the product help area, like website pages, dedicated documentation software, or an online CMS and live chat platform.
In many cases, a product help area can simply live on your website as its own dedicated page or section, with all of your pre-existing site design and UX. However, if you if you manage a large enterprise with dozens of different products and services, you may need a dedicated platform specifically designed for creating large amounts of technical documentation.
Examples of third-party platforms that help you to design, manage and operate a product help ecosystem include:
- Zendesk
- Salesforce
- LiveAgent
- Front
- TeamSupport
Review and test three or four options to find one that best fits your needs.
Build your documentation and content by consulting data trends on your customers’ most-asked queries and support requests, and answering them.
If you already have manuals and help documents, now is a good time to review them and ensure they reflect the needs of your current audience.
Consider:
- Key features in your product and how to use them.
- Common issues and problems, and how to address them.
- Use case scenarios, and how to navigate them.
- The most commonly asked questions submitted to your team.
Let the product team lead this process with the customer service team. Ask them to identify the topics, scenarios and questions that need to be addressed. Pass these on to your content team or an outsourced writer so they can create content.
Promote your product help area on your website and relevant customer communications, including customer service scripts, emails, and printed material.
Last edited by @hesh_fekry 2023-11-14T15:10:55Z