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88% of customers rely on user docs for purchasing decisions – who’s creating yours?

by George Lewis

Technical product information is a decisive factor for purchasing decisions. According to a survey from IBM, customers say that high-quality technical product information is an important factor in the perception of a company (84.5%), of the quality of a product (96.4%), and also in the initial purchasing decision (88.7%).

So how do you ensure that your technical product information is readily available to prospective customers and of a sufficiently high quality to represent your brand appropriately?

What is technical product information?

Product information tends to be seen as pre-sales information, such as the marketing collateral or part numbers. But it covers all information about a product required by people to operate, maintain, support as well as purchase the product.

The majority of the product information is consumed by a customer after they have bought the product,, for example, the getting started guide or a support site. This is typically the technical product information. And because customers interact with this content more than any other produced by the company, it has a strong influence on their perception of the company.

“A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%” – Leading on the Edge of Chaos, Emmet Murphy & Mark Murphy

Where do customers find technical product information?

Most customers trust the manufacturer’s website (61%) over other sources of product information, whereas only 5% indicate that video websites are their most trusted source of information. (www.sdl.com/cxm-survey)

So with 88.7% of customers using technical product information for their purchasing decisions, it makes sense to ensure that the technical product information is readily available on your website and of a sufficiently high quality to represent your brand.

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Who produces the technical product information?

Often the technical product information is left to the product manager or engineers.

Although these individuals do have the technical knowledge, they rarely have the skills to use the tools required to produce high-quality technical product information. This means they tend to use whatever tool is around – usually Microsoft Word.

So as well as frustrating customers with poor quality product information, staff are frustrated by being burdened with documenting the product using inappropriate tools.

Make the most of your technical product information

Companies that specialise in producing technical product information, like 3di Information Solutions, have the expertise and tools available to produce and distribute content to the people who need it, for example prospective customers, users, or support staff.

This can be achieved using methods such as:

  • Multi-channel publishing
  • Embedded content
  • Tailored guides
  • Support portals

So not only do your customers benefit from an improved experience, but prospective customers can also have access to the high-quality product information they rely on when making their purchasing decisions.

About the author

George works as 3di’s Service Delivery Director. Passionate about helping each individual team member reach their full potential. Outside of work George can be found cycling, reading books on business and psychology, as well as taking the odd trip to Spain or Germany.

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