A recent literature review by Muhammad Waqas and friends found that the customer experience (CX) is a sprawling, multidimensional beast. It's cognitive! It's emotional! It's social! It's got mood swings!

But while firms spend money on influencers and create branded experiences that sparkle like sequins on a Vegas showgirl, they continue to treat content like the guy who parks the cars.

The Role of Content (Or, Why Your PDF Might Matter More Than Your Logo)

Let's say you've bought a smart home device that promises to connect your toaster to the cloud. You're excited until you open the box, and the instructions look like they were translated by a toaster. That's not a fantastic product experience—it's a customer experience catastrophe.

Your sleek brand image didn't just take a hit—it got derailed by a help document that cheerfully opened with:

"To initiate, caress the power button until enlightenment occurs."

That's not user guidance, it's a riddle in a meditation app.

That's because content is the experience. It's the thing customers interact with when they need answers. It's their silent partner in crime during a midnight troubleshooting session. It's the difference between "I got this!" and "I'm returning this."

From Stimulus to Sob Story

The researchers behind the review unpacked over two decades of CX literature and came to a rather humbling realization: customers aren't passive recipients of brand fairy dust. They co-create meaning.

And what helps them do that?

Content.

Great content supports customer meaning-making. It lets people make sense of your product in their own messy, beautiful way. It helps them feel empowered and understood, not like they're being punished for wanting to use your product without a PhD in interface design.

So What Should CX Leaders Do?

First, stop treating content like a neglected appendix—tacked on at the end, outdated, and quietly sabotaging your carefully crafted customer journey. Invest in it, elevate it, and give it a seat at the strategy table—preferably one without a sticky note that says "intern."

• Make content findable, usable, and enjoyable. Not "compliance-checked" enjoyable. Enjoyable.

• Connect your technical writers, marketers, and CX folks so they can create a consistent, empathetic experience.

• Let your documentation reflect your brand values—not just in tone, but in structure, accessibility, and clarity.

• Track how your content affects satisfaction, loyalty, and that mysterious "didn't call support" metric no one wants to discuss.

Getting Documentation Right: Your Secret Weapon

If we're serious about delivering exceptional customer experiences, we must realize that content is not background scenery. It's the dialogue, the choreography, the plot twist. It's when your customer decides whether they're in a story worth sticking with, or one they can't wait to leave behind.

So go ahead. Put your documentation center stage. Give your product information a standing ovation. And maybe, just maybe, your customers will give you one, too.

Cue the curtain. 🤠

All while battling the algorithm, the inbox, and the legal department.

But here's a little secret: Your technical documentation team—the folks who write the help articles no one claims to read? They're doing half your job already. And they're doing it well.

Let's Talk About Your Job

You want to:

• Attract people

• Keep them interested

• Make them trust you

• Get them to take action (buy, sign up, ask for a demo, tell a friend, whatever)

• Make your brand more visible

• Generate leads

• Keep customers happy

• Show up in search results without mortgaging your soul to Google

Now, let's talk about technical documentation. It does all of that, too.

Documentation Is Content Marketing For People Who Don't Want To Be Marketed To

Have you ever Googled a product question and landed on a help article that just got you?

It answered your question. It didn't try to upsell you. It was factual, well-organized, and surprisingly calming. That's documentation.

And guess what? That content often gets more traffic than your blog posts. Why? Because it's what people search for.

Think about it:

• "How do I connect X to Y?"

• "What's the difference between plan A and plan B?"

• "Can I cancel without crying?"

These are real questions asked by real humans with real intent. Your docs team is already writing answers. You, meanwhile, are trying to figure out how to turn a white paper into a TikTok.

Docs Build Trust The Slow, Boring Way (The Way That Works)

Documentation doesn't hype. It helps. And helping is what builds trust.

Marketing often tries to prove expertise by discussing innovation, leadership, and synergy. Docs prove expertise by telling you exactly which button to push and what happens if you push the wrong one. That's trust, baby.

Want to be seen as a thought leader? Link to the doc. Better yet, be the doc.

Self-Service = Self-Sell

Here's the part where it gets juicy: good documentation sells—but in disguise.

When someone finds your documentation, they're already halfway down the funnel. They're not wondering if they need a solution. They're wondering if your solution will work for them. And your help content is the difference between "add to cart" and "back to search."

SEO Without The Sadness

Docs rank. They do. Long-tail queries. Voice search. "I'm about to rage-quit" moments. Documentation is there, whispering calm instructions while your beautifully branded landing page flails in a sea of bounce rates.

Your tech docs team uses structured content. Metadata. Schema. All the things search engine optimization (SEO) pros love, are already baked in. You don't have to teach them—just copy their homework (with permission, please).

Retention, Loyalty, And The Magical Land Of "I Figured It Out Myself"

Want to improve customer retention? Make people feel smart. When they solve their own problems using your documentation, they feel powerful, capable, and like they've leveled up.

That feeling is sticky. It's also the foundation of customer loyalty.

You could send them a nurture email or give them a search bar that actually works. It's your choice.

So… Now What?

Talk to your documentation team. Bring coffee. Ask to see what content gets the most traffic. Ask the team what customers complain about. Ask them if they'll help you turn that dry but brilliant troubleshooting guide into something you can use upstream.

They've already built the library. You just need to put it in the front window.

Taking Advantage of Content Marketing’s Sensible Cousin

Content marketing doesn't have to do everything alone. Technical documentation is content marketing's shy, sensible cousin—who writes the manual, remembers a laundry list of style guide rules, and never brags about being right (even when they usually are).

It's time you collaborated.

You scroll, click, scroll some more, and finally type something unhinged like, "WHY CAN'T I F*CKIN' SPEAK TO A HUMAN?" into the search bar. If you're lucky, this meltdown might summon a chatbot that understands English well enough to direct you to a telephone support number—the unholy grail of customer experience.

The Digital Gatekeepers

Let's address the obvious: Companies don't hide their contact information to foster a sense of adventure. They do it because they believe that if they make it hard enough, you'll either give up or figure it out alone, leaving them to sip their metaphorical piña coladas. At the same time, you wrestle with questions that are allegedly asked frequently and written by someone who has little understanding of your needs.

When the Human Touch Matters

The problem with this hide-and-seek game is that sometimes you must speak to someone. You know, someone who can hear the panic in your voice when you're trying to get a refund for the mystery charge that appeared on your bank statement. Sure, there's live chat, but let's be honest: if the conversation starts with "Hi! I'm Bot-73! How can I help you today?" you're already at a disadvantage.

Hiding Isn't Helping

Here's the kicker: Hiding contact options doesn't decrease support requests. It just annoys customers. It's like putting a maze between your front door and living room and expecting your guests to be thrilled with the obstacle course. People still call — except they are now angrier than they were initially.

You thought they were frustrated? Wait until they spend 40 minutes on hold only to hear they're in the wrong queue.

The Myth of the "Efficient" Support Model

There's a corporate logic to this madness, of course. Some companies think that forcing you to navigate a labyrinth of self-service options promotes "efficiency." What they're promoting is a spike in your blood pressure. Meanwhile, they boast about "streamlining" support, ignoring the screaming hordes begging for a human voice on the other end of the line.

Why Accessibility Matters

Imagine this: You're trying to report a fraudulent charge or cancel a subscription, and the only way to reach the company is by sending a carrier pigeon. Not much better than navigating an unmarked website. Real accessibility means offering contact options that respect people's varying needs and technological skills. Not everyone wants to type their life story into a chatbox or wait for an email response that arrives next Tuesday.

Customer Loyalty Is Fragile

Suppose you have tried to contact your cell phone provider and ended up in a queue that feels like a lifetime sentence. In that case, you know that hiding support options isn't just inconvenient—it's a betrayal. Customers remember. And when a competitor makes it easy to call them, they might take their business (and their simmering resentment) elsewhere.

The Gist: Make It Easy

Building lasting customer relationships is impossible when your organization treats customer support like a game of Whac-A-Mole.

Make it easy to call, chat, or email. Don't make us channel our inner detective just to find help. Nothing says "we value your business" quite like giving people the dignity of human connection—without the digital scavenger hunt.

The Content Wrangler, in collaboration with AvenueCX, surveyed 400 technical documentation professionals to understand how businesses manage and deliver self-service support content. The research explored current trends, technologies, and content strategies shaping customer support's future.

We'll explore how self-service documentation is evolving, the role of advanced technologies like AI, XML, and CCMS, and why seamless, omnichannel experiences are becoming critical to both B2B and B2C companies. If you're a technical writer, content strategist, or anyone interested in elevating customer experiences through well-designed support content, this episode is for you. 

Coffee and Content is brought to you by The Content Wrangler and is sponsored by Heretto, a powerful component content management system (CCMS) platform for deploying help and #API documentation in a single portal designed to delight your customers. 

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At the ConVEx 2024 conference in Minneapolis, I shared findings from the 2024 Heretto State of Self-Service Support Survey. While the survey uncovered a variety of interesting data points, I zeroed in on the discovery I found most surprising:

The teams most frequently responsible for owning self-service customer support strategy are not typically those you might expect.

It may seem counterintuitive, but the teams most often tasked with overseeing self-service customer support strategy are not content professionals like technical writers.

Which Teams Are Most Likely To Be Responsible For Self-Service Customer Support Strategy?

According to the 2024 Heretto State of Self-Service Support Survey, the task of overseeing self-service customer support strategy is most often not led by content professionals.

Instead, these responsibilities typically fall under the:

• Customer Experience (CX) Department — 38% of the time, CX leads the charge, tasked with ensuring the overall satisfaction and engagement of customers. While they may excel at mapping customer journeys and understanding user needs, they may lack the specialized skills to create the detailed, helpful content that users require when they seek help.

• IT Department — 21% of the time, IT teams handle the technical backend of self-service platforms, such as maintaining the knowledge base software and ensuring data security. However, their focus is usually more on the technology behind self-service support rather than on crafting user-friendly self-service support content.

• Customer Support Department — 12% of the time, customer support leads self-service strategy. While they are typically directly engaged with resolving customer issues, support teams are usually more focused on direct interaction than on developing extensive documentation strategies allowing customers to help themselves. They sometimes are responsible for creating knowledge base articles and other content to provide to consumers who contact the support team for help.

Curiously, technical writers, the professionals most skilled at creating clear, useful documentation, are only responsible for these tasks 8% of the time. This mismatch between content strategy skill sets and responsibilities may lead to suboptimal self-service experiences.

Request a copy of the 2024 Heretto State of Self-Service Support Survey report.

The Case for Technical Writers

Technical writers specialize in communicating complex information clearly and effectively. They are trained to write instructional content that helps users understand and solve problems on their own; the essence of self-service. They are also no strangers to content strategy — with the discipline producing some of the world’s most sought-after content strategy experts.

Here are a few reasons why technical writers might be the best fit for leading self-service content initiatives:

• Clear Communication: Technical writers have the expertise to create content that is easily understandable, reducing the cognitive load on users and helping them resolve issues more quickly.

• User-Centered Design: Tech writers are adept at designing information strategically so it aligns with how users search for and process information. This is crucial in self-service environments where the goal is to enable users to quickly find answers.

• Content Management Skills: Technical writers are also skilled in managing the content lifecycle, ensuring that information is up-to-date, relevant, and easy to navigate.

Integrating Technical Writers into Self-Service Strategies

To leverage the full benefits of technical writers in creating self-service content, organizations might consider the following strategies:

1. Empower Technical Writers as Project Leads: Giving technical writers the authority to lead self-service content projects can help ensure that the content meets high standards of clarity and utility.

2. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Establish a workflow that involves customer experience, IT, and customer support departments collaborating with technical writers. Each team can contribute their unique insights and strengths, while technical writers ensure the content is well-crafted, structured, and effective.

3. Continuous Feedback and Improvement: Implement systems to gather user feedback specifically on self-service content, and use this data to continually refine the content experience, with technical writers playing a key role in this process.

While the customer experience, IT, and customer support departments play significant roles in the management of self-service platforms, entrusting technical writers with the responsibility of creating self-service content strategies could greatly enhance the quality and effectiveness of these resources.

As companies look to improve their self-service offerings, reevaluating the role of technical writers could be a key step in developing truly exceptional customer experiences.

Request a copy of the 2024 Heretto State of Self-Service Support Survey report.