Technical Writers: The Unsung Heroes of Customer Experience
Technical writers are the glue that holds the customer experience together
When was the last time you purchased a product or service and had questions about how to use it? Perhaps you searched for answers on the web, but the information you found was confusing, incomplete, or outdated. Or maybe you tried contacting the customer support call center, only to be put on hold for hours or transferred from one representative to another — or worse.
If you've ever been in this situation, you know how frustrating it can be. But did you know that a group of professionals work tirelessly to ensure that consumers can easily find answers to their questions and have a positive customer experience? They are technical writers — the unsung heroes of customer experience.
Technical writers are responsible for creating technical documentation that helps consumers understand how to use a product or service. Documentation can take many forms, including user manuals, online help systems, onboarding information, community content, video tutorials, and knowledge base articles. Tech writers aim to provide clear and concise instructions that consumers need to succeed.
But technical writers do much more than just write step-by-step procedures. Increasingly, they are expected to be experts in information architecture, content design, usability, findability, taxonomy, accessibility, content strategy, and optimizing the content lifecycle. They work closely with product designers, developers, and customer support teams to ensure the documentation is accurate, up-to-date, and meets the target audience's needs.
In short, technical writers are the glue that holds the customer experience together. They ensure that customers can easily find the information they need to use a product or service and that it is presented clearly, concisely, and easily understood.
Without technical writers, the customer experience would be chaotic and confusing.
Despite their importance, technical writers are often overlooked and undervalued. Many people assume that creating documentation is straightforward, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Technical writing requires a unique set of skills and expertise, and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to create documentation that genuinely meets the needs of consumers.
Not everyone undervalues the work of technical writing pros. The Academy Awards of the Web — The CODiE Awards — added a new category to their annual effort to recognize the best of the web. The new category, Best Knowledge Center/Help Site, was added to the awards in 2023. Reltio’s documentation portal (see above) was a finalist in the 2023 contest.
So, the next time you use a product or service and find the documentation helpful and easy to understand, take a moment to thank the technical writers who made it possible. They are unsung customer experience heroes and deserve recognition and appreciation.
I feel like this should be required reading for professional writing majors. Technical means something!
Thank you for the recognition.