{"id":94,"date":"2005-11-10T08:02:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-10T08:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/?p=94"},"modified":"2005-11-10T08:02:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-10T08:02:00","slug":"10-ways-to-please-us-the-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/10-ways-to-please-us-the-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Ways to Please Us, the Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"

NYT published this list<\/a>. I thought the ones below might ring a bell to all you tech writers out there:
\n<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> Thou shalt hire native English speakers to translate thine instruction manual. “When the camera focus is not so possible, hold the shutter button vaguely until the beeping tone is heard.” Is that really how your company wants to address customers?
\n
Talk about New Math. You’ll spend millions of dollars developing some breakthrough gizmo, but won’t spring for somebody to rewrite your manual in proper English? I know some high schoolers who’d do the job for $50 and 10 free ring tones. <\/p>\n

VI.<\/strong> Thou shalt not hide from thy customers. If you’ve designed your product properly and provided a decent manual in English, you ought to have nothing to hide; there should be very little reason to worry that we, the masses, will jam your phone lines asking for help.
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks King!<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/map>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NYT published this list. I thought the ones below might ring a bell to all you tech writers out there: II. Thou shalt hire native English speakers to translate thine instruction manual. “When the camera focus is not so possible, hold the shutter button vaguely until the beeping tone is heard.” Is that really how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[195],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"NYT published this list. I thought the ones below might ring a bell to all you tech writers out there: II. Thou shalt hire native English speakers to translate thine instruction manual. “When the camera focus is not so possible, hold the shutter button vaguely until the beeping tone is heard.” Is that really how…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gbk8-1w","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":256,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/11\/10-ways-to-please-us-the-customers-via-new-york-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":0},"title":"10 Ways to Please Us, the Customers (via New York Times)","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"November 10, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"VII. Thou shalt remember the customer's phone number. This means you, computer and cellphone companies. We call for help; we're asked to type in our 10-digit phone numbers or 20-digit customer numbers; then when an agent picks up, we're asked for that number again. What - did you think we\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":119,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/the-personable-manual\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":1},"title":"The Personable Manual","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"February 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Why do product manuals sound formal and stiff-upper-lipped? Why don\u2019t users read manuals? These questions have haunted the hallowed precincts of Technical Writing for quite some time now. From what I have seen in Indian writers, I am forced to conclude that English Composition, as we were taught in school,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"manual\"","block_context":{"text":"manual","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/manual\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":569,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2004\/09\/call-centers-should-we-hide-behind-an-accent\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":2},"title":"Call Centers: Should we hide behind an accent?","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"September 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Will Kelly wrote on his blog: In a deep Hindi accent, the customer service rep identified herself with a spanish name! I guess they finally realize since the myth that Indian call center reps speak perfect English indistinguishable from American English has long since been a joke to anybody common\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":113,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/my-stc-india-annual-conference-2007-slides\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":3},"title":"My STC India Annual Conference 2007 Slides","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"October 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Contingency design does not figure much in conversations amongst technical communicators. In these conversations, the emphasis is usually on the almighty manual. However, oftentimes, customers read error messages before they even think of opening a product's manual. In this presentation, Suman Kumar introduces the key area of contingency design and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"contingency design\"","block_context":{"text":"contingency design","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/contingency-design-user-experience\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":996,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/i-will-be-talking-at-the-stc-annual-conference-in-goa-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":94,"position":4},"title":"I will be talking at the STC Annual Conference in Goa","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"August 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Contingency design does not figure much in conversations amongst technical communicators. In these conversations, the emphasis is usually on the almighty manual. However, oftentimes, customers read error messages before they even think of opening a product's manual. 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