The state of technical communication

by Ron Arner

(Editor's note: As the new managing editor of Technicalities, I am both excited and apprehensive--excited at the opportunity to expand my own horizons as a technical communicator, and apprehensive because I want to help you expand your horizons as well. To do this, I need your feedback. Let me know what you think of each issue of Technicalities; email your compliments, criticisms, or article ideas to news@stcrmc.org.)

Technical communicators are undervalued in today's business world. From advertising to customer service, technical communicators hold the keys to more effective relations with both clients and customers. These keys could open vital doors, providing companies with shelter from our stormy economic climate.

Technical communicators improve the quality of communication at a company. They may do this in the Marketing department, as web designers, as technical writers, or in numerous other positions. Communication is defined on infoplease.com as "(the) transfer of information, such as thoughts and messages, as contrasted with transportation, the transfer of goods and persons." In the business world any contact outside or inside the company involves communication, and bad communication creates a never-ending cycle of missed opportunities, confusing situations, and lost revenue. Unfortunately, as many of us know, business leaders have been cutting their technical communication budgets, which is only contributing to the recession, not solving it.

Let me share an experience I recently had that felt more like transportation than communication. My experience was the "typical" customer service experience many companies feel is acceptable, and one I'm sure you can all relate to.

Last fall I decided to sell my one bedroom condominium to upgrade to something larger. One step in the process was a seemingly simple task, the transfer of my phone service to my new home. This task turned out to be a little more complicated than usual because I did not have a new home selected before I had to move out of my condominium, and I could not transfer service at the same time that my old phone line was turned off.

The first time I called my local phone provider, a very nice customer service representative told me that the lack of a new address wasn't a problem. My phone number would not be reissued to someone else for three months; in fact, if I preferred I could retain my phone number as a voicemail line only (for $11 a month) until I found a new place. I thought having a voicemail line was a good idea, and agreed to sign up for one of these "message only" lines.

Eventually, I closed on a new house and called my phone provider to transfer my old number to my new address in a different city. I was told I would have to change numbers since I was moving to a new city, that all calls to the old number would get a recording giving out the new number, and that in order to re-activate a land line with caller ID I would be charged $40 in activation fees. "FORTY DOLLARS!?!" (I wanted to jump through the phone.) I reminded myself that the person on the other end of the phone was merely quoting policy and had no way to waive the fees. I contemplated asking to speak to a supervisor, knowing if I argued long enough I might avoid paying what I felt was an outrageous charge, but ended the call instead, angry and frustrated.

It wasn't really the money that mattered, it was the principle of the thing. Why hadn't the first agent mentioned anything about the fee to switch back to a land line? Maybe I had just misunderstood the second agent, and the $40 fee was charged in the case of any transfer of service. Maybe I should have stressed to the second agent that my message-only line was less than a month old and had only been activated to keep my number "alive" until I found a new place to live. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to contact the company again and ask that the $40 charge be waived. Then I had a brilliant technical communicator idea: Why not check out the phone company's Website to find an explanation of their fees and policies?

Well, I couldn't believe how little information was available on the Website. Everything seemed to be an advertisement for a service I wasn't looking for. Even the most basic search with the words "move service" did not shed any light on my problem.

Finally the day came for someone to throw the $40 switch at the phone company, and by this time I was so angry I didn't trust anything about what the second customer service agent had done, so I called my old number just to make sure any calls were getting a forwarding number as I was promised they would. But, ironically, calls to the old number were incorrectly getting the "disconnected or no longer in service" recording-which gave me an excuse to call them right up, get the proper recording on the line, and save myself $40.

I had all my arguments ready when courteous customer service agent number three came on the line. She quickly fixed the problem with the incorrect recording on the old phone number, and then asked if there was anything else she could help me with. At last, the moment I'd been waiting for. I told her about the conversation with the previous agent, and asked if I was being charged $40 because I was switching from a voicemail only to a land line, or if that was the standard transfer fee for any move. She replied that it was a standard charge, that I would have been charged the fee to start service at a new address under any circumstance. All my confusion and frustration due to the miscommunication with the second agent subsided, and I decided to drop the issue altogether now that I knew I wasn't spending $40 erroneously. I was completely happy simply because I had received the correct information.

How could a technical communicator have resolved this issue in a more timely and cost-effective manner? Admittedly, a technical communicator does not have direct control over the actual interaction between a customer service agent and a customer; however, they can influence the agent's training process, the company's Intranet, and practically everything an employee would encounter before actually dealing with a customer. And of course the Website was obviously a missed communication opportunity.

We can only hope that businesses will realize how vital good communication and the technical communicators who can provide it are to their success. In the meantime, if you need to show how much your skills are worth, here's a little exercise: add up the cost of one missed communication opportunity per day for the company, multiply it by 365 days a year, and then show them what their annual return on investment will be in hiring you. Better communication will increase their profits, and they'll be sure to remember you were the one responsible for their success!