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With the holidays upon us, it’s time to think about giving. You probably know what to give your co-workers, best friend, or partner. But have you thought about what to give your customers this season?
As a customer yourself — of computers, smartphones, airline tickets, banks, cakes, you name it — what is it that you like to receive most? Great customer service, sure. A good bargain, yes. But confusion, unanswered questions, and needing to reach out to customer support out of hair-pulling frustration? Of course not!
The greatest gift you can give your customers is clear answers to their questions. The best way to do that is with an incredible content experience.
“Content” might sound trivial or simply words that anyone can write, but think about the last time you tried to follow instructions to put together a new chair or bookshelf, but the steps to do so didn’t make sense. Or worse, a page, picture, or important message was missing from the instructions, which led to more problems, wasted time, and caused silent or explosive cursing. Did you want to give your hard earned money to that business again? Probably not.
Salesforce takes content experience seriously. We invest in a team named Content Experience, which employs hundreds of content creators across the globe. Each one works behind the scenes with developers, product managers, and user experience designers to craft a variety of content — user interface text, feature callouts, videos, graphics, online help, release notes, trails, and more — to predict and prevent customer confusion. Since content experience is more of an art than a science, we don’t always prevent confusion. (We’re sorry!) But like other artists, we constantly revise our drafts based on feedback and aim for the impossible: perfection.
What are some strategies your team can use to reach this goal?
Integrate content creators into product. From day one, our new hires participate in training that emphasizes the importance of content creators. Everyone in product development learns that the writers on their teams are like embedded journalists, who from the start of the design process through the end of the coding cycle, ask tough questions about feature behavior and suggest ways to solve problems with content by adding popups, walkthroughs, interactive tutorials, and more. The training specifies that great content increases customer satisfaction and feature adoption, and reduces customer attrition and support cases.
Clarify customers’ content needs with personas and user research. Content Experience partners with the User Research and User Experience (UX) teams at Salesforce to observe product testing and to better understand what customers require for success. We note any challenges, then act as customer advocates, and assist with intuitive designs that give customers the right content, in the right place, at the right time. Data and insights about customers from testing and research are transformed into personas, semi-fictional characters representing customers. They help us write content that speaks directly to the target audience, including you!
Personas: Deanna the Developer and Philip the Problem Solver.
| 3. | Use metrics as a source of truth and a reality check. Creators or strategists can think that their content is making customers happy, but facts are better than hunches. Every piece of content we produce is tracked by page views, button clicks, and submitted feedback and suggestions. We follow customer comments on Twitter, IdeaExchange, the Trailblazer Community, and elsewhere to ensure that our content produces clarity, not headaches. This past year, the online Help alone received 96 million views and saved Salesforce $56 million in support costs — definitely not pocket change. | ||||
| 4. | Tell stories and turn up the fun. To make content catchy and messages stickier, we throw on our creativity hats. Each writer is coached to stretch the limits of language and wrap business scenarios into unique stories for memorability. After all, who wants to read boring technical content? From error messages to release notes, our voice and tone is named “fun-gaging” for a reason: to help you have fun and feel engaged as you learn about Salesforce. |
This holiday season, you can send your customers a fruit basket, a gift certificate, or a discount on your product or services. But for your business, there are no holidays. Customers can come and go as they please. Customers (and your competition) have options, and they — like you — are likely to choose the best experience for the most reasonable price presented to them. Whether or not you’re speaking directly to your customers, they’re having a conversation with your content. Is your content answering their questions? If not, your customers may seek a gift exchange or refund.
Want to learn more about what makes a killer content strategy? Read here.
