As a Technical Writer, we cannot forget about writing for the Call Center teams who have to answer to clients, buyers, or users of a product or application. They have to be patient, understanding, knowledgeable, and diplomatic. To assist them, the Technical Writer has to be able to create the materials needed by them. Training material, marketing material, analytical check lists, request forms all have to be created by the Technical Writer with the Call Center respondent’s profession in mind.
Call Center personnel need to be kept up-to-date on all products. To accomplish that, we can have training sessions, and to maintain communication, we can send out notification updates.
For notification updates, the following should be included:
- Version #, ISBN #, or any distinct code that distinguishes which product or application being affected,
- previous function vs. the new,
- new benefits, advantages, improvements,
- solution to problems, relevance, purpose, etc.
For training sessions, include:
- within the script the demonstration and explanation of all major components or facets that constitute the product or application.
- emphasis of what the product or application can or cannot do and especially what should not be done to prevent problems.
- a review of what is in the Appendix section to ensure that the glossary of terms and definitions are understood.
For the training packet:
- Include a diagram of the product or application.
- Create a highlighted features section that shows the products benefits and advantages, and especially what was requested from previous customers.
- Show a flowchart of the major stages of assembly of the product, or the major views of the application.
- Show an image of the major features of the product or the major elements of the application.
- Include a Resolution section containing a checklist of questions to ask in order to resolve the issue, e.g.,
– How long have you had the product or application?
– What steps led to the problem?
Ask questions from as simple as ‘is the product plugged in’ to ‘what was the sequence of steps taken’. - Create a section with diagrams depicting a bunch of frequent scenarios or questions and responses and use arrows pointing to the next question to ask depending on what the prior response was. For each scenario, you should end up with something similar to a hierarchy diagram. A hierarchy diagram is shaped like a pyramid or triangle where one point at the top leads to a wider base on the bottom. But instead of a solid form, you’ll be creating text boxes containing questions and responses and will depict how one response leads to another question or resolution.
- Include a section that lists all unresolved issues or problems that occurred during the testing phase of a product or application and indicate to whom the problem should be directed to or notified and create a response that will show the problem is known and is currently being corrected.
I think one of the most difficult jobs is being a Call Center respondent. If you have any more suggestions for the Call Center team, please leave a comment.
Gail Zack Anderson, President of Applause, Inc., has nearly 20 years experience in training and coaching. She
provides individual presentation coaching, and leads effective presentation workshops and effective trainer workshops.
Theresa Pojuner is a Documentation Specialist with over 20 years of writing experience and is skilled in many areas of documentation, for example, Style Guides, Training Manuals and Test Cases, wth a specialty n Technical Writing and Procedures.