Product instructions are neglected as part of the customer journey, but shouldn’t be: they are a vital and important touch point that can bolster or lay waste to your brand values.
We’ve put together the 5 Steps on instructional success to make sure your product instructions deliver for your customers and your business.
Provide a great experience
Most companies put a lot of effort into their sales & marketing materials and yet when the customer finally gets the product in their hand a lot of that work is negated with a PDF folded 16 times that needs a magnifying glass to look at?
What to focus on:
- Create a great customer experience with product instructions in formats that reflect how consumers consume content. Which means make your instructions great on mobile!
- Videos are always helpful to motivate and give context, but you shouldn’t rely on video as your only tool, as you are offering a continuous stream of content for an activity that is inherently stop-start.
Speak your customers’ language
Nothing says I don’t care about international users like searching for instructions and only finding them in English. With online distribution it’s easier than ever to sell your product around the world and many companies are doing so, but 76% of people prefer products with information in their own language, yet lots of companies do not have their product instructions translated in the markets they are selling.
What to focus on:
The things you do in English, are the things you need to do in other languages:
- Good quality instructions for a great user experience.
- Findable content so customers can find your instructions in search in their language.
- Shareable content so that customers can share easily, and distributors and sales partners can use it without friction.
Don’t rely on the PDF
Your PDF isn’t working. It’s challenging to get the printed instructions in the box, they can’t be updated once in there and there are too many production comprises when creating them, resulting in something that is often useless for the end user.
What to focus on:
- Put all your instructions on the web, a centralized place where customers can find any instructions.
- Have an instruction specific domain or sub-domain and print both the URL and the QR code on your boxes.
- Give users the opportunity to use the instructions online, or let them download a printable version in their language. Yes, a PDF, but optimized for customers to understand – big letters, big text, big images.
Publish Instructions everywhere
If you have good instructions, then communicate that as much as possible.
What to focus on:
- Put product instructions on your product pages and reduce returns by showing ease of setup & use.
- Let distributors and other sales partners use you instructions and user manuals as a sales tool, in their languages.
Create a real process and iterate
Ownership of the instruction / user manual creation process can vary from company to company. Whether it belongs to marketing, product or client services it needs to have a name next to it.
What to focus on:
- Once you are clear on who owns the instructions / user manual creation process, be clear on who the other stakeholders are and when they should get involved.
- For maximum efficiency, try and find a tool where the creation, translation & publication can be done together.
- Gather and act on feedback, just as you would other parts of your business.
Checklist
Product instructions and user manuals should be integrated as important touch points of your customer journey.
To keep your customers happy, focus on delivering a great experience, especially on mobile. Make sure your instructions are available in all the languages your customers speak. Instead of relying on outdated PDFs, ensure that your instructions are easily accessible online, whether on your website or through search engines. It’s also important to have a clear process for creating and updating instructions, with someone responsible for it and a way to gather and act on feedback.
Use our 5 Steps as a checklist to see how your company is doing:
- Provide a great experience
Do you provide a great experience (especially on mobile)? - Speak your customers language
Do you have instructions in all the languages that you have customers? - Don’t rely on the PDF
Do you rely on PDFs in the box that haven’t been updated since who knows when? - Publish instructions everywhere
Are your instructions easily available on your website and in google search? - Create a real process
Are you clear on who owns the instruction creation process and how feedback is acted upon?
StepAlong can help you create, publish and manage better product instructions and user manuals. Contact us for a conversation today.
