Netflix shows great attention to detail

This is cool. I never complained, but they recognized they were having technical difficulties, that I experienced them, that I was new to the service, and they sent me an email. Not only that, but they are going to extend my free trial for a day. Smartly, they make me click a link to do that, so not just everyone automatically gets it. But when I clicked the link, I didn’t even need to sign in to my account, just got a screen that said my credit was applied.

Nice job, Netflix.

I used to like messages like this…

And I still do the first time I see them. Maybe even the second. Then, I start thinking “Just tell me what I need to know.”

Your browser closed unexpectedly. Do you want to recover what you were viewing?

YES       NO

<List of stuff you had open>

I guess what I’m saying is funny and cute and being personal is cool and all that. But, after awhile it’s just noise and distraction.

Outsourcing our brainpower

Last week I read that the average American consumes 64 gigabytes of data. Per day. Also last week, I read a post on brainbasedbiz.blogspot.com—Memorize More – Outsource Less:

What we’re outsourcing to technology, we’re not relying on our brains to do any more.

The key thing is that the sedentary brain, just like the sedentary body, is going to atrophy.

David Bucci, Dartmouth College

20th prepared speech in the can, delivered, thanks Toastmasters

“What am I doing?” I thought to myself as I drove to Toastmasters to deliver my Ice Breaker, the first speech new members give. I wanted nothing more than to turn around and go home.

Are you leveraging your crowd?

If you have a large user base, you can leverage it and crowdsource a majority of your documentation. It’s like hiring thousands of extra employees for virtually no cost.

Is your technical writing effective?

At the company I work at I’ve seen our help content consumed from a front line representative perspective (phones and online), from a supervisor’s perspective, and from a technical writer’s perspective.

When I’m considering creating something new, I’m always curious how it will be consumed. Will it reduce inbound calls? Will it shorten the duration of calls? Will people call in after reading the article with questions?