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Writing ideas into reality with precision and creativity.

Seasoned Technical Writing Services

Technical writing services, tech-minded, seasoned, & adaptable.

Easy to read, professional user manuals can amplify the success of a product, elevate your brand, improve self-service metrics, and develop customer loyalty.

Whether it's concise, step-by-step procedures or comprehensive guides, we deliver quality technical documentation that speaks to any audience.

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Our technical writing services offer quick turnaround for small businesses as well as full-time, value added assistance in larger, more enterprise-related projects. 

Manual Forge supports professional user manuals of virtually any size or scope, builds document layouts, works with CAD files, and can create informative graphics. 

Direct, hands-on experience in technology & engineering, supporting industries including  manufacturing, consumer, electronics, HVAC, automation, military, construction, and more. 

We have an array of experience in other technical documentation needs including product reviews, case studies, specification sheets, brochures, and reference materials. 

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Manual Forge leverages nearly two decades of technical writing experience, professional user manual writing, and other technical content development for industries including consumer, engineering, manufacturing, rapid prototyping, military, automation, architecture, and construction.

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At Manual Forge, we provide high-quality technical writing and user manual development services. We believe in building professional user manuals that are simple, functional, and practical.

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Technical manual and instruction manual writing requires the ability to make complex systems and machinations clear and understandable for their intended users.

Insourced provides technical manual writing services for the industrial, commercial, and government sectors. We work with skilled technical writers  in virtually every industry, capable of working closely with engineers and technicians to produce technical manuals compliant with company goals and industry standards.

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Well-written instruction manuals minimize customer service demands and help companies streamline their operations. Our writers work closely with our clients to produce clear and informative  instruction manuals that are accessible for most intended users. If you are uncertain about how to structure a user manual for your product, we will work with you to determine the best approach.

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Technical Writing Services. Fast & Precise.

Trusted by global brands in technology, medical, and manufacturing industries, Stepes provides high quality and cost effective technical writing services for a variety of subject matter fields. Stepes enables our clients to more efficiently communicate with their global customers .

Are you looking for an experienced and cost effective technical writing service that also works fast to meet your professional content authoring needs? Then look no further than Stepes, a modern, on-demand document writing service on the cloud. We’ve simplified the content creation and delivery process so you can obtain quality technical documents quickly to accelerate time to market for your products. Contact us today to receive a technical writing quote.

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Stepes provides a complete spectrum of technical writing solutions, from initial content strategies, requirement analysis, and content design, to copywriting, single source publishing, and content management. For clients that deploy products globally, Stepes also provides professional document translation services in over 100 languages.  In addition to user guides and product documentation, we also write for your social media presence on Instagram and Facebook to meet today’s digital economy requirements.

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Stepes has developed a highly versatile online technical writing service model that allow you to easily turn our writing staff into your extended authoring team members. Throughout the writing process, you’re able to collaborate with our writers online and view content progress in real time. This ensures complete transparency so you never end up with surprises when it’s time to deploy your content. Our technical writing model is also highly flexible, providing remote and online, as well as onsite support for all of your documentation needs. In addition to traditional document writing services, we also provide our clients with bespoke workshops and trainings on content strategies, branding, and content management.

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We have simplified technical writing services into a modern online process. Simply provide us with your product demos or high-level requirements, we’ll take care of the rest. Stepes has developed an online authoring workbench so the entire writing process is conducted on the cloud, allowing access to your content anywhere and anytime. Upon completion, simply download the final documents in PDF, Word, or XML format.

Stepes’ expert writing professionals have complete experience in conducting scope assessment, functional requirement analysis, branding design for the best UX/UI, content developing using agile and controlled language, and single source publishing using conditional tagging. Since Stepes writers work online using our cloud-based authoring environment, it facilitates seamless collaboration with your product development team allowing real-time exchange of information and progress tracking.

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Stepes technical writing solutions are all about applying modern authoring technologies to achieve the highest content accuracy and consistency while improving technical writing efficiency and reducing costs. In addition to supporting DITA, single source publishing using conditional text, and off-the-shelf tools like MadCap Flare, we’ve developed the world’s largest online terminology management system to ensure technical accuracy of industry terms in over 1,700 subject fields. Our cloud-based authoring system allows our writers to leverage existing content for the highest content development efficiency.

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We hire the best technical writers the industry has to offer. Our experienced technical authors are versatile and quick learners who are always willing to work with your in-house team to acquire the necessary product knowledge so Stepes can develop high quality content that resonates with your customers. We’re so confident you will like our technical writing services that we offer complete customer satisfaction.

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How to Build the Best User Manual

Marketing Content Strategist

Table of contents

What is a user manual, what are the different types of user manual, why does your business need user manuals, what are the essential elements of great user manuals, how to create a user manual, user manual faqs, subscribe to techsmith’s newsletter.

We all know that person that instinctively tosses the user manual out with the packaging without so much as a second glance. Some of us are that person. However, if you follow the process laid out in this blog, the user manuals you create will turn those user guide tossers into devoted readers in no time.

It’s important to note that, although you are required by law in some industries to create and distribute user manuals for your products, compliance isn’t the only reason that you should creating these important communication tools. 

When written and created with intention, a user’s manual can act as an extension of the customer service experience, and save your company time and money by reducing the amount of support inquiries that users have to make. 

In this article, we’ll look at what a user manual is, explore the various types you can create, and lay out exactly how to write user guides that your users are eager to put to good use.

A user manual goes by many names. You may hear terms like instruction manual, user guide, maintenance manual, or technical documentation but they all mean the same thing. A user manual is designed for an end user to use your product or service properly or to find solutions to problems that arise through use. They can be provided in either print or digital format or both!

Use manuals contain detailed, step-by-step instructions for the end user and also allow for some support in troubleshooting. They are not meant to be read from cover to cover, but as reference books, so a table of contents should always be included in a user manual. 

A quickstart or startup guide should be included in your user guide so that people can easily feel comfortable beginning to use the product. 

User manuals can be created for many topics and purposes. Let’s take a look at some of the options you have to choose from. 

1. Instruction Manual

An instruction manual is a type of user guide that provides basic instructions for how to use a product in its intended way. 

2. Training Manual

This type of user manual provides a set of instructions related to the completion of a specific task, project or job.

3. Service Manual

User manuals that outline how to care for and maintain a piece of equipment or machinery at various points in its life are referred to as service manuals.

4. User Manual

User manuals are technical documents that communicate about the proper use or operation of a product. 

5. Operation Manual

Operation manuals outline the roles, responsibilities and processes pertaining to a company or organization. 

6. Organizational Policy Manual

The documentation outlining a company’s policies, procedures and best practices is called an organizational policy manual.

7. Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs) Manual

A standard operating procedures manual helps users by outlining specific instructions for completing established procedures. 

Easily create a user guide

Snagit is the fastest way to create beautiful user guides. Create step-by-step guides with a simple and professional look

A user manual equips people to solve problems without having to seek outside help. In our instant gratification driven society, it is important to provide your patrons with the tools to quickly and efficiently get the benefit they want from your product or service, and a good user manual can accomplish just that! 

User guides are a much-needed supplement to excellent customer service. Some of the benefits your business will see from writing great user manuals include:

1. To Simplify Onboarding and Training

Well crafted user manuals can simplify your onboarding and training processes. That’s right, your employees can benefit just as much as your customers from the creation and implementation of excellent user guides. 

Instead of exclusively organizing complicated in-person training sessions, which carry high costs in both time and money, your business can utilize user manuals to help new employees work through some of the processes and systems that are part of their new jobs. This can mean that there are fewer productive hours lost during onboarding, as employees are able to learn while completing the tasks associated with their jobs thanks to the user manuals.

2. To Decrease Support Costs

User manuals are an excellent supplement to your customer service experience for the end user but they are also beneficial for the business owner as a part of the customer support system as well. 

By providing easy access to a searchable user guide for your customers you increase their ability to access solutions in the moment and reduce the necessity to reach out for specific support from a technician or representative.  

3. To Save Time

User guides help save time for your customers as well as your employees – from entry-level to management. When user guides are accessible to your customers they will not suffer the frustration of time wasted searching for details about how to use a product – because they have direct and immediate access to the details within the user guide.

When your employees are empowered with effective user guides they don’t have to waste time searching for answers independently or taking up their colleagues’ and supervisors’ time with questions – because they have access to the answers right in their user manual!

4. To Reduce Liability

Writing and distributing user manuals is one way to help illustrate that you have done your due diligence in testing your product and how best to interact with it safely. This can go a long way in reducing any liabilities associated with creating something for the public.  

If the product you sell could pose a danger to users (think space heaters, power tools, etc…) having warnings and safety precautions documented and available to users by way of a user guide is an effective (though not foolproof) way to avoid legal trouble associated with injures or other damage caused by misuse. 

Even though each product is unique and will require different elements to create truly great user docs, there are some end user documentation best practices to follow no matter what.

1. Plain language

Aside from not providing a user manual, nothing will make your customers more frustrated than finding theirs full of jargon and inaccessible language. These language choices make your user guides difficult to use and they certainly don’t foster an excellent customer service experience. 

An important part of writing effective user manuals is making sure you are writing for the user, not the developer. Don’t make assumptions about what your end user might know or be familiar with. Using acronyms, buzzwords, or slang used around the office will leave your customers feeling confused, frustrated, and ill-equipped.

Striking a balance where you are not writing as if your users are children (unless of course, they are!) but you are giving them the extra support that they need to fully understand how to use the product, in simple language, is the sweet spot for writing a user manual.

2. Simplicity

Simplicity is the name of the game when writing a user manual. Both the content and the design should adhere to this idea. Crowding your documentation with complicated illustrations, and dense blocks of text will give the sense that the user guide is too complex and inaccessible. 

This type of user guide has a high likelihood of intimidating your user and causing them to call your support line instead of attempting to solve their problem independently. 

“Show, don’t tell” is a key philosophy in writing user manuals. Content like images, videos , and annotated screenshots go a long way in helping to understand a concept. Seeing how something works is often much more effective than reading about how something works. 

Not only do visuals break up long blocks of text, but they also eliminate some of the bulk of text that can make user manuals intimidating. 

Visuals are actually proven to absorb visual information 7% faster than written information. In a study completed by Techsmith, it was also discovered that 67% of individuals were able to complete tasks better when provided instructions that used annotated screenshots to convey information rather than text alone.

4. Focus on the problem to be solved

Your product was almost certainly purchased to solve a problem. When writing the user guide to accompany the product it is crucial to maintain focus on this problem. 

Rather than listing and describing each feature your product has, or the interesting design details you’ve integrated, let your users know about them in a way that supports their use of the product. Frame your description of features and product perks in the context of the problem being solved.  

5. Logical hierarchy and flow

Use a clear hierarchical structure of headings and subheadings to help the user understand what they will get out of each section of your user manual. The hierarchy you use should follow a logical flow to guide your customers easily through exactly what they need to know from beginning to end. 

Make sure to begin with the basics and build in a logical progression toward the more advanced features of your product. 

6. Table of contents

Your user manual will serve its readers best when it starts with a table of contents. 

It’s a familiar way for someone to efficiently and simply navigate a document without having to sift through pages and pages of information that isn’t relevant to the immediate challenge they are experiencing.  

7. Make it searchable

While you may create print copies of your user manuals, it is likely that your primary focus will be digital documentation.  In a world where most people carry a smartphone on them at all times it is highly probable that your user guides will be most widely used in a digital format. 

Like a table of contents helps to direct users to the appropriate place in a print document, adding a searchable component to your digital user manuals will support an enjoyable ease of use for users trying to solve a problem by accessing it. 

8. Accessibility

It is not unlikely that a percentage of the individuals who need your user manual could use additional support in having it perform optimally.  Accessibility requirements are law in many places, and good practice regardless of the legal obligation behind them. 

Ensuring that your user manuals adhere to accessibility standards is simply good customer service. Creating accessible content for users who may have visual impairments, hearing impairments, or cognitive disabilities is an important factor in designing user manuals. 

9. Good design

Design your user manuals with your customers in mind. If you create something that they enjoy looking at they will be much more likely to use it well! 

Allow for lots of white space and avoid long blocks of text. Pairing these two qualities can help reduce the potential for intimidating users and make the prospect of learning something new inviting rather than daunting. 

Adhering to the “show don’t tell” philosophy we discussed earlier works well here too! Using graphics and images to supplement text is a great option for either print or digital user manuals, with videos and GIFs adding interest and a supportive element to digital user guides. 

If your organization has a style guide your design should adhere to it, but if you are working without one it is important to maintain consistency throughout your user guide.  Font and color choices should remain consistent throughout the document, and ideally between all of your user manuals.  You can use Snagit to help maintain consistency in your user guides by accessing the free templates it offers! Grab your free trial here to test it out.

10. Feedback from real users and/or beta testers

Unless you have asked for and listened to feedback from the individuals who will actually be using your product about the user manuals you have written, you won’t have an accurate sense of whether or not they are as effective as possible.  

You need to learn the pain points of your product’s users and make sure they are addressed in the user manuals you write. You may get some intel that seems very obvious but the opportunity is much greater for you to gain significant insight into the needs of the consumers you are striving to serve.  

11. Links to other documentation

It’s important that your user manuals offer opportunities for those reading them to easily access more information about your products. 

If your user manual is beng written for digital distribution you can add these links in through tutorials, FAQ sections, and user forums, among other options.

With physical copies of user documentation, these links can look like web addresses or phone numbers that readers can use to access more information.

Creating a user manual is an important undertaking and can make a significant impact in your business and for the users you are looking to serve. It can be overwhelming but we’ve broken down the process of writing a user manual so you can simply follow along!

1. Identify the users

Like any piece of communication you create, a crucial first step is identifying the person who will be on the receiving end.  

Identifying the user for your user manual will help you make good decisions about things like the tone, the amount of detail to include, and how to present the content.  

Writing a user guide for a tech developer is done very differently than writing one for your product’s end user. Identifying your audience is a make-it-or-break-it step.

2. Focus on the problem

User manuals are created to assist in solving a problem, or teaching someone to do something new.  It is necessary to identify exactly what your user manual is meant to accomplish and ensure that you keep your focus there.  

It can become tempting to expand the subject matter and cover many aspects of or potential uses for your product. This can cloud the actual solution that the user is in need of and cause frustration or calls to your customer service line. 

Focus on the specific solution your customer will need to have, whether they are an individual learning to use the product or a technician needing to repair it.

3. Use sequential steps in order

The instructions in your user guide should be presented in the sequential order required to complete the task at hand. Begin by listing each step in order.  Then, attempt to complete the task while following the specific steps you have laid out in the order presented.  

It is possible, likely even, that you will identify missing steps as you work through your initial list.  You may also discover that something you thought was one task actually needs to be broken down into a few tasks for the sake of clarity.  

Before you check this step off in your journey to write a user guide, make sure that you have provided a clear end result for each sequential step you have assigned. The readers should know exactly what they are looking to have completed and what it should look like the before moving on to the next step. 

4. Map user journey

The goal in writing a user guide is to understand how your customers intend to use your product and creating a way for them to easily do just that. 

You need to put in the work to understand the problem the user has or the goal they hope to reach in using your product as well as how they interact with your brand. These details will help you imagine the customer’s journey from problem to solution and map out the steps needed to get them through the process. 

5. Choose a Template

Developing a set of templates can make the job of writing and designing user guides significantly easier than you might think! It can streamline your process and make consistency a much more achievable goal.  

In addition to setting specifics like fonts (type and size), contrast requirements, and colorways, you’ll want to include the following in your user manual template:

• Assigned space for an introduction
• Clear sections and subsections
• Your selected format for sharing sequential steps
• Warnings and highlighted cautionings
• Assigned space for a conclusion

6. Write simple and easy to follow content

The content of your user manual should be as simple and easy to follow as possible. Both the content and format need to be considered and reviewed for simplicity and ease.

Make sure that each step of the process explains only one task and uses language that is as concise and clear as possible.  Be sure to edit down your content as thoroughly as possible until you have arrived at a user manual with only the most essential information included. 

7. Treat all users as laymen

When writing a user manual, assume that the reader knows nothing about your product. Write as if you are communicating with a layman.  

All technical language and jargon should be avoided wherever possible. Of course there are occasions where it will be unavoidable but these should be the extreme exception.

8. Test instructions alongside the product using naive users

An important step in the process of writing a user manual is the testing. The choice of who to test on can change the results dramatically. 

Ideally, testing should be performed on individuals who have never used your product or viewed the manual before. Observe them working through the process and make note of where they get stuck as they progress through the user manual. The material should then be revised accordingly. 

Your testers should be able to navigate the use of the product with only the support of the user manual. They should not need to reach out for additional support. Everything they need should be in the ussr guide itself.  

9. Build content using a practical approach

Practical examples and specific explanations of results that users might have after completing each step in the user manual should be included wherever possible. The user should know what feedback they may receive from the product; what they might see or here at any step of the process.  

10. Explain symbols, icons and codes early

As you write a user manual you may need to use icons, symbols or codes to help give the instructions needed. It is important to define these as early as possible in your user manual in order to avoid any confusion or frustration on behalf of the reader. 

User documentation is content in the form of user manuals or user guides which serves to help end users successfully interact with a product.

User documentation has historically been provided as physical documentation, like booklets or manuals. Nowadays, user manuals are more frequently created and distributed digitally.

A user manual or user guide is written in plain language, with a focus on problem solving, and utilizes good design. I should contain a table of contents, follow a logical hierarchy and flow, and provide accessible content. A good user manual will also be searchable and be influenced by feedback collected from real users. 

User manuals can be created in a few simple steps. First the goals of the user guide need to be established and a plan created that will allow those goals to be reached. Before being released, the user manual needs to be tested and have revisions made accordingly. Finally, the user guide should be kept up to date, with revisions being made as updates or new editions are incorporated.

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Technical manuals for complex products

Your product is complex, and your customers expect high quality supporting documentation. 3di has the expertise to deliver useful, accurate and clear  technical manuals  and  user guides  that reflect well on your product, your brand, and meet your customers’ expectations.

3di has designed and written manuals for a wide range of industries and technologies. We combine our in-house expertise with  technical writers  who have industry knowledge specific to your area – a combination that has proven to be successful again and again. 3di knows how to produce exactly the information you and your customers will need, whatever you call your technical manuals. For example: instruction manual, operator instructions, standard operating procedures (SOP), or operations and maintenance manual (O&M).

We’d be happy to share some  technical manual examples  – these can help you decide what would work well for you. We will recommend and agree with you on what should be written, the process and tools to use, and the time and budget to get the work done. You and your team can concentrate on your core activities while we concentrate on ours.

Want to find out more?

What do you call your technical manuals?

• Installation manuals
• Start-up guides
• Instruction handbooks
• Software guides
• Quick-start guides
• Service guides
• Operating manuals
• Configuration guides
• Commissioning manuals
• Decommissioning manuals
• Troubleshooting guides
• System maintenance manuals
• Operating instructions
• Operating procedures
• Standard operating procedures

Some of the considerations for technical manuals

When  3di  helps create  technical manuals  for complex equipment, some of our considerations are:

• What are the activities that your customers will need help with:  Understanding applications, provisioning, installation, configuration, operation, maintenance, troubleshooting?
• What’s the best way of supporting each of these activities:  One big manual, several PDFs, online-only, on-product labelling, within the control system interface, training manuals, e-learning?
• What’s your regulatory context:  Reducing risks for the operator and equipment, meeting compliance obligations, meeting supply-chain documentation requirements, English only for non-native speakers?
• When do you need to ship or publish each type of document:  Information that supports the sales process, export licencing, factory acceptance testing, market accreditation, out-of-the-box, post-sales support?
• What can we re-use, and what will we need to create:  CAD drawings, product specifications, use-case scenarios, testing protocols, related competitor manuals, training course materials?

Our process for creating technical manuals

Our experience across multiple industries has helped us hone the technical authoring process. We make it as simple as possible for you – no matter how complex your product or how tight your deadline is. Here’s an overview of our process:

Initial request

We understand what you want to achieve, agree on a commercial plan, and assign suitably skilled 3di authors.

We assess your product and what you need to communicate. We create a detailed plan for you to review.

We begin authoring the content and building the manuals. You provide some input and check you are happy with early prototypes.

We complete the manuals and fine-tune the final formats for publishing. You confirm you are happy and your manuals are ready to use.

Find out more about our technical manual writing services

If you want to find out more about our award-winning technical authoring team, our process, or our previous work for some of the world’s most well-known companies, you can visit our  blog post  or  case studies  pages for more information. Alternatively, if you want to discuss how we can help create your  technical manuals , contact us using the link below.

Case studies

Oxford Immunotec

3di improved Oxford Immunotec’s framework for creating user documentation

Roche needed a documentation, translation and localization partner to help support their growing product range.

Streamlining product documentation to simplify localization processes.

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How to Write an Instruction Manual [With Examples]

Last Updated

August 20 2022

If you’re looking to provide better support to your users, creating instruction manuals for your products should be one of your top priorities.

The fact is, your customers just aren’t going to stick around if they don’t know how to use your products. As Wyzowl recently found, 80% of users delete apps or software if they don’t know how to use them — and 55% of consumers will return a product or request a refund for similar reasons.

To be sure, you’re probably pretty familiar with instruction manuals, even if only from the consumer side.

But writing an effective user manual requires more than just typing up a few step-by-step instructions and calling it a day. If anything, this haphazard approach will likely cause more harm than good to your user’s experience with your products — and with your brand.

So, we’re going to dive deep into everything you need to know about writing user instruction manuals for your products.

What is an Instruction Manual?

An instruction manual is a document that explains how to use a product or service.

Instruction manuals are often referred to by many different names, including:

• User manuals
• Product manuals
• Product instruction manuals

…and other such variations.

An instruction manual is meant to be a comprehensive resource for anything there is to know about a given product. The main purpose of the document is to make clear to customers how to use the product to its maximum potential.

(As we’ll discuss, an effective instruction manual will do much more than that.)

What Information Do Instruction Manuals Include?

While all instruction manuals are unique in many ways, they all typically include the following content and information.

Product Identification Info

All instruction manuals should specify with clarity what product it’s referring to.

The key pieces of info to include here:

• Product name
• Model number
• Product series’ name (if applicable)

This is especially important for teams that offer multiple versions of products with slight variations between each.

Product Specifications and Description

Your instruction manual should include key information about the product, such as:

• Product dimensions
• Product features and functions Product materials and production info

Usage Instructions

What would an instruction manual be without instructions?

Here, you’ll break down the step-by-step instructions for using your product. Typically, you’ll break this down further to detail specific product features — making sure to prioritize those central to the product’s core usage.

You’ll want to include instructions for your product’s optional and/or advanced features, as well.

Finally, troubleshooting info can help your users get out of a jam — and back on the path toward success.

Glossary of Terms

A glossary is essential to explain and/or clarify the meaning of certain words, terms, and other jargon related to your products.

As shown above, you may also include acronyms within your glossary — or create a separate glossary specifically for the acronyms used throughout your instruction manual.

Troubleshooting Info and FAQ

Even with proper instruction, your users will likely still run into trouble from time to time.

At the very least, they’re going to have questions about certain features, processes, or product use cases.

At any rate, including troubleshooting information will all but ensure your users can continue making progress even when things don’t go exactly according to plan.

Safety Precautions

Depending on the situation, providing clear safety information within your instruction manuals could literally save lives.

Even if there’s no physical risk in using your product, it’s important that your user manuals are completely transparent in this regard. 

This may mean communicating how to:

• Prepare or store a product to protect quality and functionality
• Safely log in and out of digital accounts
• Dispose of products after use

…or anything else the user needs to know to stay safe while using your product. Your manuals should include clear instructions as for what users should do, who to contact, etc. when facing emergency situations.

Policies and Terms of Use

Be sure to include information regarding usage terms of your product, along with standards for quality assurance.

This can help clarify any confusion around purchases, returns, exchanges, or any other request your users may have after buying your product. Similarly, warranty info can make clear what your responsibilities are should the product fail at any time.

Table of Contents and Index

Lastly, your instruction manuals should feature a table of context and an index to help users navigate the document.

Incidentally, these features will also give you an overview of the document — and help you ensure you’ve covered the topics you’d wanted to within each instruction manual you create.

The Benefits of Creating Product Instruction Manuals

On the surface, the answer to this question seems pretty straightforward.

But an instruction manual can do a lot more than just teach your customers how to use your products.

Promote Correct and Optimal Product Use

As we said at the start, if your customers aren’t sure what to do with your product, they’re not going to be your customers for much longer.

Even those who have an adequate understanding of how to use your product might not stick around if they can’t use it to its full potential. Sure, they may get some value out of it — but they’ll almost certainly be missing out on major opportunities to thrive.

With comprehensive instructions in-hand, though, your users will always know exactly how to get the most out of every product you offer.

Prevent Incorrect Use of Product

At the same time, an effective instruction manual decreases the chances of your customers using your product incorrectly.

For one, your customers will never have to guess as to what to do next — and can simply refer to the document if they’re unsure. 

What’s more, your instruction manuals will explicitly state how the product is not to be used.

This will further optimize user outcomes, and minimize the chances of their creating dangerous situations through misuse of your product.

Offer Self-Service Resources

Your instruction manuals give your customers even more ways to solve problems and accomplish their goals without reaching out to your support staff.

In the immediate sense, this minimizes friction for your customers, and makes it just that much easier to take the next step in their journey. Thinking of the bigger picture, your instruction manuals will empower your users to take more control over their journey — even when facing the most difficult challenges along the way.

(That said, your users will only experience this benefit if they have complete access to your instruction manuals at all times. More in a bit.)

Improve User Adoption and Retention Rates

With a comprehensive instruction manual in hand, your customers:

• Will know how to use your product to its highest potential, and
• Will have the autonomy needed to make progress on their own

This will have a major impact on your ability to onboard new users quickly and efficiently. The easier it is for them to learn to use your product, the sooner they’ll reach those initial “aha” moments and milestones.

An effective instruction manual can also help keep users onboard — and even get them more engaged with your products in the future. 

Again, they’ll be more likely to stick with a product when they encounter trouble spots. Moreover, “regular” users can upgrade their skills and product knowledge with ease — potentially leading them to upgrade to a more valuable product or service tier soon after.

Save Time and Resources Internally

Taking the time to create an effective instruction manual will actually save your team a ton of time and other resources in the long run.

Firstly, your support staff will have fewer service tickets to work through — giving them more time and energy to spend on the more intensive issues your users will still occasionally face. Service engagements will also be more efficient, as both parties will maintain alignment by literally being on the same page of a product manual as they work through the problem at hand.

Bonus: An Asset for Marketing and Sales Teams

To be clear, instruction manuals are not the place for overly promotional or salesy copy and content.

However, they can have an effect on your customers’ willingness to buy from you. Your prospects, for example, can use your instruction manuals to determine which product is right for them — and what their potential options will be in the future.

(They can also determine which products aren’t for them, which will help them avoid a poor experience with your company.)

And, in general, offering all this valuable information to your customers will make them appreciate your brand more and more — and will lead to a number of other benefits for your company.

Qualities of an Effective Instruction Manual

Again, though instruction manuals vary in terms of structure and content, those that are most effective share the following qualities.

Above all else, your instruction manuals need to be helpful.

Yes, they need to help your customers use your products, overcome challenges, and learn more about what your brand can do for them. 

But “being helpful” also means optimizing the overall experience for your users. 

The goal of your instruction manual isn’t to simply provide information; it’s to help the user accomplish something. While the information is the focus of the document, the following qualities are just as important to ensure your instruction manuals are truly as helpful as they can be.

Instruction manuals should be made accessible to all users at all times, on any device.

(Really, going omnichannel is crucial to overall customer support efforts by today’s standards.)

For our purposes, offering instruction manuals openly and in multiple formats minimizes friction for the user at a time when they’re most in need of assistance. And, even when not in immediate need, they can still engage with the document however and whenever they prefer.

Many teams include their instruction manuals within their customer service knowledge base . This makes for open access to all manuals as needed — and optimizes the navigability and searchability of the document, as well.

Clear, Comprehensive, and Concise

The actual content of your instruction manuals should always follow the three C’s.

First, it must be clear. In such technical documentation, clarity of language, visual aids, and other media is crucial to the user’s comprehension. The meaning of all instructional content should be self-evident, with minimal room for interpretation throughout the document.

An instruction manual should cover the product (and specific product usage) comprehensively — leaving no information unsaid, and no questions unanswered. As needed, the manual may explain certain points in greater detail either directly or via additional resources.

At the same time, being concise allows your users to quickly find the info they’re looking for — and just as quickly put it to use. And, this brevity will decrease instances of misunderstanding that could be disastrous to the user experience.

User-Centric

All instruction manuals should be created specifically for the end-user.

The user’s knowledge, skills, and abilities, for example, should factor into a number of decisions, such as:

• Use of jargon, acronyms, and other verbiage
• The depth of explanations and illustrations needed
• The inclusion of additional instructions or resources

Many brands even offer multiple instruction manuals for single products for different users and use cases.

As shown above, effective instruction manuals also speak directly to the individual — not to a faceless “user”. This shift in language and overall tone adds a layer of personableness to the experience that reinforces the brand’s dedication to their audience’s success.

Great instruction manuals don’t shy away from the use of visual aids.

Photographs, illustrations, diagrams…all of it (and more) should be used frequently to clarify and further the user’s understanding of a concept or process. In some cases, graphic aids alone may be sufficient for helping the user accomplish a task.

Digital instruction manuals often include animated illustrations and video demonstrations.

Effective instruction manuals are organized to maximize usability and navigability — and to aid user comprehension.

Firstly, they’ll include the table of contents, index, glossary, and other traditional aspects as expected. On top of their actual functions, the mere existence of these assets makes for a more familiar experience for users, even when the content is unfamiliar.

The information within effective instruction manuals is appropriately scaffolded, as well. In other words, it’s presented so that user knowledge is constantly building on itself, with each piece of information preparing the reader for the next.

Note, for example, how Nureva focuses first on pre-installation recommendations, then leads readers to installation guides and other in-depth content.

Top-notch instruction manuals have a branded look, tone, and feel to them without distracting the reader from the purpose of the document.

Typically, this means taking advantage of spaces where branding is more appropriate and expected. For example, Apple rarely refers to itself throughout its manuals – except when required for demonstrative purposes.

But, again, branding is always secondary to the goal of showing the customer how to use the product.

Strategies to Writing an Effective Instruction Manual

Alright, so you know your instruction manuals will need to adhere to everything we discussed above.

Now, let’s look at how to make it happen.

1. Set Clear Goals

Your first order of business is to set clear goals for the overall initiative.

Start by asking the question, “Why are we creating this instruction manual?” — and going beyond the surface with your answer. While the obvious answer is “to help our customers use our product successfully”, nail down clear statements that define:

• What “successful product use” means in this instance
• What successful use of the product will enable users to do
• Why this is important to their journey

Then, start thinking about the quantitative metrics, such as CSAT and CES, along with conversion, adoption, and retention rates. 

In setting more specific and contextual goals to strive for, you’ll be better able to measure the impact of your new instruction manuals — and to make laser-focused improvements to your documentation in the future.

2. Think Like Your Users

In order to create a user-centric instruction manual that gives your customers what they need, you need to put yourself in their shoes.

First, consider who they are in terms of persona, audience segment, and how they engage with your brand. This will help you set the correct tone for the manual — along with your approach to creating it.

Then, answer the following questions about your user:

• What background knowledge and skills do they have that relate to the product?
• What required knowledge or skills do they not have? How can you teach them?
• What questions might they have as they learn to use the product?

With this knowledge, you can deliver the exact information your users need at a given moment in order to get maximum value from your product.

Lastly, think about how your users typically engage with branded content and documentation. While striving toward omnichannel is still the ticket, you at least want to make your instruction manuals available via your customers’ preferred methods.

Thinking like your users allows you to anticipate their needs at every step — and to provide the exact guidance they need to press forward with confidence.

3. Involve All Stakeholders and Team Members

Creating an instruction manual should be a collaborative process involving a number of stakeholders within your organization.

For example:

• Dev and Design teams can provide product features, functions, and specs; break down processes into specific and sequential steps; check the document for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
• Customer Service and Support can help identify key information to focus on; provide insight into user issues; assess manuals for digestibility.
• Marketing and Sales can keep messaging on brand as needed, and can also provide insight into your customers’ frequently asked questions and such.

And, regardless of their specialty, getting additional eyes on the document will minimize typos, grammatical errors, and other simple mistakes.

4. Create and Use Instruction Manual Templates

Over time, you’re going to end up creating more than one instruction manual.

Instead of starting each guide from scratch, why not create a boilerplate template from the get-go?

Internally, it gives your team a head start on each initiative — and aids in the development of standardized, repeatable processes for creating new manuals. As we’ll get to in a moment, the use of templates makes it easier to identify and make improvements to your documentation moving forward.

For your users, templates provide a sense of consistency and familiarity at a time of relative uncertainty. Practically speaking, it makes it easier for returning users to navigate each instructional document you publish. These consistently positive self-service instances will continually reinforce your users’ trust in your brand.

To be sure, you will need to tweak your instruction manual templates for every new document you create, for a variety of reasons. But starting with the template that’s been most effective thus far will easily get your efforts started on the right foot.

On that note…

5. Collect Usage Data and Feedback — and Make Improvements

The only way to know whether your instruction manuals have been effective or not is to collect usage data and feedback from your customers.

Regarding usage data, you want to pay close attention to things like:

• What pages and content are being accessed most frequently
• How long users tend to stay on a page, or in a session
• What their paths look like when navigating the document

Zooming out, you also want to analyze the context of these engagements as best you can. Knowing what a user did before and after checking out your instruction manual will allow you to better understand their needs, and gauge your ability to help them.

User feedback should play a key role as you make improvements to your instruction manuals. In some cases, you might ask users to provide feedback via well-timed surveys and similar forms.

Customer support tickets, marketing and sales conversations, and other engagements can provide valuable insight into your user’s instructional needs, too. In analyzing these engagements, you’ll uncover:

• Questions and problems your customers still have regarding your product
• Information they’re unaware of that should be included in your manuals
• Issues they have with accessibility and usability of your manuals

With all this data in hand, you’ll be able to make ultra-specific improvements to your individual user manuals, your instruction manual templates, and your approach to creating this documentation on the whole.

Use Helpjuice to Create, Present, & Manage Instruction Manuals

Let’s face it:

To create the type of engaging, navigable, and user-friendly instruction manual your customers need, you’ll likely need some digital assistance.

While many basic documentation tools can help you get started, you’ll eventually want to move onto dedicated knowledge base software to a) optimize your documentation efforts, and b) deliver a more valuable experience to your customers.

Which is where we come in.

With Helpjuice, your team can collaborate in real-time to create rich, comprehensive, interactive instruction manuals for your users — then make them easily accessible to your user base as needed. And, with our reporting tools in hand, you’ll always know how to make your manuals more helpful and empowering to your customers over time.

Want to learn more? Schedule a demo with Helpjuice today!

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Manuals and Handbooks

Home » Manuals and Handbooks

How do you know that your written instructions make sense?

How can you guarantee you’re your technical manual is crystal-clear — even to a non-technical audience?

How do you know if you’ve missed critical steps or glossed over key information?

Here’s something we’ve learned after decades of technical writing: The closer you are to a subject — especially a technical subject — the harder it is to write about it. This is especially true if you’re writing for a general audience unfamiliar with the ins and outs of your product or service.

That’s where we come in. Our technical writers and editors have extensive experience transforming potentially complicated information into clear, accurate, and easy-to-follow copy, including:

• Technical manuals
• Policy manuals
• Instruction manuals
• Training manuals
• User guides

Why You Shouldn’t Write Your Own Manual

It might seem counterintuitive at first: You and your subject matter experts (SMEs) know your product/service/process better than anyone. Doesn’t that mean that you’re the best people to write about it?

Not always. When you know your subject inside and out, it’s all too easy to assume that your readers are, literally and figuratively, on the same page. Steps that seem obvious to you might be completely unfamiliar to your clients or users. Terminology that makes perfect sense to you and your SMEs might sound like a foreign language to a non-technical audience.

By combining your deep industry expertise with our extensive writing experience, you can ensure that your next manual offers the right balance of in-depth technical guidance and clear, accessible information.

We help you by:

• Working with your SMEs. We excel at working with subject matter experts, from HR executives to pipeline engineers to software developers. We respect their time, we listen, and we ask good questions. We’re fast learners, and we’ve got plenty of experience gathering and organizing detailed information.
• Sweating the small stuff. We understand that a manual must be thorough and accurate to do its job. Our writers and editors are detail-oriented, nitpicky, and approach every project with an eye toward clarity. We will write, edit, rewrite, ask questions, and check facts.
• Keeping your end users in mind. We’ll ensure that your manual is tailored to your intended audience, whether you’re writing for first-time users or longtime clients. We’ll run your manual through our team of internal editors to ensure that they make sense, and we can even analyze the vocabulary and reading level.
• Helping you stay organized. Most manuals require large amounts of information and involve stakeholders and SMEs across multiple departments. Our experienced project managers will keep track of all the moving parts, deadlines, and data — and ensure that your project stays on track.

Qualified, Experienced Writers

TWFH writers and editors have degrees ranging from journalism to technical communications, all of which proves valuable when writing manuals and guides.

Plus, we have extensive experience writing for a wide range of industries. We employ the insights we’ve gained throughout our processes, from developing interview questions for your SMEs to making complex processes understandable to your audience.

Our experience encompasses such fields as:

SOPs , HR Documentation, and More

In case you couldn’t tell. We really love writing instructions. But manuals aren’t our only service offering: We can also help you document your company’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) or write clear, easy-to-digest employee training materials .

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Creating a Technical Manual: How, Types & Examples

Category: Technical Documentation

Last updated on May 23, 2024

Unless your product is the most intuitive on the planet, it’s likely that you’ll need to rely on technical manuals to help your users. Without a technical manual, companies are heavily dependent on their customer support teams to assist their users, with support queues growing exponentially and chronically dissatisfied customers.

No product is complete without the technical manual. Not only is it useful for helping customers troubleshoot problems, but it can also serve as a vital marketing asset that shows customers how much you invest in their successful onboarding.

Creating a technical manual is no easy feat, which is why in this article we’ll be going through the steps you need to take and a list of best practices.

Table of Contents

What is a technical manual, types of technical manual, why do businesses invest in technical manuals, how to write a stunning technical manual, best practices in writing a technical manual, useful tools to create a technical manual, stellar examples of technical manuals.

A technical manual can be thought of as a “how-to guide” aimed at helping users to understand the technical aspects of a product. Depending on the product, the technical manual usually contains instructions for the set-up, maintenance, and troubleshooting required for users to be effective.

Source: Biztalk360 Documentation

The technical manual not only helps users get started but also assists them with ongoing problems they might face. It usually contains step-by-step instructions and how-to articles that help users tackle any situation that might arise with the product.

A good technical manual should be simplified enough to make sense to the end users. It’s clear and well-structured,

There are many different types of technical manuals that companies might produce to help their users.

Product Manuals

Product manuals provide users with a basic overview of a product, without going into too much depth. It tells users what the product is for, explains its features, and how to set up, maintain and use the product.

Repair Manuals

Repair manuals are exactly what the name implies – detailed instructions for how to troubleshoot the product in the event an issue arises. It helps users conduct routine maintenance as well as perform major repairs.

Also Read: How to Create an Operation & Maintenance Manual

Troubleshoot Guides

A troubleshooting guide is a structured document that lists common problems that might arise with a system, alongside instructions for how to solve the problem. It diagnoses symptoms, eliminates possible causes, and confirms to the user when the system is operational again.

User Manuals

A user manual is an in-depth guide that helps customers get familiar with your product or service and overcome basic issues with the setup and maintenance. The user manual tells the user exactly how to use the product in its intended manner and helps them get the most out of it.

API documentation is a comprehensive reference manual that explains to users how to work with and integrate the software’s API. It contains details relating to the functions, classes, return types, and arguments, alongside tutorials and practical working examples.

Also Read: What is API Developer Portal with Best Practices & Examples

Software Development Kit Documentation

An SDK is a set of tools , libraries, documentation, code samples, processes, and guides that enable software developers to build software applications on a particular platform.

Release Notes

Release notes are technical documentation that is provided alongside the release of a new software product or update. It usually contains details on how the product has changed, new or enhanced features, and bug fixes.

There are many reasons why businesses choose to invest their resources into creating technical manuals.

Quick and easy onboarding of users

When you acquire a new user of your product, they are usually excited to get started. The problem is, that most products require a little hand-holding to get set up and guide your user toward success.

This is where technical manuals come in handy. New users can refer to your technical manual to help them install and launch your product, decreasing the time it takes for the user to become proficient with your product.

Guide users to operate in a safe environment

Some products can present a potential danger to users if operated incorrectly. Technical manuals can provide the relevant warnings to make sure users interact with the product safely, such as the correct temperature for storage or keeping it away from liquids.

Improve customer experience with your product

When users understand how to use your product correctly, this enhances the customer experience. They have access to helpful resources that can provide instant answers to any questions they might have, without the necessity to contact customer support.

If customers can self-serve their own problems with your product, they feel less of a sense that they have been inconvenienced. Your company has already anticipated scenarios where users might need help, resulting in more successful and satisfied customers.

Effective training materials for operators and new users

Many products require an explanation before they can be used effectively, or instructions to help troubleshoot if the product doesn’t work as expected. Technical manuals are therefore useful training materials for operators and new users of the product, allowing them to get familiar with your product as they use it.

When customers are effectively trained with your product, they can become power users without having to reach out to customer support. This reduces the chance that they will churn.

Avoid liability due to product misuse

When you include correct usage instructions in your technical manual, you are protecting your company against liabilities that might arise through the use of your product. When you include the relevant warnings and disclaimers, you are able to present a valid defense against liability in the case that customers have ignored them.

Improve customer retention

Customers who enjoy using your product are more likely to keep using it in the long term. Providing helpful technical documentation can help in the retention of customers by enabling them to overcome common problems by themselves. If customers experience a high level of frustration with your product, this makes them more likely to stop using it or to return it.

The technical manual is an investment in the company’s relationship with the customer. The company is taking responsibility for the customer’s success and ensuring that the product keeps working.

Now we’ll go through the exact steps you need to take to write a highly effective technical manual.

Step-1: Define your target audience

The very first step you need to take in the process of writing your technical manual is to define your target audience. You may think you know your customers, but the reality is businesses are frequently operating on assumptions and misconceptions.

Get to know your users. Find out how they are using your products, what their challenges are, and their level of technical expertise. This will enable you to pitch your manual at the right level without pushing your users beyond their current skills.

Your customer support team can be a valuable resource when it comes to learning about your customers. They will be able to tell you what questions customers frequently ask and how customers are using your products.

Step 2: Design a template

All of your documents within your technical manual should follow a predefined structure. When your users know what to expect, this improves their experience of the manual and makes your content more consistent. This is especially critical when you are using a team of writers to create your manual, as you most likely will be.

The template should contain vital information relating to the structure of the document. This includes whether to use a table of contents, the headings and subheadings, as well as formatting options.

Having a standardized template gives your writers an easier time when it comes to creating new content. They can follow a set of predefined rules that your organization has put in place to ensure the correct presentation of content.

Step 3: Outline the Product/feature purpose

When it comes to writing your technical manual, you need to make sure that you are the expert when it comes to explaining your product and how to use it. Set aside enough time to explore everything about the products and their intended use case, as well as their features and how to operate them.

At this stage, you’ll probably want to get input from subject matter experts such as engineers or product managers who’ll have a significant contribution to make to your documentation.

They’ll be able to provide information about the product that you wouldn’t expect, such as common malfunctions and methods of troubleshooting.

You might also want to survey your customers to find out how they are using your product and its features. You can then make sure your technical manual is comprehensive and suited to the needs of your customers.

Step 4: Add step-by-step instructions

You should present your instructions to users in a step-by-step format. There’s nothing worse in a technical manual than a dreaded wall of text, which isn’t very accessible to users looking to troubleshoot an issue. When your instructions are presented step-by-step, you can explain what the system should be doing at every stage of the operation.

Step-by-step instructions are easier to follow along and enable users to easily keep track of their progress. Users can understand the steps they need to take beforehand, making the troubleshooting process smoother. They are also easier to scan, enabling users to quickly decide whether the document will solve their problem before embarking on a fix.

Step 5: Make it visually appealing

No technical manual is complete without visual representations of the product and its features. That might be screenshots, diagrams, photographs, or even videos. Visual assets break up the wall of text that users might otherwise be faced with and also enable users to more effectively interpret the documentation.

If your manual is for a software product, screenshots show customers what your product is supposed to look like and guide them through instructions more successfully than text alone. With product imagery and diagrams, customers are acquainted with the correct functioning of the product and can diagnose exactly where something has gone wrong.

Visual assets make it easier to describe the troubleshooting process and also cut down on potential translation costs.

Step 6: Extend for peer review

Your documentation must be reviewed internally before it is ready for publication. A group of peers that includes subject matter experts are vital for ensuring documentation is accurate and makes sense to users. That’s why it’s also important to employ the services of non-technical users, who will be able to highlight areas when the documentation is difficult to understand.

Documentation with errors is worse than useless for customers. It presents a negative brand image and means your instructions aren’t fit for purpose. You also don’t want to represent your product in a way that goes against company strategy. Expert reviewers can help you here.

Step 7: Publish the article

Finally, you’re ready to publish the documentation. You’re likely to have gone through a long process to get to this stage so making your articles live is a big milestone. After you’ve published your documentation, don’t forget to go through and check for any errors you may have missed. This includes ensuring that your content is displaying correctly and looks good on any device.

Make sure your customers are aware of the documentation by linking it prominently on your website and including it in welcome emails. If your product is physical, include printed versions with every delivery, or let customers know where they can find your manual online.

Step 8: Collect user feedback

After publication, your technical manual is never completely finished. The advantage of online manuals is that you can collect fairly detailed user feedback on every aspect of your documentation. You can see how many views certain pages have received, upvotes and downvotes, and which pages led to a support ticket.

You might also want to survey your customers to gain their qualitative feedback on the usefulness of your documentation. Ask them whether the content met their needs and any improvements they would like to see.

Use your customer feedback to continuously improve the documentation and ensure it is meeting customer needs.

Step 9: Analyze, update and maintain

As your products are developed and updated, so should your technical manual. It’s likely that your product team will add new features or fix bugs that are hampering the user experience. Your documentation should change to reflect the product and you should continuously check for accuracy.

Sometimes, your product might undergo such significant changes as to require the mass update of all the screenshots in your manual. Leave time in the development process to account for bringing the documentation up to date.

An intuitive technical documentation software to easily add your content and integrate it with any application. Give Document360 a try!

Focus on the problem to address

When writing a technical manual, you will usually have specific problems you want to address in a particular article. State the problem clearly in the introduction and focus on solving the single problem per article. You don’t want to overwhelm the users with information or distract them with lots of technical detail.

Present instructions in sequential order

When presenting your manual, make sure to structure your steps in sequential order so as not to confuse your audience. One step should logically follow on from the other and help customers to abide by a process.

Use simple language

Using overly technical jargon will only serve to confuse your readers and frustrate them when they are looking for a simple answer. Use language that your customers will find easy to understand and if you must use a technical term, explain it or link to a glossary.

Add table of contents

Long articles will benefit from a table of contents at the beginning, breaking down the content into headings. This is useful for users who may want to scroll to a relevant section and prevent them having to read the entire article.

Add images wherever necessary

As we’ve already mentioned, it’s vital to provide images that can bring your manual to life and improve comprehension for your users. Images should not be purely decorative but employed in some way to explain part of the documentation.

Educate user about safety instructions

When writing your documentation, don’t forget to include information that educates users about safety instructions . Learning how to correctly and safely operate the product is an important part of the training manual and should be included right at the beginning.

Give consideration to disabled users

When publishing your documentation, you should think about how it is presented. For example, using a san serif font and high contrast colors for the text and background. These accessibility considerations are crucial for disabled users who might suffer from low vision, for example.

Document360 (Help authoring and publishing tool)

When considering the publication of your technical manual, you’ll need to find a help authoring tool to host your documentation. This is where Document360 can help. It’s an easy-to-use authoring and publishing tool that allows you to create and review documentation, and then publish to a user-facing portal.

There are many reasons to choose Document360. For example, it offers a state-of-the-art search that enables customers to search for content they want to find. The publishing system is robust, allowing your team to collaborate together on documentation and preview your content before making it alive.

Document360 offers advanced analytics that give insight into the performance of your documentation, including demographics of the users.

With Document360, you can create more than one knowledge base to suit your needs. Every knowledge base can be extensively customized to match your company’s branding. Content is arranged in easy-to-move categories and subcategories that logically presents your content for end users.

Adobe Illustrator (Image editing tool)

Adobe Illustrator is vector-based graphics software that lets you scale down your images for mobile screens or scale up to a large size without losing quality. Illustrator contains all the tools you need to create and manipulate images for both web and print. Illustrator makes it easy to share your work with others and get their feedback, even if they don’t have Illustrator installed.

Snagit (Video editing tool)

Snagit is a popular screen capture and recording software from Techsmith that lets you quickly capture your screen and camera, add additional context, and share images, GIFs, or videos across your preferred platforms. You can capture your screen, make adjustments including adding arrows, numbered steps or highlights. You can turn your camera’s videos into a GIF which makes for easy sharing.

Microsoft Visio (Diagramming tool)

Use Microsoft Visio to create flowcharts and diagrams, letting your team collaborate on organizational charts and more. You can completely change the way you use and visualize data and you can better symbolize processes. Visio comes with dozens of ready-to-use templates and thousands of customizable shapes, making it easy and fun to create powerful visuals.

Windows Snipping tool (Snipping tool)

Snipping Tool is a Microsoft Windows screenshot program included in the operating system Windows Vista and later. Snipping Tool captures screenshots of an open window, rectangular areas, a free-form area, or the whole screen. You can then annotate your screenshot using a mouse and then store it as an image file.

Adobe Framemaker (Document processor)

Adobe Framemaker is market-leading software for authoring and publishing technical content. You can author smart content using XML and DITA, creating rich, immersive experiences for your customers. It works well for migrating existing content from Word and can easily handle long documents with styling complexities. Framemaker allows you to collaborate with subject matter experts using online review capabilities.

Read more:  10 Most Popular Tools for Technical Writing

 Technical Manual sample created using Document360

Software technical manual created using MS Word

Are you Ready?

Creating your technical manual for your users takes time and effort, but it well worth it due to the returns it provides. Customer requests issued to your support team are drastically reduced as customers can troubleshoot any problems by themselves. Your brand’s reputation is enhanced as you become known for investing in the customer experience. Customer retention is drastically improved as it becomes easier for customers to understand and use your products.

If you follow the steps outlined in this article, you’ll be well on your way to constructing an outstanding technical manual for your users. Don’t forget that you need the right software, too – and this is where Document360 can help. Create a beautiful technical manual for your users and benefit from an outstanding publishing process and document review cycle.

Interested in Document360 Knowledge base? Schedule a demo with one of our experts

Aug 9, 2022

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Technical Writing Services

• Cost-effective writing solutions
• Experts from every domain
• Different types of technical writing

Professional Technical Writing and Documentation

We are one of the most prominent technical content-writing companies offering specialized content-writing services for clients across the globe. We curate content with a customer-centric approach ensuring website, product or application attains maximum popularity

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Types of Technical Content Writing

• Instruction Manual
• Safety Data Sheet
• Training Material
• Hardware & Software UI

Software User Help

• API Documentation

Instruction Manual Writing

We create instruction manuals from scratch in a simplified manner that provide clear and detailed instructions on performing a task, using a product, or operating a machine. Our experts design technical instructional manuals for websites, software, application, and machine tools to guide users step-by-step, allowing them to carry out complex procedures or tasks effectively. The two types of instruction manual writing include technical manuals and product manuals.

Technical Manuals

When the product you are launching is complex and needs high-quality supporting documentation, we have all the expertise to deliver accurate technical manuals and user guides reflecting the product and your brand well. Our technical writing services offer tailor-made manuals for various business industries and technologies. With the help of our experts, we produce high-quality manuals featuring visual aids such as diagrams, illustrations, and charts making it easier for users to grasp complex concepts.

Product Manuals

The product is almost ready, and it is time to write the manual– this is where we come in. We have user guide writers who do the work for you to move faster by understanding what you want the users to know about your product. We create product manuals for hardware devices, software applications, or other offerings. Our technical writers design product manuals that perfectly match product features and functionalities. Our experts focus on integrating comprehensive guidelines into product manuals, promoting safe usage.

Standard Operating Procedures Writing

We provide Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) writing services for various companies, which they can use to educate their employees on the company's work policy and goals. Our SOP writing services experts offer tailor-made solutions and work closely with the teams to gain a deep understanding of workflows and create SOPs that align perfectly with business operations. We ensure the SOP maintains accuracy and precision and is written in simplified language.

Safety Data Sheet Writing

We provide customized solutions for Safety Data Sheet Writing. Whether it is to create a straightforward SDS or a complex one, we have a team of project managers and writers focused on delivering quality work while keeping the cost as low as possible. We focus on developing work compliant with and backed by years of focus on the safety data sheet and the work of Hazard communication.

Training Material Writing

We provide writing solutions for training material as well. Our expert writers are skilled at creating customized training manuals that meet your training needs. Our training modules are comprehensive and updated as per the latest industry standards. We also provide support for changes that may be required in the future. We ensure to achieve your training objectives quickly and effectively. We also are equipped to create tailored solutions for your specific training needs. We guarantee the quality and timely delivery of our services.

Patent Writing

We provide patent writing services, where we develop the document from scratch. We work closely with our clients to ensure the patent is tailored to their specifications. We also offer the greatest possible protection. Our team involves experienced professionals who are knowledgeable in patent law. We aim to offer our clients a comprehensive and effective patent to protect their inventions and ideas.

Hardware and Software UI Writing

Our hardware and software UI writing services involve creating user-friendly interfaces and optimizing the user experience to enforce the highest level of usability and accessibility. We also provide comprehensive testing services that ensure the quality and reliability of our UI writing. Our UI experts will work closely with you to understand your needs and develop customized solutions.

We aim to create intuitive user interfaces offering easy navigation and seamless user experience. Our UI writing services are designed to save time and money while providing the best user experience possible.

We provide Software User Help Guides writing services to help you communicate the instructions for using the software, embedding it, and working with it to your target audience. We do it by partaking in the software development process and using our experience and insights to create clear and accurate software help and support manuals. We have expert writers with a background in technology who are well-versed in creating the manual in a simplified manner so that the users can understand and use the software effectively.

We offer API documentation, a reference resource allowing developers to work with your software application and integrate it into their API. We create these API documents in simple, well-designed, and easy-to-understand manuals. We ensure that the API documentation is understandable to its fullest extent so that the developers interacting with your API can use more features and become increasingly committed to using your API. We also ensure that the API documentation is updated with the latest features.

We can break down this stuff to

Why choose us.

WE ARE FAST AND CAN ACCELERATE THE PROCESS

COMPLIANCE AND SAFETY

We understand the importance of complying with industry rules and regulations, ensuring safe documents, and passing all required certifications. And we ensure both.

INFORMATION DESIGN

We do a series of user tests that help us develop the best content structure of information design, and we can then organize information into the group context of your knowledge ecosystem.

CONTENT MARKETING

We help you with content marketing, where we put your ideas into consumer terms and create a bridge between technical content and nontechnical consumers.

CONTENT ANALYTICS

We create content and focus on analytics to identify what needs more exposure and work and what is least necessary.

OUR TEAM OF WRITERS INCLUDES

• Experts in Graphics & Device Drivers
• Speakers of Python, Java, PHP, & Other Languages
• Digital Preservation Specialists
• Microsoft and Adobe Trainers
• Network Administrators
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How much do you charge for Technical Writing?

The cost of the writing depends on its length and complexity. However, we have kept our prices cost-effective. You can contact us to get a free quote for your technical writing requirements.

What are the Principles you follow while writing the technical stuff?

We follow 7 principles of technical writing: accuracy, clarity, accessibility, comprehensiveness, conciseness, professional appearance, and correctness.

How do you ensure the quality of your technical writing?

We do this with the help of our quality assurance team, who work closely with our writers. They are adept at paying close attention to detail, achieving an end product of the highest quality.

What are the types of technical Writing Services you offer?

We offer the following technical writing services:

• Instruction Manuals
• Standard Operating Procedures
• Hardware and Software UI
• Software User Help Manuals

Our Clients

We are proud to have served a diverse range of clients, from small businesses to large corporations, in our commitment to accessibility.

Clients Testimonials

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Technical Manual Writing Services

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For businesses, writing a procedure manual has always been a dry process. You have to follow specific rules, and there is less room for creativity. To help you out, Writing Services Hub is offering professional manual writing services.

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Writing Services Hub offers high-precision business writing services . Our manual writing service leverages our expertise and experience to ensure client satisfaction. For years, our clients have admired the professionalism exhibited by our teams.

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Frequently asked questions, why is fresh & unique content essential for my business, what approach-to-work is followed at writing services hub, which industries do your writing services cater to best, do you provide seo optimized content, do you have additional/hidden charges for revisions, how quick can i expect a turnaround, how do you guarantee 100% original content.

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How to Write a Manual

Last Updated: November 11, 2023 Fact Checked

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 34 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 244,884 times. Learn more...

Writing an instruction manual may seem like a daunting task, but it’s easier than you think! These steps apply to any written instruction, from the very simple (How to Clap) to the intensely complicated (How to Build a Semiconductor.)

Get to Know the Subject

• Look for similarities among the writers, which indicates both common functionality and common approaches to describing something.
• Look for differences that stand out. Those are likely to be functions that are unique to a given product. Your product may or may not include those functions, or may have alternate ways of solving the problem that you can describe, enhancing the value of your product. While your job may be writing a how-to, showing the customers the value of their purchase is a great way to encourage them to continue reading.
• Devour trade magazines. Find out how the people who use the products work with them day-to-day. They may wish there was a function that solved their particular problem, and if your product is the solution, that needs to be highlighted.

Plan Your Manual Layout

• It lets you focus on individual parts of the whole. Your goal is to familiarize the user with how to learn the process. How to perform the function can be left for a tutorial at the end, if desired, or left for the user to discover on their own.

Start Writing

• If, for some reason, it isn't feasible to do the steps, think them through thoroughly and consult somebody who is an expert.

• If you’re writing on paper, be sure to leave space for additions between each step. Remember to renumber your steps if you add more in.

• Conversely, if there is some bit of knowledge that will make the user’s task easier or more interesting, add it in.

• Consider having a friend or two use the manual. Watch them closely when they learn how to use the product. See where they zip through it. See where they get lost, confused, or fail at the task. Listen to what they have to say, then adjust your manual accordingly.

• Title them, and note their locations.

• For a more comprehensive manual, you can also take this opportunity to note all the small topics, and use that information to create an index.

Community Q&A

• Writing each section on a separate page (or on a computer) will make editing easier. You can more easily rearrange if you have room to work and can find your edit marks. On the computer, leave 3 or 4 lines (by hitting enter several times) between each step so you can easily find the breaks. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1
• Even if something seems obvious to you, write out the steps! It will help you avoid glossing over something your user doesn't know. It's better to put in extra information rather than leave out important steps. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you are writing a very detailed manual that requires chapters, such as How to Play the Flute , your first step might actually be to list all the chapters, such as Selecting a Flute, Assembly and Care , Tone Production, Methods of Fingering, Your First Piece, etc. You would then apply the basic rules for writing a manual to each chapter because each chapter is like a separate manual in itself! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.csus.edu/campus-safety/police-department/_internal/_documents/rwm.pdf
• ↑ https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1086006.pdf
• ↑ https://www.ucop.edu/local-human-resources/_files/performance-appraisal/How%20to%20write%20SMART%20Goals%20v2.pdf
• ↑ https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/dewey/versions/print/intro.pdf
• ↑ https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/chapter/writinginstructions/
• ↑ https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/grammarpunct/proofreading/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/
• ↑ https://www.aphl.org/aboutAPHL/publications/Documents/QS-2017May-QA-Manual.pdf
• ↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-nonfiction/write-a-how-to-article-in-6-easy-steps

About This Article

To write a manual, break the process you're trying to outline down into easy, digestible chunks so that readers can follow along step-by-step. Also, make sure your manual follows a logical sequence so that readers can do everything in order without having to skip around between sections. To help organize your manual, include a table of contents at the beginning so readers know exactly where to find the information they're looking for. For tips on how to research the topic of your manual, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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The Write Direction is a network of industry experts, academic professionals, and writers who understand the best practices and specific regulations across many industries. Our expert writers can ensure the policies they create are compliant which reduces the risk of legal and regulatory issues.

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Each company has its own unique culture, values, and way of operating, therefore each policy manual is supposed to be tailor-made with customized solutions. Not only that, policy manuals made with The Write Direction are created to adapt to growth and challenging circumstances.

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Outsourcing something as important as a company policy manual can be beneficial to the rest of your team so they can focus solely on your business’s core functions. Outsourcing this task to The Write Direction also means that you can quickly receive your custom policy manual saving you time and effort.

Clear and Accessible

The Write Direction’s writers understand better than anyone the importance of using clear and concise language to be able to effectively communicate. The accessibility of a policy manual can also be formatted for online access so all your employees can quickly find the needed information.

Consistent and Accountable

Policy manuals can provide consistency across your organization through standardization. The policies laid out in your tailor-made manuals are clearly defined to keep everyone within the company accountable. Policy manuals allow for employee adherence to your company’s standards.

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Why do you need a policy manual.

• Are your policy and procedures documents easy to understand?
• Are objectives and issues clearly identified?
• Are the rights and responsibilities of employees and management difficult to discern, or ambiguously stated?
• Is the tone of the content consistent throughout?
• Does the focus, or general message, drift?
• Is the documentation up-to-date?
• Do the documents encourage solidarity and a recognizable and translatable organizational culture?

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How to Write a Customer Service Training Manual

Master the art of crafting a comprehensive Customer Service Training Manual, ensuring consistent, top-notch service across your team.

A customer service training manual is a guide that covers all of the necessary knowledge for your customer service staff to give outstanding customer service. This thorough handbook should enable your employees to self-train as they respond to specific customer needs.

But writing this manual isn’t so easy, especially when you’re starting from scratch.

Employee competence and readiness to manage any circumstance that may arise are developed by a good customer service training manual, which boosts general productivity and satisfaction.

To achieve the best results for both your customers and your customer support employees, use these 8 best practices for creating your customer service training manua l:

Let's dive into each best practice for creating customer service training manuals effectively.

1. Start with the customer

Most business training focuses on the trainee. You look at the skills and experience they’re bringing to the table, set a goal for the skills they’ll have at the end, and create a training program that fills in the gaps.

That’s how retail sales training works , and training in most other areas is similar.

But customer service training has to start with the customer. Business success requires that your customers have positive interactions with your customer service representatives (CSRs), that their problems get solved, and that they’re satisfied at the end of the interaction.

One of the things that makes customer service difficult is that each customer has different needs. They come to your CSRs with different issues, and they’ll need unique treatment to solve those issues.

Because of that, there’s a single attribute that stands out above the rest: empathy.

Customer Service Training Manual

2. be empathetic.

Empathy isn’t a word that you’ll hear in many discussions about business. But it’s crucial in customer service. Empathy is the ability to understand another person’s feelings and desires, and the best customer service agents have a great sense of it.

Possibly the most important facet of empathy in customer service is learning and understanding what success and happiness mean to your customer. Sometimes they’ll both derive from something simple: unlocking their account after they enter their password incorrectly too many times, for example.

But it might be significantly more complex. It could involve reconfiguring a service to better serve a customer’s needs. Or get in touch with the development team with a suggestion that will improve the customer experience.

So how do CSRs develop empathy? By practicing active listening . Listening skills are the bedrock of customer service skills. The Apple Store is known for its great customer service , which is built on the acronym APPLE:

• Approach customers with a personalized, warm welcome
• Probe politely to understand the customer’s needs
• Present a solution for the customer to take home today
• Listen for and resolve issues or concerns
• End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return

Both the “probe politely” and “listen for and resolve issues” steps are focused on empathy.

Even if it’s difficult listening skills in your customer service training manual, you can emphasize the importance of empathy and point your employees to useful resources that will help.

Remember throughout the entire training process that the focus should be on your customer, not your employee.

3. Define the scope of customer service

Your customer service training manual will cover a set of topics that are relevant to customer service . . . but what does that include? You might be creating a training manual for customer service agents , but you might also be creating a document that will help your sales and marketing teams use customer service principles in their jobs as well.

Companies that provide legendary customer service place a strong emphasis on serving customers that starts at the top. CEOs need to be on board, and employees need to see that. The dedication to customer service should span every department and every rank, from the highest executives to the front-line representatives.

The scope of your document has to match the scope of what you consider “customer service” in your company, and you’ll want to define that early on in your training manual.

Modern customer service has started to take the scope beyond that of simply solving problems and troubleshooting and expanding it to include making sure the customer is satisfied throughout the sales, implementation, and use phases of the customer lifecycle.

This idea ties back into empathy—everyone in your company should be focused on helping customers achieve their goals. This is something that you should address early and with some emphasis in your training manual.

Shep Hyken points out that the employees who have the greatest effect on your customers might not be in the customer service department . It’s important to acknowledge that in your training.

A fully c omprehensive customer service training manual might have a great deal of information not only about specific customer service policies but about how people in all roles can foster a customer-service mindset. Make your training manual interesting and useful for everyone who’s thinking about customer service (which should be, at the very least, nearly everyone).

4. List out customer service general practices

Before getting into specific customer service policies, it’s a good idea to list some general practices. These are the ideas that rise above all the others when it comes to customer service.

Take Disney, for example. The company’s parks are known for their legendary customer experiences—and those experiences are built on customer service . There are many different practices that create a cohesive experience, but there are four main points that employees are taught to focus on:

Each of these has sub-points and intricacies, but as long as employees can remember these four simple words, they’ll be headed down the path to phenomenal customer service.

Apple’s acronym serves a similar purpose.

Your company doesn’t need an acronym or another mnemonic device to share its general customer service goals, but it’s helpful to put a general statement early in the training manual that you can come back to throughout the rest of the document.

Find a simple sentence or phrase that sums up your customer service philosophy , and prominently display it in this section. It could be the WECARE acronym :

• Communicate
• Address customer needs
• Review and resolve
• End on a positive note

Or it could be something as simple as “Go above and beyond for one person every day.”

Whatever you decide to use, make sure that it represents your overall customer service goals, and reference it throughout the training manual.

5. Outline specific customer service policies

This section will contain the majority of the customer service training manual. It contains, in essence, everything you want your CSRs (and anyone else reading the manual) to know.

Because every company has different needs, you may find that the points we suggest below don’t fit, or that you need to add more detail to any specific point.

Use these points as a guideline, and think about how you’ll need to adapt, add to, or remove them to best fit your company.

Customer Interactions

How do you want your employees to interact with customers? Do you want to encourage a specific type of greeting or a particular manner of walking through customer service issues? Is there something you’d like your CSRs to say when they’re ending an interaction?

All of these things should be covered here. In some businesses, you’ll want to be very specific—you can even provide a script or a few examples of how to deal with common issues or complaints.

This section should contain all of the advice and instructions you have to offer on how your employees interact with customers . If you’re a retail business, that might mean face-to-face interactions, including sales. It could also include phone-based support. If you have employees emailing customers to solve customer service issues, that should be addressed here.

Decision-Making Power

How much power do your customer service agents have to make decisions? Can they issue refunds? Offer special discounts? Honor warranties?

These are often the things that make or break customer relationships, so it’s important to give them some thought.

While some companies let their customer service reps make many decisions, others prefer that decisions be made by managers. No matter which you decide, make it very clear here. If your CSR makes a promise and the manager says the company can’t deliver on that promise, you’re going to have a very negative customer experience on your hands.

If you prefer that your customer service reps escalate specific issues to their superiors, there are several pieces of information you should include:

• Exactly which issues to escalate
• The chain of command for escalation
• How customer service agents should get in contact with superiors
• What CSRs should tell customers during this process

Having all of this information documented ensures that the process is efficient, that the customer knows what’s going on, and that the right people are making decisions.

Return / Refund Policies

Because returns and refunds are common issues, it pays to document them specifically here. Businesses that sell products should have a clear refund policy that customer service agents can easily assess and execute.

It may be more nuanced with service providers or large B2B vendors, where refunds could be thousands of dollars or more. In these cases, you may ask your customer service agents to escalate the issue—but again, make sure to document that process.

If you offer exchanges, company credit, or any other method of return or refund, note it here. If there are specific conditions, make sure they’re clear. This is an area where customers can easily become frustrated, and having solid documentation can solve the issue before it becomes problematic.

6. Provide the right tools and resources

In general, you want your employees to be as self-sufficient as possible. And that usually means giving them the tools and resources they need to get information, make decisions, and interact with customers as successfully and independently as possible.

This section should contain a list of as many tools and resources as you can think of. It might be linked to product specifications or information published by manufacturers. A database of company services or sales and marketing information might make sense for your company.

We also strongly recommend making it easy for employees to access ongoing training , and this might be a place to reference it.

This is a good place to reiterate the chain of command for various issues and provide contact information for the people who can make higher-level decisions, as well.

7. Format training content correctly

The days of long, dry, text-based training manuals are gone. With modern learning and development platforms, you can distribute information like this in a much more engaging manner.

Videos, slideshows, webinars, audio files, and even games are being used to train customer service agents today. All of these media keep learners engaged. You might also consider running much of your customer service training via microlearning to prevent boredom.

Modern learning platforms give you the ability to share your training in all sorts of engaging ways. Take advantage of them to boost engagement and retention.

8. Remember to update

Like most other documents that you’ll use regularly in your business, your customer service training manual should receive updates on a regular basis. You’ll come across new situations, add new products and services, decide on different procedures, and so on. All of that should be documented.

Keeping your customer service training manual in a central location where everyone has easy access to it is another good habit—this way there’s only a single copy, and there will never be conflicting versions.

The days of static, boring training manuals are over. Today’s manuals should let employees comment, share, make suggestions, watch multimedia presentations, and interact with each other. Your customer service documentation is a core component of your overall customer service strategy—do it justice with a great manual!

Benefits of a customer service training manual

If you don’t have an official customer service training manual, you may wonder if you really need this document. And if you have one, what value can it really offer? Here are some reasons why customer service manuals add value.

1. Gives context to the job

Every employee has daily tasks, but sometimes they don’t understand how their role truly impacts the company's bottom line. By creating a customer service training manual, you can show your employees how a job well done helps keep and get more customers to buy. This in return motivates and engages customer service reps to connect better with customers. 

2. Teaches soft skills

Most employees are hired based on their skill set to get the job done successfully. However, much of a customer service job is based on soft skills . These involve things like listening, communicating, understanding the customer's issue, and critical thinking. Many soft skills need to be taught once on the job to give them better context. Adding in scenarios and offering solutions within your customer service training manual is a great way to teach these.

3. Improves customer satisfaction

As we’ve mentioned before, happy customers are more willing to be repeat buyers. In addition, they are more willing to tell their friends and family about the great customer service they received from a company. So, if you can increase your overall customer satisfaction, you will increase your profit margin.

Training via your customer service manual can teach how to resolve common customer complaints and decrease the number of callbacks from a single customer. This also saves time and energy so that customer service reps can interact with more customers. 

4. Retains top talent

Your recruiting or HR department spent time and money to find qualified customer service reps. The last thing you want is your top-performing team members to leave for competitors. Training is key to keeping these employees happy. The more skills and customer scenarios you can equip them with the better prepared they will be to do their job. And the more prepared they are, the more successful and happy they will be in their current role.

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7 Steps to Writing an Effective Technical Manual

A technical manual serves as an exhaustive guide, imparting profound insights into a product’s intricate technicalities. Encompassing everything from initial setup to long-term maintenance and troubleshooting, crafting a technical manual for a new product demands meticulous attention to detail and a structured approach. This article uses the example of a new product being released as a way to explore the seven key steps technical writers should take to ensure the creation of an effective manual.

1. Understand the New Product

To create a usable technical manual, it is imperative for a skilled technical writer to thoroughly understand the product they are documenting. This means going beyond a superficial understanding, rather, they should be diving deep into the intricacies of the product. By acquiring a comprehensive knowledge of the product’s functionality and features, the writer can effectively communicate the information to the end-users clearly and concisely.

Understanding the product involves not only studying its specifications and technical aspects but also gaining practical experience by using the product firsthand. By immersing themselves in the product, the writer can identify potential areas where users might encounter difficulties in understanding or using the manual. This hands-on approach enables the writer to anticipate potential questions or issues and address them proactively in the manual’s text, making it more user-friendly.

A skilled technical writer will also rely on various resources to gather information about the product. This can include engaging with subject matter experts, conducting interviews, attending product demonstrations, and reviewing technical documentation provided by the product development team. By tapping into these resources, the writer can ensure a comprehensive understanding of the product, enabling them to create a technical manual that is accurate, informative, and beneficial for all end-users.

2. Identify the Technical Manual’s Target Audience

After outlining the initial stages of writing a technical manual for a new product, the next step is to identify the manual’s target audience. This stage necessitates assessing a predicted end-user’s technical proficiency to tailor the manual’s language appropriately. The terminology and style used in a manual created for parts suppliers with a comprehensive grasp of product specifications will contrast with that employed in a manual geared towards an end-user with limited technical knowledge.

Furthermore, when adapting the language and style of the manual, it is essential to consider the cultural and linguistic background of the target audience. This includes avoiding jargon, idioms, or references that may not be universally understood. Clear and concise language should be used to ensure that the instructions are easily comprehensible. Visual aids such as diagrams, illustrations, and step-by-step images can also be included to enhance clarity and facilitate understanding for all end-users.

3. Plan the Structure

After creating a table of contents, the next step in planning the structure of your content is to outline the main sections or chapters. This will provide a roadmap for the flow of information and allow you to determine the key topics that need to be covered. Each section should have a clear purpose and advance the overall theme or objective of your content.

Within each section, it is important to organize the information logically and coherently. This means arranging the content in a way that makes it easy for the reader to follow along and understand the concepts being presented. You might choose to use headings and subheadings to further break down content into smaller and more digestible chunks.

In addition to structuring the content within each section, you may also want to consider the overall organization of the chapters or sections themselves. For example, you might start with a general introduction or overview, followed by more specific information and examples, and finally conclude with a summary or key takeaways.

4. Write Clear Instructions

Step number four in writing a technical manual for a new product is writing clear instructions. For a new product technical manual, this may be the most crucial step, and hiring a professional technical writer to complete this tricky work will pay dividends.

The technical manual must use concise and precise language. This includes step-by-step procedures with visuals and addressing possible troubleshooting scenarios. Clear instructions are essential for users to effectively use and troubleshoot a product.

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5. Review and Revise

Once the bulk material for the technical manual has been written, a writer must begin proofreading for grammatical and spelling errors as well as ensuring consistency in the tone of the material and its terminology. Thoroughly reviewing and revising your manual improves its overall quality and usability.

If you plan to distribute the manual to international markets, reviewing the translated manual in each language is key, and will minimize errors in translation that could impact customer success and satisfaction.

6. Test and Iterate

One important step in creating a user-friendly manual is to have users test the instructions provided. By having real users go through the manual and follow the created instructions, you can gather valuable feedback on the clarity and ease of use of the content. These users can provide insights into any areas that may be confusing or unclear. This feedback can help you identify any necessary revisions that need to be made to the manual before distribution.

During the testing phase, it is important to encourage users to provide honest feedback about their experience with the manual. Ask them to pay attention to any sections that they found difficult to understand or follow. By collecting this information, you can gain a deeper understanding of how your manual is performing and where improvements can be made.

Once you have gathered this feedback from the users, it is time to make any necessary revisions. Take all feedback into consideration and make the appropriate changes to the manual, which may involve rephrasing certain instructions, adding more explanatory diagrams or examples, or reorganizing the content to improve flow. By addressing the areas of concern identified by the users, you can create a manual that is more user-friendly and effective in guiding users through the desired process.

7. Finalize and Distribute the Technical Manual

The final step in writing an effective technical manual for a new product is to finalize and distribute the material. This includes designing a visually appealing layout for the material that is also user-friendly.

A final point to add is the importance of continuous improvement and updates in the technical manual. Writing a technical manual is not a one-time task–it should be viewed as an ongoing process. A technical writer should reflect on the process and lessons learned, and consider future updates and revisions to keep the manual accurate and up-to-date. By constantly improving and updating the manual, the technical writer can ensure that the technical manual remains relevant and valuable to the end-users.

How Can EDC Help?

If you’d like to learn more about technical documentation and writing services and how they can help your business, check out some of our related content below:

• Technical Writing and Documentation Services
• Tech Writers: Simplifying Complex Topics
• Technical Writers: Everything You Need to Know

Whether you need a single technical writer for a brief project or a team of consultants to produce a complete line of documentation, the quality of our work is guaranteed for you. Our clients work closely with an Engagement Manager from one of our 30 local offices for the entire length of your project at no additional cost. Contact us at (800) 221-0093 or [email protected] to get started.

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