Web-based applications and SaaS (Software as a Service) are likely to be used by your customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This, coupled with the fact users can stop paying for your software overnight, means your user support needs to be great.

It often appears that the best Web-based applications come with little or no online Help. In fact, Help is still there, but it appears in a different place and it often comes with additional "X factors" that you don't see in desktop-based Help.

Providing Help (or 'User Assistance') means you're giving your users the support they need, at any time of the day. You're enabling them to get the most out of your software, and not holding them back from doing their work.

The business benefits of Web-based Help

Having your online Help published on the Web could do wonders to your business:

• Marketing SEO benefits
  • The search engines love the type of information-rich content that online Help contains (more information), because the content is valuable and other Web sites link to it. The result is these pages appear high in search engine rankings.(More information). This improvement could lead to an increase in leads from your Web site.
• Reduce stress on your Support line
  • Many users begin by looking for answers on the Web before they call the support line (more information, see also our support call cost reduction calculator). If they find the answer on the Web, then they won't need to call the Support line.
• Better customer service
  • There's a new generation growing up who are shying away from telephone-based support in favour of text-based support (more information). By delivering assistance in the way they prefer, your providing better customer service.
• Greater brand loyalty
  • You can allow your user community to add to the content. They not only improve it, but they also get a greater sense of belonging to your brand. (more information)
• Improved product development
  • You can get a better understanding of where users struggle with your product
  • Web Analytics can tell you how many thousands of people are reading the Help and what they are searching for.

Affective Assistance - creating a more positive emotional experience for the customer

"Affective Assistance" is an option available to Cherryleaf's clients. Affective Assistance is a form of user assistance that recognises the change in people's behaviour towards technology in recent years. It uses techniques from usability research to establish a more positive emotional connection with users.

The benefits of this approach include:

• It encourages users to solve problems themselves more often
• A more positive attitude towards the product.

Simply contact us by email or telephone. If you can, please state the issues you are interested in fixing. We'll respond by email or phone. If you have a particular project in mind, normally, we'll also send you a short, one-page questionnaire. This helps you and us to understand the issues you face and work on the best solutions for fixing these.

Re-use the content elsewhere and spread the cost

Documentation is an fundamental part of a software product's marketing, sales and technical support strategy, so why not use the information developed for the online Help elsewhere - in the technical support, marketing, Web, sales and training departments?

If the Help is developed in a single-sourcing tool (an option we offer), you can write your content once, publish it for many uses and realize huge cost savings.

So why is there so much poor online Help around?

It's because a lot of it is written by people who aren't skilled or trained enough to do it properly. Studies have shown that up to 40% of all information systems developed have online Help written by a non-trained writer, and this shows through in the end product.

Users of systems with Help written by professional technical communicators:

• Use the online Help up to 54% more often.
• Rate the quality of the Help more highly (better at meeting the users' needs by 29%).
• Call the support desk less frequently (by up to 80%).

Further information

Contact us if you would like to know more about how we can help you. If you can, please state the issues you are interested in fixing. We'll respond by email or phone.