{"id":20946,"date":"2019-07-22T17:21:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T16:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/?p=20946"},"modified":"2024-09-24T14:50:39","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T13:50:39","slug":"help-content-product-launches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intercom.com\/blog\/help-content-product-launches\/","title":{"rendered":"Building help content into your product launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you\u2019re gearing up for a big product launch, creating help content is often the last thing on your mind.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much that goes into preparing for product launches<\/a> \u2013 ensuring your beta testing goes smoothly, locking in your marketing campaign, getting your sales team up to speed. By the time the big day rolls around, it can feel like all that\u2019s left to do is kick off the launch party and wait for the upvotes to roll in on Product Hunt.<\/p>\n

But the reality is, for your customer support team, the work has only just begun. New products raise new questions, and having supported countless product launches, I can tell you that your reps are likely dreading the increased volume of mostly repetitive, often simple queries.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow does it work?\u201d \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t it do X or Y?\u201d \u201cWhy does it look funny in Internet Explorer?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

These questions are as certain as death and taxes, and they leave your customer support team with less time and energy to really delight your customers<\/a> or properly share all the valuable feedback that comes out of launch day conversations. So how can you get ahead of this inevitable flood of simple, repetitive questions? Here\u2019s a hint: with help content.<\/p>\n

Is there a (help) doc in the house?<\/h2>\n

Done well, help content \u2013 best practice docs and clear how-tos \u2013 acts as an extension of your product. These articles empower customers to get started with new features and see the value in them, all on their own. And the best thing about help content is it’s incredibly scalable \u2013 just one article can answer the same question for hundreds or thousands of customers.<\/p>\n

“These articles play a crucial role in reducing the volume of questions that our customer support team receives”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At Intercom we have articles ready in our Help Center<\/a> for all our major product launches. By enabling customers to help themselves, these articles play a crucial role in reducing the volume of questions that our support team receives. I like to think of the role that help content plays as an in-house remake of the famous scene between Neo and Morpheus in The Matrix<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Support rep:<\/strong> \u201cWhat are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge questions?<\/p>\n

Article author:<\/strong> \u201cNo, I\u2019m trying to tell you that on launch day \u2026 you won\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead of fielding simple, repetitive questions, our support reps are able to focus on problems that actually require one-to-one assistance. They\u2019re spending their time helping customers see success and gathering the kind of feedback that enables us to build a better product<\/a> in the long run. As a result, they’re able to share in the excitement and pass it on to our customers too.<\/p>\n

Help content doesn\u2019t just empower our current customers. It also enables us to attract new ones. For leads who find their way to our Help Center, these articles clarify how our new features work and instill confidence that they\u2019ll have no trouble getting started. The experience is comparable to making a purchase in a store. If you have questions about a product and get great answers, you\u2019re more likely to buy, not just because they have what you need but because you know they\u2019re committed to helping you succeed.<\/p>\n

Empowering your customers and support team with help content<\/h2>\n

Now for the next part \u2013 actually writing and sharing your help content. This sounds like a lot of extra work, right? It\u2019s actually much easier than you think.<\/p>\n

Assemble your collection of articles \ud83d\udcdd<\/h3>\n

Producing good help content is the most important part of this process and where most of the work will be done. But it\u2019s rare that you will need to start from scratch. In many cases, you already have a rough draft. It just needs assembling.<\/p>\n

At Intercom, our product managers and engineers put together a \u201cWhat We Built\u201d document for every new feature. It\u2019s shared internally with the wider project team before launch, and it serves as the jumping-off point for our support articles. Even if you don\u2019t have an exact version of this at your company, I bet your product team has created at least one of the following:<\/p>\n