Courtesy of OSWeekly.com

(Column) - No matter how confident a company may be about the products and services that they offer, there's just no excuse for thinking that the user experience is going to be perfect. I know you believe in your product, but you have to be able to convince others that you have something worth using, too.

Oftentimes the excitement of getting something out to the world is so strong that negligence is shown in other equally important areas such as documentation and support. Even if something is simple to use, good documentation is vital because there are always going to be people who scratch their heads and need to know why something's done in a certain way or what they need to do next. These people need to be catered to, and we've all been there on multiple occasions. If they can't get a decent explanation in a minute or less, they could become impatient, which might lead them to a competing product.

Receiving helpful support can be a nightmare whenever you're dealing with a company regardless its size. How many times have you seen a sole support e-mail address hidden in the bowels of a website? You may think this solution could get you what you want, but that's not always the case. Sometimes support issues aren't taken seriously and it could take weeks to receive a formal response. Well, there goes that whole timeliness issue. Other companies provide online forums and phone numbers to call centers, but there's no assurance that these resources are going to be handled in the right way, either. Just look at the infamous call that Vincent Ferrari made to cancel his AOL account. That experience is a perfect object lesson for why customers dread having to use contact methods that they know are just going to lead them to a dead end.

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