In February 2021, a video of 40-year-old Tessica Brown, went viral. What was the reason? Tessica had used Gorilla Glue on her hair in place of her usual Got2b Glued hair spray. The problem was: the former is an industrial glue as opposed to the latter which is designed for cosmetic use. Sadly, using Gorilla Glue resulted in Tessica’s hair glued rock-solid and permanently!In addition to the gaffe putting Tessica’s health at risk and requiring surgery to fix, there were also widespread speculations about her lawyers attempting to sue manufacturers of Gorilla Glue for not stating, expressly, the use of their product.
This case, and many other similar ones involving frustrated and litigious consumers, reinforce the need for a quality product manual regardless of how intuitive a product appears in terms of functionality. Product manuals (also called user manuals or user guides) are documents that provide information about products and instructions on how to use them. They are mostly used for hardware and electronic products, but you might also find them accompanying household products (like hair relaxers) from time to time, and for good reason. Here are some of those reasons:
Product manuals reflect your business' regard for its customers: Regardless of the goal of the business being to maximize profit, it is equally important to reassure customers that the business has their interest at heart. Leaving users with products that they either don't know how to use or maintain due to ambiguous manuals (or a total lack of it) portrays the business as insensitive. Besides, an easily comprehensible product manual improves user experience.
They reduce the workload of customer service representatives: All the time spent fixing mistakes and pacifying angry or frustrated customers will be better off invested in more productive activities. And interestingly enough, most "ineffective"products are merely a result of mishandling or underutilization on the part of the users who are unaware of how to get the best out of the product. With a good product manual, however, users will need as little help as possible, such that there will be scarcely any need to complain or request customer support.
They reduce legal liability: Accidents or losses caused by using a product can result in serious legal issues. In most cases, too, proof of the manufacturer's failure to provide clear instructions on product use makes them liable for mishaps experienced by the user. Legal drama, regardless of whether or not the producing company is found faultless, is a dent on the reputation and is best avoided in order to maintain customers' unwavering trust in the brand.
Product manuals influence sales: In a world where innovations in technology are geared towards providing easy solutions that remove the need for users to exert any unnecessary efforts, a buyer will most likely choose a product with clear, helpful instructions than one with lacking them. The secret is not just to have a manual for your product, but to have one with accurate, easy-to-understand one.
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