- user manual
- telephone support
- on-site training
Products were often sold with support packages as extra, and these support packages were often as expensive as the product!
Nowadays there are more varied types of user support options:
- robotic support (Ikeas' Anna)
- chat/messenger based support
- animated user manuals
- FAQ/troubleshooting guides
- user forums
When considering what support you will provide for your users, you must deicded upon 3 things:
- effectiveness (how effective it is to help the users)
- the user experience (bad user experience may turn users off)
- cost
For example; Ikeas' robotic Anna is
- is fairly effective in answering simple questions about specific things, but not as good as a real person
- provides a good user experience because people are comfortable speaking to someone, but as good as a real person
- and less expensive than having rooms full of telephone support personel
Animated user manuals are better than text based manuals as users are more likely to use and understand them and therefore less likely to ring up telephone support (expensive!).
