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Our user-friendly documentation saves you time and
money. Wherever possible, we write Manuals and online
Help Guides in user-friendly language.
Need clear language, user-friendly documentation?
(a) Learn the best
way to write
documentation in clear English with our
Technical
Writing Course;
or –
(b) We can write your
Manuals /
Online Help Guides for you.
How does it save you money?
People read quicker, understand better,
and remember longer.
-
Better
productivity
-
Fewer support calls
-
Easier translation
into other languages
-
Better customer satisfaction.
-
Higher
sales (true story).
Independent
research, from companies and governments around
the world, continues to demonstrate that clear, user-friendly
English produces significant business benefits.
Here are some examples, taken from many and
various sources.
New manual in clear English saved 125 support calls
a month.
"In one test, customers who used
the clearly written manual made about 125 fewer
calls a month than customers who used the old manual."
- Cathy J. Spencer & Diana
Kilbourn Yates, 'A Good User's Guide Means Fewer
Support Calls and Lower Support Costs' (1995).
Royal Mail saved £1/2 million in 9 months.
Before consultant specialists clarified
a redirection-of-mail form for Royal Mail UK, there
was an 87% error rate when customers filled it out.
Royal Mail was spending over £10,000 a week handling
complaints and reprocessing incorrect forms.
The revised form in clear English reduced the error
rate dramatically, saving Royal Mail £500,000 in
the next nine months.
US Navy could save $250 to $350 million a year.
In 1989, there was a study of naval
officers who read a business memo, written either
in plain language or in a bureaucratic style. Those
who read the easy version understood it better,
took 17% to 23% less time to read it, and felt less
need to read it again.
Even more staggering is the projected cost saving
of $250 to $350 million a year, if all naval
personnel (not just officers) could read plain
language
documents.
- James Suchan & Robert Colucci,
The High Cost of Bureaucratic Written Communications
(1991).
British Government saved £500 million
Plain English has saved the
British Government about £500 million in the
last 20 years.
- Preston City Council web site
British Citizenship - New Application Form
saved 20,000 hours a year
In 1983, the UK Home Office
produced a new clear English application for
British Citizenship that takes people 15 minutes
less to complete than the old one. This saved
the public 20,000 hours a year.
Department of Health and Social Security
saved £1.5 million a year
The Department of Health and
Social Security introduced plain language
application forms for legal aid in 1984. It cost
the Department about £25,000 to develop and test
the forms, but they saved £1,500,000 in staff
time per year.
GEC saves up to $375,000 a year per customer
At GEC, a new manual in clear
English saved 125 support calls a month from
just one customer. Applying the average cost of
support calls, GEC estimates that it saves
between $22,000 and $375,000 a year for each
business customer who uses the new manual.
- "Technical Communication"
1995
Royal Insurance Company sales up by 38%
Canada, the Royal Insurance
Company unveiled its “simple English” Select
Homeshield Policy for home insurance. Sales
increased 38%, from $58 million to $79 million
in the same year.
State of Victoria, Australia, saved $400,000
The State of Victoria,
Australia, saved $400,000 by simplifying the
wording on a summons forms so people could
understand it. They were able to reassign 16
clerks and 10 police officers.
Arizona Department of Revenue able to
process 30,000 more claims a year
In 2006, the Arizona Department
of Revenue rewrote many of its standard letters
into plain language. Phone calls went down so
much in 2007 that workers were able to process
about 30,000 more claims than they had in the
previous year.
- "Arizona Republic"
newspaper
Royal Mail Redirection Form
Royal Mail saved £500,000 in 9 months by
redesigning one form in Plain English.
- Siegel and Gail
USA Plain Writing Act 2010
Every federal agency must communicate to the
public in “clear, concise, well-organised”
language. The White House emphasizes the
potential cost savings from translating legalese
to lucid prose. Each call for
clarification from taxpayers costs the IRS agency
$25, and it received 110 million calls in 2010
alone.
- Cass Sunstein, Regulatory
Chief, US Inland Revenue Service 2011
Our Short Training Courses
Learn
best practices in our Technical Writing Course - learn
how to be a clear English Author when you write
your documentation.
Successful
Business Emails course - teaches your staff
how to write professional emails in simpler,
clear English.
See also:
Contact us and find out
more about Documentation and Training
Why use us for your
manuals or online Help Guides?
What
do Clients say about our documentation?
What subjects
can we write about?
Authorgraphic™ is the trade mark and brand name of Authorgraphic
Limited,
Unit 29, King Edwards Avenue, Gloucester, UK
01452 500639
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