Poor Instructions Lead to High Abandonment Rates
Sincerely...
Does your company actually WANT to have more users and gain better ratings?
Well,
The instructions provided in the "About" section and other places where features and their benefits are described, NOT ONLY MAKE LEAPING ASSUMPTIONS which OBVIOUSLY MAKE SENSE TO THE WRITER, but they make little sense to a NEW USER attempting to setup their LOGIN and MASTER PASSWORD for the FIRST time.
Guess what?
That's the FIRST, ONLY and LAST chance you have of GUARANTEEING that they will likely follow thru and begin REPEATEDLY USING your tools, OR GUARANTEEING that they WILL NEVER RETURN to use the tools again.
This is called your "Abandonment Rate"= which is a metric that measures/counts the total number of
FIRST TIME and POTENTIAL REPEAT USERS you can possibly have subscribed to your tools, VERSUS the number of those same users who are so utterly confused FROM THE VERY FIRST FEW WORDS in your instructions, that they "Abandon" use of the system and never return.
When writing instructions, the most effective way to do this is to WRITE FROM THE READER's perspective -- NOT FROM YOUR OWN!
Of course, YOU know what YOU mean because YOU already understand what you mean.
Yes, this sounds stupid and redundant, I agree.
ALWAYS ASSUME that the brand new USER knows NOTHING. And that you must STEER him/her thru the most concrete instructions that a monkey could follow them.
DO NOT OMIT a thing, si that you are assured you have answered every possible question that a NEW USER could possibly MISUNDERSTAND ... NOT "hope" that they "figure out" what you mean.
That's a pretty piss poor attitude to take anout your most VALUABLE USERS = The FIRST TIME USER who wants to feel confident that they executed everything correctly in order to secure their privacy.
If you leave them with even the slightest impression of having a LACK OF CONFIDENCE that they did or did not understand it the way they THINK they were SUPPOSED to understand and execute a set of tasks/instructions -- WHEN YOU ARE DEALING WITH A USER's PRIVACY...
...they will ABANDON this tool and move on to a tool that leaces them feeling "Secure" and "Confident" fhat they followed all the instructions properly and that they left no room for a single question.
Do you understand the concepts that I am attempting to convey to you?
Should you NOT understand, should you believe this advice too wordy or cumbersome or incoherent or unimportant, OR if you should ignore it altogether, I can GUARANTEE YOU WITH 100% CERTAINTY, you will CONTINUE TO ALWAYS score near the highest point on your "Abandonment Rate".
Oh, and if I didnt make it clear enough, those FIRST TIME USERS who "Abandon" the process half way thru it, as did I, statistical analysis has proven that almost all of them will NEVER attempt to use it again AND they will recommend your competitor's stealth/disposable email tools.
I will wager every penny I possess that your competitors will soon run you into your own little niche of those users who were able to "figure it out", despite the horrifying set of unintended MISdirections your technical writer mixed in with his/her "DIrections".
Good luck!
PS - What is a Master Password and why is it important and again, how in the hell does anyone ever know if they have setup everything correctly?
(Before you assume that I am stupid, read what you have written that leaves me feeling confident.
If I were confident, I would have NEVER gone to these lengths to attempt to help you.