Planning: Constructing a Persuasive Argument [LO-3] , Chapter 10 You are the customer service manager for a company that sells a soft ware package used by not-for-profi t organizations to plan and manage fundraising campaigns.

Th e powerful soft ware is complicated enough to require a fairly extensive user’s manual, and the company has always provided a printed manual to customers. Customers frequently email your department with questions about using the soft ware and suggestions for using the soft ware to maximize fundraising eff orts. You know that many customers could benefi t from the answers to those questions and the suggestions from fellow customers, but with a printed manual issued once every couple years, you don’t have any way to collect and distribute this information in a timely fashion.

You’ve been researching wikis and believe this would be a great way to let customers participate in an ongoing conversation about using the soft ware. In fact, you’d like to convert the printed manual to a wiki on which any registered customer could add or edit pages. Rather than spend thousands of dollars printing a manual that is diffi cult to expand or update, the wiki would be a “living” document that continually evolves as people ask and answer questions and off er suggestions. Th e rest of the management team is extremely nervous, however. “We—not the customer—are the experts,” one says. Another asks, “How can we ensure the quality of the information if any customer can change it?” Th ey don’t deny that customers have valuable information to add; they just don’t want customers to have control of an important company document. Making up any information you need, write a brief email to your colleagues, explaining the benefi ts of letting customers contribute to a wiki-based user manual. (You can refer to pages 379–380 to learn more about wikis.)