Engineering Assignment: Technical Communication in E-commerce Industry

Question

Task

Write a research paper on engineering assignment at least 15 pages on technical communication in e-commerce industry. The paper is about a problem, with 3 cadidate solutions then pick out the best solution for the problem.

Answer

Executive Summary
The current project has highlighted the facts regarding technical communications problems and proposed solutions in the E-commerce industry. The question regarding the communication of the E-commerce industry has been identified in the report. It has been highlighted the problems including technical communicator's inability to communicate with the clients, the data user accessibility, and less potentiality regarding the customer's problem-solving.

E-commerce is electronically buying or selling online services over the digital platform. The current project has given an overview of the problem in the e-commerce industry regarding technical communication. It helps to systematize, defines, and classifies the competencies of communication. In the e-commerce industry, technical communication is essential because it allows its managers and personnel departments. The problem that has been aroused can be mitigated easily if the co.

The e-commerce industry should encourage customers to leave genuine reviews for the products. The company can adapt the strategically sector to train their technical communicators, helping the customers solve the problem quickly. In the report, user's accessibility regarding e-commerce websites has also been mentioned. The industry should strategically focus on creating a user-friendly website, which can attract consumers to their platforms. Innovative design models can help consumers to place the order quickly on the website. In the end, it can conclude that technical communicators' ability is essential to mitigate the risks that have been aroused in the E-commerce industry.

Problem Analysis

Problem Overview and Its Significance
The E-commerce industry is highly dependent upon computer-controlled technologies. The technical communication market is increasing in the word e-commerce industry. Various specialized communication types present in the modern e-commerce platforms are telephony, television broadcasting, e-mail, fax, radio, and satellite. Technical communication and technical communicator has critical roles in the developing connection between the online business platform and its customers. The enhancement of the relationship between effective communications will provide success in the e-commerce business. Techical communication is still dependent on mobile customer services. Thus it is essential to have a competent technical communicator to achieve success in the business industry. The problem of technical communication is the availability of skilled technical communicators. The technical communication has weak user data security technique and the ability to solve customer's problem also not potential enough to increase the e-commerce business.

Technical communication focuses on providing instruction to customers about technical communications. Communicating using WebPages, social media sites are also known as technical communication. It enhances the chance of promoting e-commerce business. Technical communication provides in-depth and solid information about the subject that helps the customers and the e-commerce platform to increase the trust between them. Technical communicators need skills so that they can provide expert information. Original graphics and videos creating competencies are necessary for the technical communicator to achieve the height of success. Technical communication is aimed to draft in such a manner that they can solve every customer query. Technical communication also needs to focus on developing a substantial area to store user data information securely.

Engineering Fundamentals of Problem
Engineers should be able to communicate complex information with various customers and e-commerce businesses. Developing a specific area of knowledge also requires proper communication methods. Technical communication in the –commerce business has a wide range of importance. The e-commerce platform is developed from technology. Thus technical communication is an inseparable part of the e-commerce business. Effective communicators have the skill to process various information and explain the terms creatively and adequately to the specific targeted audiences or customers to increase the company's selling rate. Technical communicators also need to understand sensitive information and user data information security measurement. Technical communication needs to reflect on the epistemological and theoretical lineage (Frith, 168-87). The technical communicator has to be an expert in deconstructing the existed technology.

They also need to criticize the rhetoric of technology. E-commerce businesses also focused on using big data in the aspect of growing the market. The data needs to be interpreted and communicated in an easy way to stakeholders. Practicing technical communication is necessary for e-commerce business and IT professionals to increase the company's success rate and individuals. For instance, a society that delivers a wide range of databases explains technical communication professionals, and it may include personal and professional information. The correlations may develop that the salaries are lower in the telecommunication field. Acknowledging the importance of criticism will help understand the importance of various skills needed in technical communication. It also provides in-depth details about project success or failure. Studies also showed that technical communication plays a crucial role in producing practical big data projects for e-commerce business companies. Educators identify the benefits and potential skills to become a professional technical communicator.

Lesson from Solutions
The lesson from the solution is that technical communicators can resolve all the problems of the customers with their knowledge and their skills in proper and professional communication. The benefits of learning technical communication can increase academic networking opportunities in various national and international organizations (Jamaludin et al.4). With the rise of social media usage, the boom in technical communication is also increasing. Distant reaches have been conducted on the effect of social media on the technical communication field. Social media also use technical communication to attract students or recruits.

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Figure 1: Social media programs use technical communication to attract students and recruiters (Vie, 44-59)

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Figure 2 (Vie 44-59) will show that Technical communication also uses in creating various e-commerce and instructions posts on social media.

Technical communication helps the student and professionals experience the theoretical foundations and narrative writing procedure for converting knowledge and technical aspects into well-writing formations. According to Palmieri's critique, technical communication is "a kind of rehabilitative profession of experts who assist those with disabilities in accessing information."(Zdenek 536-44). Technical communication problems can be solved by analyzing the writing disciplines of technical communications, such as the difference between real-life practices and theory, industry and academy, etcetera. A study showed that engineers who have advance career graphs spend 5-10% of their working time-solving problems. The rest of 90-95% of engineers involves in communication tasks such as researching, writing, reading reports, proposals, and mails (Last). Thus having a comprehensive knowledge of communication can help the professionals to grow the business and the company reputation.

Projective Objectives and Constraints
The objectives of the project are to establish the importance of communication in a technical aspect. The technical communicator's basic competency needs to develop the e-commerce platform and the importance of restricting sensitive information while providing technical communication service(Grant-Davie et al.151-71). Technical communicators should have the potential to solve customer questions with proper knowledge and communications (Lam and Boettger 1-4). The fewer amounts of training and expertise available is the primary constraint of the project.

The study showed that seventy percent of engineers and fifty percent of programmers get a rating depending on their writing and technical communicative potentiality. The engineers' technical communication can be rated from 'very important' to "extremely important." Technical communication helps a wide range of e-commerce based services such as customer service scripts, business process flow, training courses, e-commerce business policy documents, web-based training, product catalog, product packaging, proposal, and web-based training. According to various technical communication researchers, the field is rapidly mobbing toward the information architecture prospect (Boettger and Ishizaki 352-55). The greatest strength of the technical communicators is creating a meaningful and accessible narrative from the complex data.

Candidate Solutions
In this section, three candidate solutions to the engineering problem have been explained and evaluated. Among the three solutions, one of them is the most effective solution to improve technical communication in the e-commerce industry.

Scope of Solutions Considered
In the candidate solutions, the problem of technical communicators' ability to communicate has been identified, and the proper solution has been given. The power of the technical communicators for communication in the e-commerce industry has been improved strategically. Advanced Infrastructure Management Services can solve the problem of technical communication (Drake 1-58). It can transform the entire process into digitalization.

It can develop the whole technical communication process to the technology power. It enhances the efficiency of the business for more improvement in performance and productivity.

In today's e-commerce industry, data accessibility is essential. It should mitigate the Sothe data accessibility problem in the e-commerce industry for better productivity and performance. The e-commerce industries like Amazon, Walmart, and Tesco have adopted various data-driven strategies to collect and store as much data as possible. Some data-driven strategies should follow in the e-commerce industry for better productivity.

• Data Management Strategy: For the e-commerce industry, data management should be a vital issue. The government should implement an effective data management strategy to secure the data accessibility problem. Sometimes, it can seem that sensitive and personal data are lost within the organization. In this case, an effective data management process should be implemented to overcome the issue.
• Breaking Down of Data Silos: Data silos occur when the organizations are walling off information between the departments to find urgent information for the stakeholders. The breaking of data silos expresses the connection between the data and other quadrants of the company. It helps to preserve the data integrity of the organization.
• Understanding of the Customer Problem: In the e-commerce industry, customer satisfaction is essential. It helps to increase their productivity and overall performance in the market (Gajewska et al. 666-84). Sometimes, the customers cannot communicate with the e-commerce organization about defective products, payment problems, etc. So, e-commerce organizations should understand their situation and solve them. It will help to fulfill the demands of the customers. Social media interaction can also help the e-commerce industries know the customers' problems and their feedback.

Figure: Influences of Facebook in Technical Communication of Brand24 (Drake)

Explanation of Candidate Solutions Solution one
Three solutions can identify from the problems mentioned earlier, like technical communication, data access, and customer communication problems. The customers have to face lots of issues while visiting a website of the e-commerce industry. So, the potentials of the customers should be identified by the organization. The e-commerce industry should avoid fraudulent accounts or bots. It can cause revenue losses in the case of cash on delivery. So, to solve this problem, the e-commerce authority should look out for suspicious activity signs. The use of technology and automation is an excellent solution for identifying fake phone numbers or addresses. The organizations should include a data governance policy to prevent the accessing data problem. The six steps of data governance are:

Figure: Six Steps of Data Governance (Created by Author)

Solution two
The customers can visit the website, contact the customer support agents, and review social media. In today's technological world, customers can reach e-commerce organizations through many processes. So, the customer satisfaction strategy should be improved. In this case, e-commerce organizations should identify their most important customers. The customer support executives should contact them through email, phone, chat, online messaging, etcetera.

The channels should be integrated and optimized enough to be potential in solving customers' problems. The infrastructure of the e-commerce organization should be made advanced to attract more customers to the website. Augmented reality is the most attractive feature, and it differentiates it from other forms of virtual reality. It enhances the shopping experience of the customers in the online shopping context (Yim et al.89-103). It displays product visualization on images of physical features. It helps to develop technical communication in e-commerce organizations.

Solution Three
Customer problem-solving potentiality is very important in the e-commerce industry. The biggest challenge in the e-commerce industry is to maintain the loyalty of the customers. The customers and buyers do not know each other in the online shopping industry. So, e-commerce organizations should make effective solutions for solving the customers' problems. On the brand website, the company's address, its pictures of employees, credibility badges, and customer testimonials should be displayed to earn the loyalty of the customers. The e-commerce industry can improve its technical communication problem by following the problem-solving cycle:

Figure: Problem Solving Model (Created by Author)

Comparative Assessment of Candidate Solutions
From the above three solutions like the advanced infrastructure in data management strategy, breaking down data silos to prevent data access, and understanding the customer problem to solve the customers' problems, the last one is better. E-commerce organizations can improve their technical communication problem by solving the customers' issues. The customers face issues in return and cancel their orders. The e-commerce organizations can develop their return and cancellation policy for mitigating technical communication among the customers. In the other two problems solving strategies, the improvement in the brand website happens sometimes. Still, it is not enough to build effective technical communication between the customer and the organization.

The data accessing strategy effectively builds technical communication in the e-commerce industry, but sometimes, the personal and protective data can be lost from the organization. It affects technical communication. The personal information of the customers can be lost, and sometimes customers provide fake communication details. In this case, automated technology should be implemented for effective technical communication. However, small and medium e-commerce organizations cannot implement automated technology properly. So, the e-commerce industry should improve their customers' problem-solving potential.

The e-commerce industry, like Amazon and Walmart, update their customer satisfaction policies to improve technical communication. The customer executive can contact the consumers through phone calls, messages, emails, and many more. On the website, the customer can contact its support agent and talk about their problem. The support agents can solve their problems. It can solve the technical communication problem in the e-commerce industry. The solved technical issue should give the employees proper training and update their return and shipping policies to improve technical communication.

4. Recommendations
This section recommends the Customer’s problem-solving potentiality of technical communicators. Competencies of technical communicators have been identified in the report. It is essential to solving all the queries of the e-commerce industry's consumers—customer retention and customer loyalty help grow the business in an effective way.

4.1. Proposed Solution
From the data, it has been found that technical communications make up to 50% of the user experience. Customer's background in social commerce (SC) websites has become the new e-commerce platform. Amazon, eBay, and Warby Parker are some major e-commerce sites that have used strategic solutions to enhance the customer experience. SC has improved the relationship between the e-commerce industry and customer's experience (Beyari and Growth).

The prominent role of the technical communicators is solving the problem regarding the consumers. It has been said that no matter how much the UI elegant, if the technical communicators do not solve the problem, it becomes useless for the e-commerce industry to grow. Innovative technologies, Cloud computing, data accessibility can help gain consumers to the website. However, without technical communicators' training purpose, the customers do not go to retain on the platform.

CX is essential in the growth of the business. If a customer is using a particular product, the UX becomes the main criteria of its development. For instance, if a person loves to buy products from Walmart but hates to buy their products online. It is because the customer service of Walmart is not that up to the mark. That means the UI is not that compatible, or the technical communicators of Walmart do not have any idea about how to solve the customer's problem. Customer engagement on the e-commerce platforms can help the industry create more opportunities for people (Hendriyani and Raharja). With the help of the e-CRM process, the customer can quickly put their queries on online platforms. It also helps to evolve customer intimacy in the e-commerce industry.

Figure: Customer Engagement through Technical Communicators (created by author)

Technical communicators help users to evaluate the potential solutions and get most of the product post-purchase intention. Trained technical communicators have the organization's development, grows the knowledge and capabilities of the company. Employees' training and development of resources, strategic guidance, and policy documentation and analysis of the business help elevate the potentiality and logical decision making regarding the customer's problem-solving. All of the aspects have been combined with the content technologies of the management.

• Training and Resource Development
  Company training and materials are the only direct communication from the leadership that has strategically improved the customer's experience in delivery. It has been identified that technical communicators are the voice of the organization. The communicators help to satisfy the customer. It can also say that training helps to create shared knowledge and guidance for the employees. It can also help to communicate with the customers seamlessly. Soft-skill training can also help elevate the company's performance rate (Ibrahim et al.1-20). It makes the e-commerce industry more competitive than the other sector in the market. Improved performance can also develop the problem-solving method of the employees.

Figure: Soft skill development (Ibrahim et al.)

• Strategic Guidance And Documentation Of Policy
  Policies and decision-making guidance can also help to enhance corporate communications. Technical communicators gather all the information regarding the resources of the customers’ service. The information regarding the customer's problem can help the communicators solve the consumer's strategically. From the data, it has been found that 50% of data analysis and 50% usage of data are helped create sustainability to meet the customer’s need. Policy documentation and strategic guidance can help the communicators to solve the problems of the clients strategically.

Criteria for Technical Communicators

Effective Communication Skills
Communication skills have been defined as the progress of the professional life. It can found that accessible communication can help to evaluate the technical communication process with the customers. Some of the communication skills can be followed by the technical communicators to enhance the problem-solving method.

• Patience
  The technical communicators should miss out on the miscommunication regarding the post-purchasing of the product. A great deal of patience is required to understand the problem. It can also help to mitigate the strategic problem way. Practical communication skills develop the assessing communication between the communicators and the customers (Bulu? et al.1-16).
• Accuracy
  While giving the service or mitigating any consumers' problem, the technical communicators should get an accurate amount of information. Here, the customer also should co-operate with the technical communicators.
• Proactive Approaches
  When the consumer is calling for the solution, the communicator should keep patience and strategically resolve it. The person should proactively approach the consumers to deal with the problem. The customer service should not keep waiting for the consumer for too long. Well-manner and strategic problem-solving methods can help to progress the customer relationship.
• Attentiveness
  Giving full attention to the consumer can also develop the relationship with the customers. While the consumer is asking for query solving, the technical communicator should give importance to the consumers. It will not only help the consumers, as well as the helper should not miss out on any information regarding the queries.
• Knowing The Service Well
  The technical communicator should know the product description well. Otherwise, the person could not solve the queries of the customers. It will be difficult for the consumers too to communicate with the problem solver. The management of the company should effectively train the employees to know the products and brands well. Knowing the service well can help the technical communicator to help to communicate well with the consumers. It enhances the reliability of the consumers. It can helps to engage the consumers to the industry.
• Honesty
  If the technical communicators do not the business details well, the person should honestly ask the consumer about the company's business information. It will make the conversation more reliable, and it also enhances the customer's loyalty towards the particular e-commerce platform.
• Active Listening
  Active technical communicators can help to enhance the communication process more reliable. If the consumer is satisfied with the answer to the problems, it will also impact the business growth. Finally, it can say that practical communication skills will help the e-commerce industry to mitigate the problem regarding technical communications.

Conclusion
The e-commerce industry highly depends on technologies. So, technical communication is essential in the e-commerce industry. Various technical communication strategies are found in the e-commerce industry, like telephones, emails, fax, online messaging, etcetera. It helps to develop the relationship between e-commerce organizations and customers. Sometimes, the lack of technical communication in the e-commerce industry affects the relationship between customers and organizations. So, technical communication focuses on the connection between the customer and the company. The company can use various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etcetera to increase their technical communication. The competency of technical communicators develops the e-commerce industry.

Some solutions are established to develop the telecommunication system in the organization. The employees should have the proper training to meet the customer's problems and solve them. The data access problem can solve with the implementation of adequate technical communication tools. So, e-commerce organizations are more active on their social media platforms to increase technical communication. The e-commerce organizations should update their return and cancellation policies to avoid customer problem. The infrastructure should be updated more with the implementation of automated technology in the e-commerce industry. The telephonic communication should be made more effective by applying more social media platforms.

Glossary

E-commerce: electronic commerce

Big data: Collection of data used in huge volume. It replaced the traditional data management system.

IT: Information Technology

UX: User Experience

UI: User Interface

CX: Customer experience

Database: Collection of user information that can be managed and updated with innovative technology.

SC: Social commerce

eCRM: Electronic Customer Relationship Management

References
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Bulu?, Mustafa, et al. “Effective Communication Skills: A New Conceptual Framework and Scale Development Study.” International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, vol. 9, no. 2, 2017, pp. 1–16.

Drake, Kimberly A. Integrating Culture with Business:| b Closer Examination of International Business, e-Commerce and What This Means for Technical Communication. University of Wisconsin-Stout, 2019, pp. 1–58.

Frith, Jordan. “Big Data, Technical Communication, and the Smart City.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication, vol. 31, no. 2, SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA, 2017, pp. 168–87.

Gajewska, Teresa, et al. “The Impact of the Level of Customer Satisfaction on the Quality of E-Commerce Services.” International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2019, pp. 666–84.

Grant-Davie, Keith, et al. “Helping Doctoral Students Establish Long-Term Identities as Technical Communication Scholars.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, vol. 47, no. 2, SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA, 2017, pp. 151–71.

Hendriyani, Chandra, and Sam’un Jaja Raharja. “Analysis Building Customer Engagement through E-CRM in the Era of Digital Banking in Indonesia.” International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies, vol. 11, no. 5, Inderscience Publishers (IEL), 2018, pp. 479–86.

Ibrahim, Rosli, et al. “The Effect of Soft Skills and Training Methodology on Employee Performance.” European Journal of Training and Development, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017, pp. 1–20.

Jamaludin, Khairul Azhar, et al. “Framework for Technical Communication Skills Content Development for Students in Malaysian Vocational Colleges: A Fuzzy Delphi Study.” Journal of Technical Education and Training, vol. 11, no. 4, 2019.

Lam, Chris, and Ryan Boettger. “An Overview of Research Methods in Technical Communication Journals (2012–2016).” 2017 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (ProComm), IEEE, 2017, pp. 1–4.

Vie, Stephanie. “Training Online Technical Communication Educators to Teach with Social Media: Best Practices and Professional Recommendations.” Technical Communication Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 3, Taylor & Francis, 2017, pp. 344–59.

Yim, Mark Yi-Cheon, et al. “Is Augmented Reality Technology an Effective Tool for E-Commerce? An Interactivity and Vividness Perspective.” Journal of Interactive Marketing, vol. 39, Elsevier, 2017, pp. 89–103.

Zdenek, Sean. “Transforming Access and Inclusion in Composition Studies and Technical Communication.” College English, vol. 82, no. 5, National Council of Teachers of English, 2020, pp. 536–44.

Online sources
Last, S., 2021. WHAT IS TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION?. [online] Pressbooks.bccampus.ca. Available at: [Accessed 4 March 2021].