Possible Owner's Manual Solution

[dennylm]

Scott and Coley,

As I'm waiting (with GREAT excitement) for my 3055 to be ready in a couple of weeks, I keep hearing of more and more of your customers being very unhappy about the quality, or lack of quality regarding Heartland's owner's manuals. It makes sense to me that trying to keep an owner's manual up-to-date with model-specific, detailed information and instructions would be a nightmare considering the nature of the business and how frequently changes and improvements are made to each model. I'm sure this is especially true in the case of a young company like Heartland that is impressively trying to listen to their customers and fine tune their products accordingly. A hardcopy document would clearly be continually out of date. I have a suggestion you might consider.

Create a living Adobe PDF document for each model. When a customer buys a new trailer, simply point them to the on-line address of the document and they can either refer to it on-line, download it to their own system for referral or if they own a share of a paper mill, download and print it. Don't even try to keep a hardcopy current in each delivery. This would allow a dedicated resource (sorry, employee) to keep each document easily updated as engineering or the factory pass change information to them. This would even allow for keeping dated versions of the dynamic document available to anyone who needs one for a trailer that was manufactured say two years ago.

I'm impressed with the stories I've read and heard about how the three of you started Heartland and how quality conscious you have been. This owner's manual area is becoming a real black eye for you. The PDF idea would allow you to introduce an aspect of your product that could easily become a very differentiating advantage over your competition. Wouldn't it be nice to hear your customers sharing, "Of everything I love about a Heartland trailer, I'm simply blown away by the quality and helpfulness of their on-line model-specific owner's manual! You simply don't find that with ANY other RV manufacturer!"

Think about the cost of a dedicated document administrator or two and then compare it to the elimination of multiple service calls and dissatisfied customers due to an embarrassing owner's manual. I think it would more than pay for itself. Just a suggestion!

 

[jimtoo]

That is a very good idea. I know there have been a lot of changes from the 06 to the 08 models, yet the very same "owners manual" still comes in the units. It could even be VIN specific with very little effort I would think.

 

[Scott]

First of all, thank you for the well articulated post. There are some good suggestions in it. Just so Heartland is not singled out here - I want you to know that when we put our owners manual together, we needed to ensure that we covered every legality, every liability and as many functions/features as we could. I personally gathered six (yes 6) other manufacturer's owners manuals to make sure that we were on the right track. Our lawyers spent a lot of time on it, making sure that we were properly covering as many possibilities that may harm, endanger, etc. anyone (i.e. you may harm yourself if you don't open your cabinet door correctly...), and we tried to cover every major area that a person would need to know to operate their coach. What we did not do, and very few in this industry have done well, is explain every different feature and function of many of the systems or interior items. What most of us rely on is the individual component's owner's manual. For example, if you have a central vacum system, it comes with it's own owners manual. As does the Fantastic Fan; Furnace; Water Heater; Awnings; etc. Is this an area there that we can improve in in our owner's manual? ABSOLUTELY. Do I agree that our owner's manual is an embarrassment? No. Because of the changing nature of this business and these products, if we were to try to get very specific, you are correct in stating that we would have out-of-date manuals lying all over the place. Now - when you start talking electronic versions, you are on to something. The problem there is- we couldn't just rely on electronic versions being available for liability purposes. People would try to sue us for not including the printed version with their coach. We would in fact, need to reproduce and include with each unit a written version, even if an electronic version existed.
What I have proposed and even bounced off forum members is a "Practical Users Guide" for our fifth wheels which would include not only a lot of instructions but also a lot of helpful hints and informative suggestions that would help first time campers figure these rigs out. What is supposed to happen in the selling process, is that the selling dealer is to spend a good amount of time (what ever is necessary) going through each and every function of the coach. This is to be done on the day of the delivery. One of the problems is, that people are so excited to get on the road with their new rig that they rush through the orientation and skip over a lot of items that they simply didn't recieve enought instruction on how to use.
YOU MAKE SOME REALLY GOOD POINTS - AND BELIEVE ME, I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO SEE US COME UP WITH SOMETHING MUCH MORE COMPREHENSIVE FOR OUR OWNERS TO USE. AND I WILL NOT LET THIS DROP UNTIL WE DO THAT. Don't take some of my explainations as simply denial or rebuttal. I am just trying to inform you of some of the things that went into making the current owners manual, and why it doesn't include a lot of the individual product instructions.

ST

 

[davebennington]

I agree that the problem with the manual is one that needs to be enhanced and dennylm has a great idea however I do understand the position that Scott is in, especially in today's society when anything doesn't go our way the answer is to sue someone.
For us because we are older and seem to forget things that are said/shown us we opted to tape our pdi now when ever we have a question about how something works or what to do when, we get the tape or now dvd and look at it. If something like this could be incorporated into the delivery of the coach just maybe some of the problems/questions could be eliminated.
Just a thought.

Dave

 

[dennylm]

Scott, thank you for the quick reply. I hadn't thought about the legal aspect. As I said, just a suggestion. Keep up the good work and keep quality out there as the single most important reason for attracting new customers and satisfying us "old timers". You have a GREAT company here!

Dave, what a WONDERFUL idea! We will definitely video our PDI too. Nobody has a worse memory than mine Bruce, er, Dave.

Denny

 

[cdbMidland]

Amen to the legal issues. I'm sure most of us have heard about the lawsuit against Winnebago because the driver thought she was on "auto-pilot" and went back to fix lunch, and of course, wrecked the motorhome. Her judgement was for a lot of bucks and a new MH and Winnebago had to insert some words into its manual that essentially stated that someone had to drive it down the road - it wouldn't drive itself.

I would love to see photos specific to each VIN that showed the construction in its various stages so everyone would know where the tanks, wiring, etc. was all located in that particular unit.

I plan to have my camera with me at the rally and take pictures of whatever is being produced. I know it won't be exact, but it will be better than nothing.

 

[Dusty]

Its just an opinion, but I think this country has way to many lawyers and nowhere near enough good product manuals., yup

Dusty

 

[nscaler2]

Why Not?

Publish the legal part for all the units in one book that covers all on paper and include it with each unit. Then publish in Adobe format the changeable items that go with each different model and either put it on line or on a CD uncluded with the trailer. Then the changable items could be updated without having to reprint paper every time a change is made. Just my .02$. None

 

[katkens]

Publish the legal part for all the units in one book that covers all on paper and include it with each unit. Then publish in Adobe format the changeable items that go with each different model and either put it on line or on a CD uncluded with the trailer. Then the changable items could be updated without having to reprint paper every time a change is made. Just my .02$. None

I believe your idea is worth more than the .02$ -- Great Idea ----Ken

 

[ct0218]

How a jury could award money to someone that evolved from that gene pool is beyond me. Scary. Some good ideas presented here.

 

[jpmorgan37]

Here is a website that offers some of the things that have been suggested here. http://rveducation101.com/

 

[HappyKayakers]

Publish the legal part for all the units in one book that covers all on paper and include it with each unit. Then publish in Adobe format the changeable items that go with each different model and either put it on line or on a CD uncluded with the trailer. Then the changable items could be updated without having to reprint paper every time a change is made. Just my .02$. None

Great idea!! If there's a spec sheet for each RV going down the line, it should be fairly easy to build on that to make the pdf file.

 

[aekisu]

I just took delivery on a 3055 and was grealy disppointed in the user manual. I cast my vote for a pdf file.

 

[ziggy]

I would love a DVD with the information Scott talked about above. We are new to RVs and couldn't tape our pdi, so having a DVD made by the company covering major things like remembering to turn on the hot water heater switch on the outside of the coach (yes a cold shower happened, then someone in the park reminded us about the switch) and how to run the cables to get the whole entertainment system including cable, satellite, surround sound, etc. all integrated would be very helpful. It could include tips to make hitching and unhitching, leveling, and winterizing as easy as possible. I'm sure there are lots of things that we just don't remember from our pdi, even though we were both paying close attention and asking questions the whole time.

If anyone is taking a vote, I vote for a DVD of RV basics that includes all of the legal stuff Heartland has to put in it and use that DVD during the pdi to show how the DVD player works. That shows people the DVD exists and shows the DVD player function. Then put clips from the DVD and .pdf versions of the legal stuff online and start an updates or announcements or Tips section on the web site to cover changes as they happen. This forum already works as the place to ask questions and get individual help.

Sorry this is long... Must be because I'm a teacher and I just can't keep myself from trying to find better ways to spread information.

Kristy

 

[ChopperBill]

Problem with all of this and I know it is difficult for us to believe but lots of folks don't use the internet. My dad and I are the only folks in the family that knows how to do anything but e-mail. Heck in this part of the country half the folks don't speak or read English. Going to have to make an owners manual thicker than the New York phone book to satisfy everyone.

 

[5catfam]

Having just got our 3055 I am very disappointed in the owners manual. I vote for a DVD showing the things like draining fresh water tank, winterization, etc, etc, all the basic things that you need to refer back to.

 

[Uncle Rog]

Chopper, if you have a 50% english speaking ratio do not complain.....

 

[Westwind]

Suggestion

This website is an excellent source of information for the
new owner. It's much easier for an owner/user to explain,
how too than maybe someone who is working in
the office writing something they haven't used.
Been there done that.
As a word of encouragement to Heartland Management,
the automotive industry has been putting out operator
manuals for years and seems to stay out of court over
them. Might take alook at their manuals, and watch out
for the lawyers, sometime they get a little overzealous
when trying to protect us and look sight of the forest
because of the trees.

 

[creeper]

Amen to the legal issues. I'm sure most of us have heard about the lawsuit against Winnebago because the driver thought she was on "auto-pilot" and went back to fix lunch, and of course, wrecked the motorhome. Her judgement was for a lot of bucks and a new MH and Winnebago had to insert some words into its manual that essentially stated that someone had to drive it down the road - it wouldn't drive itself.

Urban legend.....http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/cruise.asp never happened..

But, yes people sue for the stupidest things just for money.

 

[cdbMidland]

I stand corrected. Thanks, Creeper for clearing up this hoax story.

Chuck