The cost of low-quality documentation
"Microsoft estimates the total cost of a single call answered by a help desk technician to be more than $20 per call — regardless of whether the technician can provide an answer." Saving Time, Money, and Expertise with a Self-help Support System, Saul Candib. Microsoft TechNet, May 1997, Volume 5, Issue 5.
No documentation, or low-quality documentation, costs you money. Calculate the following costs to your company.
Service desk costs
- Wages of the service desk employees
- Office space and equipment for the service desk
- Training of the service desk employees.
The cost of lost sales
- People do not buy your software because of bad reviews in magazines
- Customers do not upgrade, or they buy alternative software from a competitor
- Customers do not buy other software that you sell.
Other costs
- Refunds and related administration costs
- If customers telephone your software developers directly, their productivity decreases
- Possible legal costs if bad documentation causes an accident.
See also 
The costs of poor communication (www.solari.net/toward-humanity/2009/10/18/the-costs-of-poor-communication/)
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