A forum on a hosts site?

[BlackStorm]

Do you think a host should have a forum on their site?

I have a forum on my site which is used everyday but because i use it for people to make requests for free accounts I find that there are quite a lot of posts from people that may make your site look unprofessional.

I thought having a forum would be a great place for both members to support each other and also to create a good community between the members.
Its a good way of the customers getting to know the host through a forum.

Just make sure you will be able to go on your forum and that it will stay active, staying active is very important but can also be hard to do.

Something which a lot of other people think is that you should not make a forum public until you have kept it private between your current customers until its mroe active and has more topics and posts.

 

[Designr]

We actually have 2 forums. One is a regular forum for members to communicate and the other is a back up forum (hosting on another one of our servers, in a different datacenter)

The forum(s) have really increased our company's profile and we could not run our hosting business without them.

The back up forum is just in case the main forum is offline, where our members can receive support from our staff.

Jay
Design R Web Solutions

 

[XSecure]

I think you should as well......great way to get to know your customers and them to get to know you......also provides your custome a good way to vieew changes in service or server issues..

 

[imported_Mark]

having a forum isn't always a great idea... first of all if it isn't used that much, it makes your site look dead. Now when a customer does use it, it will be to ask a question/complain about a problem. So say you host over 700 cleints... and 15 of them have major problems with the hosting. All 15 of them post their problems on the forum. Now when potential customers come to your site. All they see is 15 complaints and don't realize you have 685 happy customers.

 

[GordyMac]

If you are going to use it and your clients it can be great, but it also leaves you open for un satisfied customers to give your company a piece of their mind in the public as Mark stated.

 

[XSecure]

I have a forum and i use it ...the only problem i have is gettiing my customers to use it and no im me o much

but we also try to use the forum for other stuff as well....not just a hosting support community

 

[BlackStorm]

Yeah building it up as a community forum is a lot better than just using it for support.
It can have a lotof benefits, people considering hosting with your company shouldnt be put off if they can see your current clients posting what they think of your company, at least they will know if they are satisfied with your service.
They will also see how you handle problems and how long until a problem is resolved.

Not every comment from your clients in your forum should be bad anyway (i hope hehe)

 

[Vovex Technology]

We at VovexTechnology have a forum as well on our site. We use it both for community use and for basic support / faq.

Most of the time our forum is just used to post important news and updates which we will link our clients to in email, or instant message. That way they have access to the information, and have the option of replying.