Do clients use your forums?

Yes Robert, it definitely has. I started with Kayako but could not deal with their customer support so I dumped it (although it was nice). Someone recommended to me http://www.helpexec.com. It is a fairly new product, lacks a few features but can only get better. Their price is excellent and the developer is a good guy... I highly recommend it!

I agree with you about the community helping others on forums, but as I mentioned since the majority of my users are not computer savvy, they really didn't help much and I was stuck answering all the questions, so I figured using a KB and a FAQ would be better (even though the FAQ has more or less the same information, I keep it as some people don't know what a KB is but they do know what's a FAQ). Maybe I will give it another try sometime down the road.
 
We have around 250 members and 2000 posts. It's not big, but we havent pushed the particular forum much. It is turning in to a nice resource though which is good.
 
I've had clients use my forums maybe once every few months. I just kept it up to say we have another way to contact support, but doesn't work that great anyway and probably just makes the company look bad. although, when I look for a host I make sure they have an open forum to see how their customers like the service. a hosting site without a forum turns me away like they could have something to hide.

for actual support, I think a ticket system works best, but still, any support system is only as good as the staff that answers it. wether it's a ticket system, a forum, or email, or even phone support, the staff has to be there to help the client. I've seen way too many hosting companies take hours just for the first reply to a time critical situation. does not make me happy. most of the time I end up waiting until the next business day before I even get a reply.

with my current host, they have a ticket system and are pretty fast at answering it, but a lot of companies are using web chat systems now too. instant help for the client. works very well, again, if the staff is there to help the client.
 
re

We have a very active forum base actually, and we run VB.

Most users ever online was 496, 07-05-2007 at 09:39 AM.
Threads: 18,194,
Posts: 134,414,
Members: 10,815
 
I have a forum setup specific for users to go see when they have any issues using cPanel, sounds odd I know but it works for many that are new to websites or those that forget sometimes how something is done. It works decent, gets the point across and some clients get chatty (some non clients also use it as a reference point when cPanel site is overloaded).
 
We currently do not have company forums, as there is not really a need. I can only see them really working with site updates/announcements.
 
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