Do forums help your business?

WireNine

WireNine

Member
Does a forum help your business growth? How does it? I have found that if you have a small amount of clients, it is not such a good idea to have a forum, but if you have over 100 or so clients, then having a forum can help you out somewhat. :rolleyes:
 
This question ahs come around a couple of times in the past and I have posted it in a few other Forums a few times myself.
It seems that when you have a good client network, or a tight-nit network of users, who are actively involved with your Sales, Technical or Discussions areas, it is well worth having a Forum, however more often than not, people put up Forums in inappropriate places and end up having a Forum with 3 posts on it, which somehow ends up in like 6th rank on a google search...

All in all, Forums can help you bridge a gap between yourself and your customers/prospective customers and can also be a means of promoting or alerting new products or services as it reaches a vast community, instead of an email which is usually only seen by a select number of people.

One thing which is a big no-no is needing people to register in order to view or access your pre-sales sections. A big plus on the other hand is intergrating your client login section, with that of your forum's so that the clients need not register twice (or more if there are more sections to your site).

These are just a fwe things I have learned and would be grateful for any feedback or experiences others have had.

~Equinox
 
Yes To Forums

We have just added a forum to our site, I have used support forums in the past and feel that when a customer has many choices to get their questions answered, they are happier. Sometimes a customer will find their answer in a forum post, or from a reply in a forum, sometimes they'll need live help, or to send an email plus don't forget about telephone support.
 
We have offered forums on our site for about two years now. There are less than 100 users registered on them. They are great for making announcements when we are doing maintenance and that is what most of our customers use them for. Our ticket system gets used all the time so the forums aren't a must, but I do find them benefitful for announcements.
 
Having a forum is a real plus in my opinion.

First of all - the visitors, I'm sure it's a good look for your services for them to see you have active users using forums, forming a community. And that you have nothing to hide!

Secondly - it is a good way to help your clients in a more personal informal friendly level. I found that many people appreciate this kind of relation.

Thirdly - after a while if you have built up some sort of numbers of support enquiries, your forum practically becomes a knowledgebase. Many support enquiries are novice standard questions like "How can I setup a subdomain?" - A curious client can search for answers to questions like this in a forum, cuts support tech time. The larger the scale of the forum, the larger time saved.
 
From the client/customer stand point ... one of the main reasons I chose my last web host was because of their very active forum.

Potential Customers had an area they could ask their pre-sales question without having to register.

The members were all very active in offering solutions to questions and very supportive in helping each other.

But the main thing was ... the web host staff/volunteers were "right there" all the time and if something was posted that required the company's input or action on their part ... the response was usually within an hour and most times within minutes.

Unfortunately ... the company "dropped the ball" after a couple years and the forums became a major source of frustration not only for me but for most members/customers. No responses by staff ... the member to member support quickly dwindled to almost nothing. The forum basically died a quick but painful death.

So .. yes ... forums can be a great benefit to web hosts ... for announcements and a way to answer common questions & resolve common problems and thereby circumventing a possible multitude of Help Desk tickets addressing the same problems.

But, in my uneducated opinion, a forum is only a benefit if the web host is willing to commit the time and effort to be actively involved in it.

JMHO
Peter
 
I like hosting companies that offer a forum. It allows you an easy way to contact them for help. Also, your question might be already answered on a forum, which saves the support staff some headaches after having to reply to the same question 100 times.
 
I don't have a forum on <my site> because it isnt big enough. I might in the future.
 
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It's a bit chicken-and-egg.
If you are too small and your forums are a ghosttown then this will put potential customers off.
But how do you get big enough to have enough customers to keep the forums going in order to attrack more customers?
I like having forums because they do help to engender a sense of community.
They are not necessarily very busy, but enough posts to keep things "ticking over" and, importantly, when someone raises an issue (rather than just general chat) then we answer it asap.
What might be considered a downside (though we don't mind) is that clients tend to ask us things that they would never ask through the support ticketing system - eg programming issues that really , are outside the scope of web hosting support but we are happy to answer such questions if we can.
Again, I thing this enhances client opinion of you because you are going above and beyond that which would normally be expected....
 
I see it as a plus, it provides community activity and gives a more "culture" to your site. Attracting more vistors, also helps when members like the forum and tell other people to join up + more stats for your site.

Later,
CoLdFIrE :santa:

MOD NOTE: Post edited for promotional content. The MarketPlace is the only place where promotion is allowed. We rely on your further cooperation.
 
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Definatly puts you more in touch with the business. You wouldn't really be able to be up to date without these forums. Definatly a plus.
 
Forums are a great idea to allow your customers to interact and be able to post pre-sales questions as well as small support issues.

I definitly feel that a forum can help your company expand!
 
It is a good idea to have a fourm if you can encourage your customers to help each other and to create a community. They can also post different opinions about your service and to suggest you how to improve it.

But you have to pay enough attention to their posts and to moderate the forums. So you need enough time and even should hire someone to do this job for you.

What are you gonna do when an angry customer post a negative thread? Are you going to remove it or not. I do not thing it would be a good idea.

So if you launch a forum should be ready to work hard to moderate it and to be prepared to face criticism.

Best Regards
 
It really depends, from a customers point of view a forum is a great place to get support. From a end user that is just surfing around, unless its a forum with popular topics (and sections like web design tips etc) they might not even want to signup because it will look like a customer only forum.

My forums are setup so even if someone views them, we have all sorts of interesting forums to post in.

In a one word anwser, yes


- Eddy
 
I've just put a forum on my site now, Trying to get all my customers to sign up to it now, Its there to help them, at the moment the forum has 5 users, you think whats the point? but it will grow into a community, its a perfect place to put network issues up and everything thats going on.
 
Do forums help a business? That is a tough question, and the answer would have to be sometimes. Depending on which state your hosting company is at, you may or may not need one. Would your forum be for support purposes only?

I think that the hosting companies that start up earlier are more inclined to have a forum, this is because they do not have many customers and they need to look like they are always active. Not saying they aren't, its just that they need to show exactly what their service is about. The problem with new companies haveing forums are that there will not be very many users, and that may make the company look bad. So overall, it really depends how you look at it.

The larger companies do not really require a forum because at that state they should have a good line of support options. There will also be very many customers, so a forum might get a little messy because of the fact that the members would be on it for support- sometimes frusterated, they may not want to talk about interesting sites (example) in the general board...

If you are thinking about having a forum for your company, make sure you look at all of the pros and cons that would relate to your specific needs. Good Luck with whichever you choose.
 
PP, in your case having a forum is a bad idea, it's empty and lifeless. I look at your forum and think, gosh, isn't this place dead...

If you have 100+ active members, It is a good asset, as it helps promote your business, however it should never be advertised as a front-line source of support.
 
I agree, I reccommend you do a little research and just scope out the competition, pick out the best traits and mold your forum into it. With a good strategy, you can really minimize if not remove the cons.

Phlint.com said:
Do forums help a business? That is a tough question, and the answer would have to be sometimes. Depending on which state your hosting company is at, you may or may not need one. Would your forum be for support purposes only?

I think that the hosting companies that start up earlier are more inclined to have a forum, this is because they do not have many customers and they need to look like they are always active. Not saying they aren't, its just that they need to show exactly what their service is about. The problem with new companies haveing forums are that there will not be very many users, and that may make the company look bad. So overall, it really depends how you look at it.

The larger companies do not really require a forum because at that state they should have a good line of support options. There will also be very many customers, so a forum might get a little messy because of the fact that the members would be on it for support- sometimes frusterated, they may not want to talk about interesting sites (example) in the general board...

If you are thinking about having a forum for your company, make sure you look at all of the pros and cons that would relate to your specific needs. Good Luck with whichever you choose.
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