Using a Forum as a support

G

GCSolutions

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How many of you use a forum for a support channel?

We have one yet we do not make it public since most support goes through the helpdesk so the forum looks dead at times. It is nice for a backup to the main helpdesk though.
 
Forums were great back in the day, but the reality of things is that user information is private. Generally, you'd need to obtain their password information to troubleshoot exact steps - as a result, forums are not really the best option.

A dead looking forum is never good, either for search engines or for the general public. We used to have one for years, we ended up killing it off a few years ago and swapped to a blog system instead for providing information and some general comments. A dead forum just looks bad all the way around.
 
I was thinkong about going to a blog. Then decided to created a facebook page and twitter accounts. to pass gemeral information.
 
The other issue besides security is that some people become overwhelmed with rage if someone is not on their issue right away. We have never went the forum route as we prefer to keep things organized and not cluttered. The last thing you want is a past customer (and I have seen this bunches of times) coming into someone's support thread to bash the company while you are trying to help the original person with the problem.
 
As a customer I do not mind using a forum for support but most times I need something that requires me to open a ticket. If it is a general question then a forum is fine. If it is like downgrading my account or upgradding my account or related to my account then a ticket is better.

Also as a customer, specially a potential customer. If I am looking at your site to maybe host with you and see that the forum is dead I might think the host it self is dead or dieing and more then likely will not be setting up an account.
 
bunnykins said:
Also as a customer, specially a potential customer. If I am looking at your site to maybe host with you and see that the forum is dead I might think the host it self is dead or dieing and more then likely will not be setting up an account.
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Cannot agree more. Which is why we took ours privite vs public. (after being public for a bit)
 
Using a forum as a support channel is a nice addon to your company, but it requires a lot of hard work to keep going.

Like many others have said, a dead forum is bad publicity for your company. On the other hand, a working, active forum is one of the best ways to make a company "famous" along its customers and even potential customers.

So it goes both ways. If you decide to keep it, make it look active. Post offers or giveaways so that your customers comes back, even if they don't have a problem.

Also make sure that the forum is NOT a replacement for your helpdesk/ticket system. Only a place to get general help from people who also like what they are doing, being a customer of you :)
 
Forum is place where you can share your views, ideas or opinions. It is useful to gain knowledge, help other users to solve their queries.

As far as support is concerned it is always not an ideal place for seeking support.

Ticketing system, Live chat or Phone support are the recommended and best ways for the support issues.

You may need to provide support people, your account details, server details or some other information related to your technical issues which you can not provide on public forum.

Additionally some of the issues are time consuming and requires more investigation. In such cases you can not ask update every time on forum.
 
A lot of forums will surprise you. They'll have thousands of threads and posts, but only 3 or 4 new ones in the past week. I can think of one right now that I visited yesterday that's been online for years (very active), but several new members had 20+ spam threads - telling me that it's no longer being actively moderated. From a corporate standpoint, I think blogs and knowledgebases fare better.
 
We use a support ticket system via email, or else over the phone. A forum doesn't seem to be the best way to handle support, usually, although it could be helpful for things that involve basics that other users might be able to help with.
 
Our forum is fairly active and works for us. We have a small support section for basic queries which we respond to (though the community can also which is great) though anything which would require a login would be taken to a ticket or other support channel.

If you have the forum users and activity then it really is a great tool to have, allows your customers to engage with each other and help each other out as well as get involved in discussions yourselves.
 
We used to have our forum & our techies use to post general info as well as linux commands etc to help clients as well as visitors/members. Being mostly assisted by live chat & email support, forums loose their charm. It was getting extra garbage every now & then by the ever-visiting Spammers & virus, coz of which one day we had to kill our much-loved forum :(
But, nostalgically, we want to start afresh with them again...we hope we'll get it a new face all over again..
 
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hostechsupport said:
We used to have our forum & our techies use to post general info as well as linux commands etc to help clients as well as visitors/members. Being mostly assisted by live chat & email support, forums loose their charm. It was getting extra garbage every now & then by the ever-visiting Spammers & virus, coz of which one day we had to kill our much-loved forum :(
But, nostalgically, we want to start afresh with them again...we hope we'll get it a new face all over again..
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That is why keeping the company forums locked is a good idea. Let only your customers register for an account. That can always be verified by the same email address used when signing up for service.

The things to consider is that when customers leave, what do you do? Do you still permit them to access the forum? Do you delete their account and posts? What if they left because they were unhappy with the service and come back from time to time to discourage others from signing up? What if they post a negative review? How do you deal with it?
 
Artashes said:
That is why keeping the company forums locked is a good idea. Let only your customers register for an account. That can always be verified by the same email address used when signing up for service.

The things to consider is that when customers leave, what do you do? Do you still permit them to access the forum? Do you delete their account and posts? What if they left because they were unhappy with the service and come back from time to time to discourage others from signing up? What if they post a negative review? How do you deal with it?
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when our forum was active what we did with ex clients was yes still allow them forum access, but any posts/comments they made had to be verified by admin/moderator before being published. If their comments were negative and just made to abuse/turn people away from us then they did not get published and if needed we would ban the user
 
easyhostmedia said:
when our forum was active what we did with ex clients was yes still allow them forum access, but any posts/comments they made had to be verified by admin/moderator before being published. If their comments were negative and just made to abuse/turn people away from us then they did not get published and if needed we would ban the user
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Then again deleting or not publishing negative feedback could just enrage them more, go to other forums where you have no control and post then add the point that you delete negative comments on your forum etc...

Which ever way you do it, it can easily back fire :).
 
Alex - Arvixe said:
Then again deleting or not publishing negative feedback could just enrage them more, go to other forums where you have no control and post then add the point that you delete negative comments on your forum etc...

Which ever way you do it, it can easily back fire :).
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most of the time i think they would post on other forums before posting on your own. You are not going to allow users to post abusive comments or comments that could turn people away from your services on your own forums.
 
I think that using forum for support purposes is justified if you offer some plans that don't come with 24/7 support. In all other cases, I can't imagine a situation where someone would prefer spending time and searching for a solution on a forum (without any guarantee that the solution will be found) instead of just contacting support and getting any questions answered right away.

I don't have much experience with this though. If someone has positive experience with providing support through a forum to paid customers, it would be great to hear your story and your thoughts.

Alex - Arvixe said:
Our forum is fairly active and works for us. We have a small support section for basic queries which we respond to (though the community can also which is great) though anything which would require a login would be taken to a ticket or other support channel.
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I see that your forum is indeed very nice and active. How did you do this? :) Why do you think your users prefer to go to forum instead of just contacting support through live chat/e-mail/phone? If they just hang out there, why not in social networks where you have your profiles and pages?
 
Irene Rogers said:
I think that using forum for support purposes is justified if you offer some plans that don't come with 24/7 support. In all other cases, I can't imagine a situation where someone would prefer spending time and searching for a solution on a forum (without any guarantee that the solution will be found) instead of just contacting support and getting any questions answered right away.
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Personally, I'll look through a forum or do a google search before contacting support. Its usually faster.
 
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