Using a Forum as a support

Using a forum as support is slow and not 100% effective. As it is said above there is no 100% chance that solution will be found. Ticket system support is currently the best way.
 
You should not use anything nowadays but a ticketing system.
Main reason - traceability.
You can always defend yourself when a client is upset and is blaming you for a delay or for some misunderstanding.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned SPAM.
Forums attract tons of spam, that would be the main reason to not use it as a support venue.
 
We used both

A ticket system
A knowledge base

The ticket system also has some common answers and can point to the knowledge base where a customer has omitted to look there first.
 
Using a forum for support where a user is paying for a service isn't a very good idea. If the company has a forum, especially one that lays dormant with a few posts, it also looks bad.

Support should be handled via the service desk. Forums are for discussions.
 
having a forum as a support is not a good idea since you are exposing the issues on public as well as customers issues which they might not like.

Forums is good for sharing experience or good ideas.
 
If its supplementing your own helpdesk then its ok but if its one vs the other then forum is just off. My opinion is to run both forum for generic issues one might just read through and a helpdesk for more specific client specific issues. Many clients might not love to have their issues addressed in a forum and you must respect that.
 
Forum is not good if your company is small. Unless you have 100k+ clients, your forum will look dead. We provide live support via irc channel, which is so far very good. We built a community there, so they're helping each-other with related issues.
 
BeltHosting said:
Forum is not good if your company is small. Unless you have 100k+ clients, your forum will look dead. We provide live support via irc channel, which is so far very good. We built a community there, so they're helping each-other with related issues.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, you're not going to have an active community unless your killing it in numbers. Its not worth having customer issues public.
 
i agree with many up above. clients information should not be made public. I have seen this setup with many "free" web hosting providers. definitely not something I am interested in.
 
A dead forum is definitely a turn off to both prospective and existing clients. Moreover, the time spent managing the forums could be better spent on monitoring existing services or replying to clients' tickets in more detail.
 
The only thing i would point out that the verification will be hard to make on a public forum. Also some support request need private information which will be hard to obtain unless during a private message.
 
Forums are still good, however I agree a dead forum is never that good , makes you think twice before purchasing..
 
Unless you have a large client base, then it is not worth it as your forum will be empty and inactive which will reflect a negative image for potential customers.
 
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