The Bad and the Good of Forums for Support
If you're selling a product then it is necessary to have a system to support your customers.
It is often a matter of two possibilities, either forums or help desks however which is the best?
One thing I'd recommend is that it's worth mentioning to never make use of regular email. This can be chaotic in a flash.
Be sure to research the most effective help desk options and choose one that's the best fit for you (for us we use HelpScout but there are many).
When we first launched we made all help available through an assist desk, but for no other reason than it's easier to utilize. Register for an account now and start working.
An amusing incident took place.
With more customers they started soliciting that we implement forums.
More than a few requests here or there. We got a lot of these types of requests nearly each day.
It was an uphill task to create the forum. In some aspects , it was a bit redundant. In addition, it required assistance at several locations.
We had the idea of by adding forums as an alternative option for support because of the growing need. Now that I look back, I am glad that we did.
The Forums that we've created have become an HUGE Asset
Some people feel drawn towards groups. Over the years our forums have proved to be an active place.
The moment someone chooses to be part of a group which is open to sharing ideas and opinions amongst themselves.
If forums were not in place, such wouldn't be impossible to happen.
But, it's vital to be aware that forums for support do pose some major challenges.
The issues can be so challenging to make businesses think about eliminating them entirely.
Common forum issues
One of the most difficult problems with forums is that by their nature they weren't designed to be tools of assistance.
Yes, they can serve in this scenario at some level, but in the past, help desk applications have substantially superior to them with regards to capabilities.
Forums do not have all of the options available, for example, reports, statuses tags canned replies, as well as the history of tickets.
If you want these features and functions, then you need to make it happen your self.
A further issue with forums is the fact that with time, the content of the threads gets outdated.
This means that anyone who is searching the forums might find solutions that are no longer appropriate or even "bump" the thread for more details when it doesn't make sense.
I can be able to recall the thread that came back after two years old. At the end, the person's inquiry wasn't linked to the thread that was originally posted. The only thing it did was create confusion.
Though this could be a rare occurrence but this is much more common than you imagine.
The above scenario does not ever happen to us due to our customisation of our system to close threads on the basis of inactivity.
This is only highlighting the issue at hand you need to customize include features that are not available in help desk applications.
Yet, despite all this...
While there are some issues with customer support through forums, we've discovered that the benefit that they provide customers is well worth the cost.
We sell software, but by way of our forums, we also offer a significant community. This is a major advantage for many since apart from the software they gain years of knowledge capital.
My suggestion is that anyone selling a product (be the program itself, online courses for example.) should begin with setting up the Help Desk.
Keep track of the responses as the time progresses to better understand whether forums make sense for them. It's an excellent idea for your customers to determine if this is something they would like to have.
When you're done with your day, you need to be there for your clients. Your tools only represent an (small) component of the whole.
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