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Forum or Support Ticket System

by CoachGC
9 replies
Hi Guys I hope everything is going great to all of you!!!

I want to better serve my clients. I consider myself a customer service freak (lol)

But as most of you have already experienced having your email inbox full of questions sometimes can be a little overwhelming.

My questions today are:

What do you think is better to use a Support Forum or a Help Desk system?
In which case would you use each one?

Thanks and I hope the answers help other warriors too...!
#forum #support #system #ticket
  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Coach:

    I think these are two different animals used for different purposes.

    To me at least, a help desk is owner centric . . . that is, the owner of the site and/or his staff or outsourcers are going to be the ones administering the support - no customers involved. This may be appropriate for more technical or specific help giving.

    On the other hand, a support forum is used when the owner wants to get his customers or site members involved in giving help and advice to others. That's not to say that the owner and staff can't also visit the forum and make contributions.

    I think you need to decide just who you want giving the support to your members. You have greater control about what's said and the support given with a help desk; but in some cases, (like here at the WF) it's nice to let members who have an interest make a contribution.

    One method isn't better than the other - they're just different approaches depending upon your purposes.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author yoangov
    I personally like the Zopim liveperson chat, customers can also leave a message there and you can also collect emails from there.

    If the question is strictly narrowed to forum or support ticked system I would definitely go with easy and user-friendly support ticked system.

    Cheers,
    Yoangov
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  • Profile picture of the author Dann Vicker
    I think there is a free online resource for this. Google Osticket.
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    • Profile picture of the author Shane Hon
      Hi Coach,

      I would use the help desk if i need to solve a technical problem fast, especially if i know that they are specialized in the department i have a problem with.

      As for a forum, i think it is a great place to get ideas, opinions and to brain storm a particular subject.

      Shane
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  • Profile picture of the author ebusinesstutor
    A forum needs a lot of people to reach a critical mass where members help each other. It is great where a lot of people use a piece of sofware, for example.

    Moderating it can be a headache.

    I would suggest you start with suppor tickets, such as the free, open source osTicket.com. I use it on several of my sites and it works well.
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    Garland Coulson, "The E-Business Tutor"
    Internet Mentorship
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    • Profile picture of the author infoageErik
      Trouble Ticket Express is my system of choice.

      Inexpensive, and different modules allow you to do things like convert emails into tickets. That's a great way to streamline different forms of contact (web forms, ticket forms and direct emails) all into one index.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    If I had to choose, I would go with a forum. The downside is that there is a chance for misinformation. Ensuring that there are posters who know how to solve the problems of your customers would alleviate this though. It would hopefully be a time saver as well, considering that common problems will be answered and available to view (as opposed to individually dealing with the same issue numerous times.)
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  • Profile picture of the author nm5419
    Something to think about: I do see forum content appear in search engine results, but I don't see help desk content in there.

    Just sayin'
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  • Profile picture of the author HarrySy
    Hi CoachGC,

    Both have their merits. Support forums act like a knowledgebase, in that you can give answers to one person and many can then see the answer, reducing the amount of support you have to do. A help desk helps you track incidents and better manage tasks/SLAs etc. Both will improve your support, though you would get more mileage out of a help desk because it is purpose built to internally handle support. Support forums are external handling. If you consider yourself a customer service freak, you might like FocalScope.
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