Web Bulletin Boards an Efficient Way to Offer Customer Support
Imagine expanding your customer support staff without adding to your labor costs. That’s possible with the help of Web-based bulletin boards and message systems.
Coolboard.com is one of several Web-based bulletin board systems that let you create a forum where anyone can post and answer messages. You can use the board as a tool for customers to ask and get answers to questions about your products.
Customers not only can communicate with your staff but with each other. That can translate to faster service for them and lower support costs for your business.
Coolboard is easy to set up and use. The only catch is that the free service will display advertisements on your pages. The company also offers an ad-free version of its service ranging from $30 to $225 a month, depending on how many people come to your board.
I was able to set up a message board in just a couple of minutes. It’s not fancy, but it does allow people to post and respond to messages. Once the board is set up, Coolboard assigns a Web address. It’s a long and ugly string of characters but you can link to it from your Web site.
Bulletinboards.com also offers an easy-to-set-up and inexpensive solution for businesses. The company charges $9.95 a month for a board with no advertisements or restrictions on the number of postings. What I like about this service is that the default configuration displays messages and responses in folders similar to Windows Explorer, which many people are used to.
The service gives you considerable control over how the board will look and behave. You can, for example, include your logo on the page and a link back to your Web site. The set-up area includes an option to notify users by e-mail if someone responds to their posting. That handy option saves users the hassle of checking back with the site repeatedly to see if anyone has answered their questions.
As with Coolboard and most other bulletin board systems, you can choose between a “threaded” and “unthreaded” discussion board. With an unthreaded board, users simply post questions or comments as stand-alone notices. With a threaded board, a user posts a question and responses are posted directly below the original question. That way you follow the path, or “thread,” of the discussion.
In addition to these low-cost solutions, companies are developing more elaborate messaging systems as part of high-end customer relations management systems.
QUIQ KnowledgeNetwork (https://www.quiq.com), for example, has created a “collaborative customer service” application that is hosted on the company’s servers. For a monthly fee that starts in the “four figures” (the company negotiates pricing on a case-by-case basis), QUIQ will set up a service that allows customers to ask and answer each other’s questions. Answers are also made available to others who ask similar questions. The interface is similar to Ask Jeeves (https://www.aj.com), which allows users to enter their questions in the same language they would use if they were talking to someone.
The cost savings, according to QUIQ Chief Executive Greg Richardson, comes because customers are helping other customers. He says users can expect about 90% of content on QUIQ sites to come from outside the company.
Regardless of the type of message system or bulletin board you set up, you need to let customers know that they can go there for information. Let callers know about the board. If you keep people on hold while waiting for support, use the recording to let callers know about the online site.
One way to jump-start the site is for your staff to post questions and answers. They can do this on the message forum or you can create a “FAQ” (Frequently Asked Questions) page on your site that asks and answers important questions about your company and products.
The hard part is getting customers to answer questions as well as to ask them. Consider incentives for participation such as prizes or discounts. QUIQ has a feature where users can rate experts who answer their questions and look up information on the experts, which can include their pictures, ratings from others, a quote and a link to the expert’s company. This type of recognition massages the experts’ ego and gives them exposure.
The most important thing to keep in mind if you decide to use an online bulletin board for customer support is that it should not replace other support options. While some customers will be happy to find answers on the Web, others will want to reach someone by phone. Your Web site should include a help line telephone number.
There is one danger to “peer-to-peer” customer bulletin boards: Customers will be able to compare notes, complain and commiserate.
There are a lot of ways to handle customer complaints, but one of the most effective is to respond directly. Refute inaccuracies but don’t get defensive, and don’t try to sugarcoat or deny legitimate concerns. Saying you appreciate the feedback will go further than harsh refutations and arguments.
*
Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard at 2:10 p.m. weekdays on the KNX (1070) Technology Hour. He can be reached at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web site is at https://www.larrysworld.com.
