Sync Forums
Simple Sync forums are extremely useful for new and experienced users of the product to be able to get in touch and compare experiences and exchange views. As with all well organized and well moderated forums, Sync forums provide a market place for the exchange of ideas and opinions. The Simple Sync forums also allow the company’s support staff to receive free valuable assistance as they can:
- Highlight areas where the company could consider providing more information on their own website
- Identify potential problems that are being caused by user error
- Pinpoint problems inside the product itself
- Update the forum with information about the product and also provide easy to follow links to supplementary pages
- Check out suggestions for improvements to the product in future releases
How to work the forums
Simple Sync forums focus on issues and concerns that the user community is facing. New users, or even potential users, can use the forums to ask questions and find out if there are other users who have found the product can work in a very similar way to what interests them. Having decided to move forward, novice users can ask for help should they not be sure exactly what to do when preparing their synchronization run for the first time.
It is quite encouraging and warming to see how many experienced users will come forward and guide a novice or less experienced user of Simple Sync to solve the problem they are faced with. Good responses to posts include explanations of the resolution to the problem, together with screen shots that can guide the less experienced user through the right configuration routines to make sure their project is completed successfully.
Getting the right information together
A forum is useful for the manufacturer in many ways too, as the content of the forum where users ask questions, and expert users provide them with replies. This provides good material for the company’s knowledge base. It is extremely important to make sure that information given is posted in the right area to ensure that there are no legal consequences. This means that unverified resolutions to problems should never be posted on the company’s official website pages. The following mechanism is suggested:
- Problem resolution posts should remain in the forum until the enquirer has confirmed the solution worked
- Problem resolutions confirmed by the enquirer can be placed on the company’s blog site.
- Problem solutions that have been tried and tested by their own support team can be placed in the official knowledge base.
By adopting this approach the company is protected from the consequences of bad advice from those who thought themselves more expert than they actually were.
Live Sync forums are also a marketing tool if used correctly. Checking out the features that users are looking for in a product will allow a pattern to emerge, and should a requested new feature from an enquirer generate excitement and an active positive debate, then that feature needs to be considered for inclusion in a future release. It can be decided if this feature should be at an extra charge or whether it needs to be included to maintain the attractiveness of the product compared to its competitors.