Syed Balkhi explains why he thinks HelpScout is a better option than forums for customer support, and gives insights on how they do customer support for OptinMonster.
I got some good value from his tips on mythbusting the forum value-add. It seems more and more WordPress based companies use HelpScout, or a tool like it, for support these days. Forums, seemingly, have had their day in the sun for commercial WordPress product support.
Interesting. I understand there are many benefits from a company and organizational perspective for moving to a ticket-based system, though I wonder if OptinMonster or others have considered the “other side of support” that being the user perspective. Probably the biggest benefit of a forums-type support system, is having access ready to archives of others’ questions and answers. Even if you couldn’t comment on closed topics, there’s a wealth of information and context there.
It would be interesting to know if these companies have seen the effects (positive or negative) of closing off that avenue of “self-support”. Creating knowledgebases and FAQs for common questions only gets you so far, and that has to be maintained.