Periodically my clients email me for tech support. I'd like to change this one-to-many relationship to a many-to-many relationship. I could set up a Google Group or TechSoup forum where my clients can post their problems. The way things are set up now, they're guaranteed to get an answer from me. But if other clients and consultants are subscribed, they could get an answer faster. My clients can learn from each other's questions and answers.
By doing this CompuMentor moves from a purely "doctor" role towards a facilitator role. Clients get responses faster. They learn from each other. Together we create a community of practice. And the ongoing conversation is archived and searchable.
This is just a raw idea and deserves additional thought.
Well, you've just identified the thinking behind the existing TechSoup forums. An opportunity to engage with people, in a community fashion, around technology issues.
So, why wouldn't you use the existing forums for this? A thoughtful answer to this question could provide valuable input for the TechSoup team.
I could think of reasons you (and other) consultants could want to do this:
*keep in touch with your clients -- this provides a way for you to communicate between visits;
*have other people help answer questions -- the presence of others on the message boards mean that you client questions could be answered while you were away;
*additional biz -- I've started including my blog URL with my TechSoup forum signature and I notice that I regularly gets hits as a result. It certainly seems that a consultant could convert that to additional engagements.
So, for this work, what would have to happen?
The TS forums would need to be RSS enabled so that you can search both via keywords (using tools like technorati, feedster and/or pubsub to support this) and so that you can subscribe to specific forums.
The forums might need some more detailed topic areas that are maintained around specific and regular user issues. I can imagine w/in the software section, for example, threads that are opened for questions on specific pieces of software.
Some on-site training for clients. You'd want to sit down with the appropriate person at a client site, get them signed up on TechSoup, explain the benefits of the forum and show them the appropriate places to post their questions.
Posted by: marnie webb | January 06, 2005 at 09:13 AM
Marnie asks: "So, why wouldn't you use the existing forums for this?"
Two reasons I can think of:
1) The current TS forums do not include a way to easily separate out posts by our clients from posts by non-clients.
2) The TS forums do not feature full email integration. I would like a client to be able to whip off an email to support@compumentor.org and get a response. The TS forums require more steps to post.
I don't know if this is yet a thoughtful answer to the question.
zm
Posted by: Zac Mutrux | January 08, 2005 at 08:00 PM
So, why would you want to separate your clients from the others? I thought part of the purpose would be to allow them to learn from each other and get answers from people who weren't necessarily you?
And I agree on 2. That it doesn't have email integration or a web feed (easy to track what's happening) is a big missing piece.
Re: thoughtful. Just trying to dig into the reasons. They can help TS as they move forward (your reasons are likely to be others as well).
Posted by: marnie webb | January 10, 2005 at 01:11 PM
I guess no. 1 was ambiguous. I don't want to separate my clients from others, but I need to be able to distinguish between requests from my clients, and requests from non-clients. I guarantee a response to my clients, but I do not guarantee a response to non-clients.
So I need to be able to filter out requests from my clients.
Posted by: Zac Mutrux | January 12, 2005 at 10:27 AM