User to User Support
By Derek M. Powazek
People need to share their ideas, opinions, and knowledge online. Just look at all of the people who write lengthy book reviews on Amazon. I'm sure not one of them is thinking, "It's very important to me that Amazon sells more copies of this book." Instead, they're thinking, "I really loved this book, and I want everyone to know it."
Giving these people the ability to talk to each other on your site can benefit your enterprise. Not only are you empowering your users to help each other, but you're also getting a front row seat to the questions people ask about your product or service. Companies used to have to pay for that kind of thing—it was called focus groups.
My Story
Many sad stories begin with "it was 3 a.m." This, I suppose, is mine.
It was 3 a.m. when I decided that I needed Japanese installed on my Mac. It's not as crazy as it seems. A Japan-based visitor had volunteered to translate some of the content on one of my sites into Japanese, so I said "why not?" If you start trading email with people on the other side of the world, you wind up sending a lot of email in the early morning hours.
When he sent me the Japanese content that morning, I realized I would need Japanese installed on my computer if I was going to see it. Not that I'd be able to read it, but it'd be a comfort to know it wasn't just a long string of question marks before I put it on the live server.
So in went the install disc, click went the mouse, and bong went the Mac (I had to restart—it is a Mac, after all).
