What makes Satisfaction different than traditional customer service or a traditional forum?

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  Thor Muller, Official Rep, replied on November 13, 2007 05:21

  While it's a good question, I think it's a red herring because it focuses on *form* rather than *purpose*. There are many kinds of discussion boards, and if you look closely even systems as far flung as Flickr and Wordpress look like specialized forums. Conversation may be the central organizing unit of the Web (certainly the social Web), and so it shouldn't be any surprise that systems that foster it bear many of the same hallmarks--a sequence of remarks linked to their authors.
  
  Still, the problems with classic forums are well known, particularly in the context of mainstream customer service. The best answers get buried in long conversations, they breed endless duplicate topics, they're hard to search, they tend to be either under-populated or clubby. They generally aren't friendly or inviting to casual use. Satisfaction aims to harness open conversation without falling into these traps. One example of how we're doing this so far is the "talk box" at the top of the page--we've merged the process of actually asking a question and searching. The result is very few duplicate topics, and more focused engagement around the issues. The pages are designed to be more like blog posts, with each topic creating a focused conversation piece that makes sense even when entered from a Google search. The conversation threads themselves are more personal, more Flickr-like.
  
  From the standpoint of customer service traditional forums are too general purpose to be *that* useful. We're building tools that support the distinct activities that dominate conversations between customers and companies--questions, problems and ideas. There are outcomes and interactions in these activities that Satisfaction will be uniquely suited to support. Initially, we are providing companies the ability to mark certain answers as "official responses," and communities to vote best answers to the top. This has the surprising effect of auto-generating FAQs based on the real interactions with and between customers.
  
  Perhaps most dramatically, we provide Satisfaction as an open Web service that allows third parties (including companies) to embed the content and functionality directly into their own sites and applications any way they want to. We're providing easy-to-use widgets, an open api and other tools to extend Satisfaction into any corner of the Web where they can help customers get the help they need.
  
  The central premise of Satisfaction is that it serves as a neutral ground for customers to communicate with each other *and* the companies they do business with. The community is not "owned" by any company, but there is a specific context for every company to participate (and tools that make this valuable). The result is a more trusting, authentic conversation space. Ultimately, Satisfaction is a network of customers and the products and services they use. The value of this approach for providing a higher level of support will become apparent over time -- or so we're betting.

   

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