Companies that use phpBB/mySQL for Customer Support forums

[wwswimming]

my brother is a VP of marketing or something for a Skype-type start-up.

he just made a comment that phpBB is an early-90's technology. he tends to advocate using Twitter & Facebook for customer support.

just out of curiosity - what companies use Forum software (e.g. phpBB/mySQL, Fusetalk, VBulletin, First Class, etc.) for customer support purposes ?

i know Asus has customer support forums. (side-note - i hear that their customer service sucks.)

what other companies use this category of software ?

he said i should look at Twitter, so i did. it says there's a 140 character limit on "tweets". is that right ? i would think you would need longer messages to communicate on customer support issues. i was thinking their was a soft-mod that allows companies to use Twitter for cust. support, but with longer messages.

 

[n0cmonkey]

With twitter you end up emailing or calling the support people (initial info can be taken through DMs or whatever).
Plenty of companies use forums. Try this: http://www.google.com/search?q...&rls=org.mozilla:en-US😱fficial&client=firefox-a

 

[wwswimming]

thanks. 2 of the commercial forums that come up in the search use this software
http://www.invisionboard.com/

i'm thinking of turning this into a bet with my brother, but i need citations & evidence.

i couldn't imagine how people use Twitter for customer support, if it has a 140 character limit.

 

[Crusty]

Twitter is good for the hosting industry because you can easily fit server/network status updates into 140 characters.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: wwswimming
thanks. 2 of the commercial forums that come up in the search use this software
http://www.invisionboard.com/

i'm thinking of turning this into a bet with my brother, but i need citations & evidence.

i couldn't imagine how people use Twitter for customer support, if it has a 140 character limit.

You have someone monitor twitter (search.twitter.com has RSS feeds) and make it known that user: COMPANY_NAME is working for that company. If they find a complaint or someone contacts them directly on twitter they try to get the user to follow them and they follow the user. Once that's done a Direct Message (DM) can be sent to the user with the problem with contact information, or the user with a problem can DM the COMPANY_NAME account w/contact info. Then the support is taken somewhere else. Like a forum, phone call, or email exchange.

There's no reason a company can't use multiple front ends to bring customers/users into a common backend support system. A blog can be used to post common issues along with solutions, and of course point users with more questions to the forums (or mailing list w/archives, or IRC channel, or whatever). Twitter can be monitored to direct users to the forums (much like the blog), and announce new blog entries (which point to the forums). I don't know much about FB, but I'm guessing it could be used the same way.

I think one of the most important aspects is to have control over this backend. Facebook controls facebook, and they don't have to do what you want. If you want something deleted, or edited, or "stickied" or whatever, it may be possible, and it may not. How likely is FB to work with you on issues you might have?