No matter where they are or what they do for a living, people always have an opinion or two. And for someone like you whose job revolves around making sure that your customers are satisfied and happy, listening to these opinions is one of your tasks and responsibilities. While that is much easier to do when your customers are coming to a brick-and-mortar store to purchase or browse through your products and services, it’s a whole different game when it comes to online shopping and business websites. Today, let’s sit and talk about using an online forum and the advantages of online forum that you can maximize.
What is Online Forum?
All of us have always been inclined to talk, discuss, and listen. As social beings, discussions, and conversations have always been a big part of our daily lives. And with the advancement of technology today, these conversations and discussions have found a home online. Today, people can choose to talk to their friends, colleagues, and peers not just through seeing them face to face but also through social media platforms and other online platforms - one of which is the online forum.
An online forum is a space or platform where people can get together, converse, and have discussions. Unlike typical social media platforms, an online forum is usually an online discussion that revolves around or is grouped according to different topics. Usually, the site owner or a particular customer can input an idea or a question in which the other can answer. Some people can also give their inputs and join in on the discussion. These questions and discussions prompt the conversation to start, and as long as another person is interested in giving their opinion, the online discussion continues. You will have different topics and queries with long threads of answers, insights, and opinions in the long run.
Benefits of Online Forum
- Community is forged. One of the best benefits of online forum pages is that your customers find a place - an avenue to get together. You give them a safe space to interact with one another. Online discussion forums not only allow them to communicate with you, they also communicate with each other. By adding an online forum section on your website, you nurture your customers’ chance to come together as a community. People are social beings. Therefore, this kind of space allows them to have this sense of belonging to a group that shares the same interests, ideals, or opinions.
- Positive reinforcements and suggestions are encouraged. As a community, an online forum also gives space for customer engagement in discussions about their experiences with your products and/or services. As time passes, they would be more inclined to give out suggestions, not just for their fellow customers, but also ultimately for you and your business. Take these suggestions seriously, and you will see why this is one of the advantages of online forums. Usually, they are speaking from experience, so they know what they are talking about. Remember that you are a business, and you aim to please them. So accept these positive reinforcements and suggestions as they come. After all, these can inevitably turn out to improve your business holistically.
- Questions are easily raised and answered. Another one of the benefits of online forums is that your customers feel that it is a safe space for them to voice out their opinions and concerns. You are allowing them to be honest with you. Because of your encouragement of online discussions through your online forum, you help them be more comfortable for you. Thus, instead of filing serious complaints, they are more likely to reach out to you through your online forum to tell you their concern or ask you their questions. This will give you the best opportunities to provide them with the best customer service response. It might also help you to point out serious issues regarding your products and/or services so you can avoid any further damage or unsatisfactory reviews from your customers. Valuable insights from your customers make for more and better improvements.
- Customers feel seen and appreciated. Once you encourage an online discussion between your customers and you, it will likely lead to them feeling happier and more satisfied with your service. Being heard and listened to is always a good feeling. And with the help of your online forum, you can easily ensure that your customers know how much you value their opinions and feedback. One of the many benefits of online forums is that they enormously help get your customer’s loyalty. Because besides liking your products, your customers enjoy the feeling of being part of your community. In the long run, if another business approaches them and offers them what you offer, they would be more reluctant to shift to them because a community is tying them to your business.
- It allows them to help one another. Helping others gives customers a sense of belonging and ownership. By encouraging online discussion through your online forum, you allow them to share their insights and opinions. You encourage them to help out another customer or user if they can. This gives them a sense of purpose. They feel helpful, and it builds their confidence because they can help another person by simply sharing their experiences and the lessons they learned. Or vice versa, they can also learn from another customer or user. This reinforces learning and sharing at the same time.
- You have a direct line with your customers. As mentioned above, one of the advantages of online forum is that you have a way to easily communicate with your customers. You arm yourself with the tool to keep in touch with them without intruding on their privacy. This online forum is, after all, a safe and public space where you can reach out to your customers and gain their insights about certain features or innovations that you have or are planning to have. Sparking an online discussion will help you engage with them and converse about what they think about your business, your products, and your services.
- Promotes collaboration. Lastly, another one of the benefits of online forum is that they promote collaboration. As a community, working together would be easy. And if your customers see how beneficial and how much they can enjoy working with other people. In the long run, you can also use this to your advantage. You can use this to encourage your customers to also use the collaboration tools and products that you offer yourself. Promote collaboration and healthy discussion not just among their fellow customers but also among their businesses, careers, and teammates as well. Having an online forum fosters their sense of community and cooperativeness that can help both you and them in the long run.
Strikingly Idea Forum
Image taken from Strikingly Product
We, at Strikingly, value the thoughts and insights of our customers and users. Thus, via the Idea Forum, they are allowed to voice out any comments, ideas, and suggestions that they may have to make services better. The Strikingly online forum even shows the status of each idea shared by our user. It can be “completed”, “answered”, or “planned”.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
Our Strikingly Tech Team is also happy to reply to your comments and suggestions to spark an online discussion. Part of their job is ensuring that everyone feels acknowledged, appreciated, and seen. And we’re sure that our customers are happy that they are updated whenever actions are taken upon their suggestions.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
You can be one of the many users who can make a difference for everyone else and help us improve our services. You just have to sign in to your account and go to the Idea Forum. Just below the search bar, you can see and click “+ New Idea”. You will then be redirected to another page where you can leave your ideas and comments, which will be shown in the Strikingly online forum.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
Anyone and everyone who has an account with Strikingly is valuable and deserves to be heard. This Idea Forum is one of the many ways of Strikingly to make them know and feel that. As a fellow online business owner, we can tell you that giving our customers an avenue to spark an online discussion has made a difference. This online forum is our way to get customer feedback and to strengthen the bond of the community here at Strikingly.
Having an online forum on your online store or your business website will be useful and helpful in ensuring that your customers know and feel that you value their insights and feedback. Being consistent in answering queries or acknowledging comments might add to your stress and another task on top of your already long list. But rest assured that the benefits of online forum makes it all worth the while. Start building your own website with an online forum and sign up with Strikingly now!
