

Customer Service? Ask a Volunteer  - mjfern
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/business/26unbox.html

======
DarkShikari
It also helps that such "super-users" are people who are _actually interested_
in helping, rather than potentially a tech support person who can't wait to
get home and see his family after a crappy day at work. You're more likely to
get good information and useful help from someone who is only helping you
because _they want to_.

I find this sort of phenomenon also applies to support for open source
projects. Many companies I've worked with are very satisfied with the kind of
support they got merely by dropping by on IRC--they could get information,
assistance, explanations of code, and even patches in mere minutes or hours
from people who actually want to help. In a sense, open source is the merger
of the two concepts: the "developer" and the "volunteer" are often the same
person, meaning that you're talking to someone who both wants to help _and_
knows the application backwards and forwards.

------
ShabbyDoo
Most companies hide vital support information in their CSR systems. What
software rev is pushed out to my cable modem? What are the known faults with
this modem on the Time Warner network? I'd like to be able to push the "update
firmware" button myself rather than convincing someone at TW to do it for me.
This volunteer army operates with one hand tied behind its back -- it tries to
help people without most of the information required.

Openness and information can help companies reduce support costs. However, I
suspect that they don't want customers to actually know how the sausage is
made as it's often not as pretty as advertised.

