Keep "Public Mobile Community" but implement a separate "Support Community"

[ute1978]

Here are my personal feelings and observations from my daily visits to the Community. I've been a member with Public Mobile for 2 months now and I am anxiously awaiting my 90-day auto-pay renewal next month.

The reason: Lots and lots of individual problems are discussed openly and visible for every one out there. I am not sure anymore if my plan renewal goes through smoothly or if I encounter one of the many problems other members encountered....I am honestly scared. It doesn't shed a good light on Public Mobile and will scare away many more potential customers if the repeating support questions about porting, payments, “no service”, etc. etc. are shown publicly.

My idea:

• Keep the "Public Mobile Community" where members can post general questions and get general information
• Create a separate "Support Community" reachable by a special link on the homepage where the PM representatives can help without going public.

[Luddite]

This would not be in keeping with PM's goal of complete transparency. I agree that the current layout could deter some people, but perhaps they would be truly better served by access to phone support?

[sportymi]

I agree that there should be a more direct access for help. The email method, I am not sure how quick the response is. I just found you can get the quickest response here in the community.

There are goods and bads with the repeated questions. As much as there are problems, there are also plenty satisfied stories. I personally like the way PM is opened about it and you know everything get fixed pretty quickly. You shouldn't be scared because ppl posted their problems, think about all the satisfied customers that didn't post because they have no problems. 

[kutzki]

Yes @ute1978 unfortunately I have to agree with @Luddite. The PM community does already provide a pretty good level of support. Might be a good idea to go Bravo one of the other countless ideas for better support options. Lol there are several: http://goo.gl/aDFgMf, http://goo.gl/DE6jdE, http://goo.gl/WWj5kQ and if you want to see Bravo them all, then go take a look here: http://goo.gl/ssoHl9 as you can see, there is a pattern of people requesting different types of support. Just a matter of taste and what type of support you like. Me and @Luddite prefer phone support,, but if I'm being honest I've gotten quite used to the community. After the first couple of times its kind of nice to get such personalized help. Just a matter of being used to it. Plus, if s between 8-6 during weekdays you can pretty much guarantee you're going to have your problem looked into same day. Can't guarantee it'll be solved same day but if they're available, then one of the moderators are always more than happy to help. It's they're job. Hopefully you're not deterred by the fact that they don't have a dedicated support Forum. The community is the support Forum though and it works really well for me and countless others. Plus, if none of the mods are available most of the oracles are usually able to help if they can. 🙂 Hope this helps. All the best, Kutzki

[ute1978]

Oh, I do not doubt the level of support members and non-members can get here. The mods and you guys are awesome.

And to be honest, I would not necessarily need telephone support (I don't want PM to raise their plan costs just because they have to pay phone support people, lol).

What I thought about is a hidden or closed section of the community where only mods/representatives have access and give support.

But if it’s not possible…It was just an idea…

Hmm, then how about a “Praise Section”, where positive posts can offset the negative support questions?

Something like: “Have something positive to say….say it out loud and let the world know!”

Throughout the community there are just very few members who are happy and report a flawless activation of a contract or have a positive experience. 

[Brooke_C]

Thanks @ute1978  for posting this idea and thanks to everyone else for supporting it!

While this idea does not fit our goal of members helping members, we appreciate that you want to get your issues dealt with as quickly as possible. Here are some tips and tricks for making sure that your issue is resolved ASAP:

1. Check out our knowledge based articles here

2. Post on the community- our response times keep on decreasing thanks to all of our knowledgable and helpful members

3. If one and two don't help you get your answer, then feel free to contact our amazing moderators so they can help you

Public Mobile Community Team 

[timothyfriesen]

I think that the posters intent may not have been clear. I had a similar suggestion just recently. I believe that the intent of the spearate forum would be only for account issues that the community cannot solve. I recently changed my plan and when my 3 month term was renewed I was left without service as the plan changeover did not happen due to something in PM's system. This is not something that the community could help with and so I feel that a separate forum monitored by PM staff would be optimal as people with account specific issues could post there and knowing that the problem would be addressed without having to rely on a community member to flag down a PM employee.

Is the idea behind the community reward to give people credit for knowing which PM employee to make aware of an issue or is to reward people for helping out with the more technical problems?

[Brooke_C]

Hey @timothyfriesen,

The primary goal is to reward people for helping out with more technical related issues, however if people are connecting members with PM employees in order to get their issue resolved that is okay too. We are worried that if we had a separate forum for account issues, where PM employees were quick to engage with a member, that some people would use this forum rather than posting on communtiy forums. If you know that you need account support then we recommend you contact @Shazia_K or @Mary_M directly so they can help you out as quickly as possible. As members become more familiar with Public Mobile we hope that they will pick this up too!