This support article outlines the procedures for the OwnerRez team when responding to posts on our public forum. This ensures consistent, timely, and professional communication that maintains our organization's reputation and effectively serves our clients and community.
Who Replies
Client posts to the OwnerRez forum should be handled by senior staff, T2, or team leads at a minimum. Line staff is not expected to reply to forum posts unless specifically assigned a particular post by their lead, most commonly because of expert knowledge in the relevant area.
Forums are public and permanent—any posts there can be viewed by anyone in the world forever. So, given the wider nature of the audience, extra care is required.
When to Reply
Not every forum post needs a reply! It is common for different OwnerRez clients to get in conversations among themselves; there's no need for us to interject an official response in between each one.
However, most forum threads should have at least one official post, even if it is only a welcome post.
When to reply:
- When there is a specific technical question from a client trying to solve a problem.
- When a client has made a factual error or misunderstanding in a public post, that might mislead other clients who read it later
- When we can contribute insights to a general discussion
How to Reply
If you browse the Forum while logged in to your OwnerRez account, Forum posts always include a link to the poster's SA (if they have one).
Therefore, it is possible to find and Impersonate into their account, as well as to see any tickets or other interactions.
- Never make a post that includes any personally identifiable information (especially not guest!), even if the client posted it to the Forum. Any answer that requires specific information should instead be a request to the client to write to the Helpdesk so it can be handled privately.
- Where possible, include links to relevant support docs. We want to encourage both the original poster and anyone else coming to the thread later to read more information about the topic.
- Never promise the timing of a development release, replies, or resolutions to support tickets. Very general guidance is OK, or refer to public posts (blog or forum) by senior management.
- If an old thread has been "dug up," make sure to review its entire previous content. Its contents may be out-of-date, in which case your post should specifically point that out and provide up-to-date information.
- If there are multiple posts in the thread, review at least the last several, not just the specific one you're replying to, so as to get a wider sense of the discussion overall.
- If you are unsure about the accuracy of your response, get help; don't guess. Forum posts are even more permanent than support docs, and just as public.
- Never go negative on anyone or anybody! If it is unavoidable to make a true statement that is negative (e.g., "Yes, if your property is outside of North America, connecting it to the Airbnb API will result in Airbnb forcing you into host-fee-only mode"), then make every attempt to add a truthful positive spin.
- Never get into an argument with any client. Simply state the facts, referencing authority (support doc, blog post, etc.) wherever possible.
Forum Management
Clients often create new threads in the forum about topics already being discussed in another thread or posted in the wrong topic. The most common example is a post in "General Help and Questions" that really belongs in "Feature Request."
Whenever possible, these threads should be merged. Not all OwnerRez staff have the admin privilege to merge threads. If you find duplicate or overlapping threads or threads posted in the wrong topic, email the thread link that needs merging to the Product Coordinator at product@ownerrez.com.