Offer private messaging capabilities

@amy small companies move much faster than big ones on the things that matter. cause we just have to prioritize much better

Over the last couple of weeks I have received three e-mails from customers that are "Private Messages". I have then come to the Get Satisfaction site and found NO record of these messages, and no way to reply to these people.


It seems that if you are going to provide a facility to SEND the Private Messages, then I ought to be able to see a record of them ... and reply ... all within Get Satisfaction.


If there is a way to see this, and reply, then it ought to be more visible ... because I can't find it ...


And that leads to the real question ... are these even real messages? Or is someone just forging your e-mail address and doing Phishing attacks?

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
How do I reply to a customer private message through your system?.

It would be great if you could create a private thread between just you and the company. There's some issues that you can't really talk about publicly, such as account related requests that require you to share your a/c details.


If you could create a private support thread that only you and the company can see, that would work well. Traditionally, you might email the company instead — but why not use GS as a one-stop location for company support?


Interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
It would be great if you could create a private thread between just you and the company..

Is there a private messaging system or any other way for a company to directly communicate to a customer, i.e. to give a personalized license key?

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Are there direct communication capabilities on GS?.

First I would like to say I am very satisfied with Get Satisfaction. However, I was wondering if there is a feature so you can directly chat with a company's representative or employee? I don't know if this is available and I can't find it or if this feature has not yet been implemented. If this feature does not exist, I think it would take Get Satisfaction to the next level.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Can you chat with a company's representative?.

How do you safely communicate private information between users with Get Satisfaction? Sometimes, for example, we need to log in to a user's wiki, and therefore we need to exchange email addresses or passwords. Lacking the "private messaging" feature used by traditional forums (or the ability to display a registered user's email address only to other registered users), we are forced to publish details in threads where anyone can see them. I know of at least one instance where PBwiki staff had to contact GS staff and have them remove private information from a post by a hapless user, who was not given any other option to communicate that information. I just created a throwaway email address for a post yesterday, and I have already gotten my first piece of spam at that email (which didn't exist before, so obviously spiders are crawling your site looking for this kind of information).


There are also times when I would have preferred to inform someone of a mistake privately, and let them sort it out and save face, rather than post openly about it.


How does Get Satisfaction recommend that we handle this problem? Are there any plans for facilitating private communications between users?

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
How do we communicate critical private information using Get Satisfaction?.