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Novell's High-Performing Customers

Novell has Web-based customer support forums that allow customers to collaborate to solve problems. It has appointed more than 30 high-performing individuals from its customer base to handle different product areas. Each quarter, Novell's extended peer support group deals with more than 45,000 user issues.

Some 18,000 contributors have registered to deal with a range of issues. The focus is on the more than 30 key contributors who have individual Web pages that include links to their business sites. Novell feels that as users of the products, these outside contributors face situations that are impossible for support professionals to cover. The fact that the named participants are doing it for recognition, rather than as part of their job, demonstrates that they are highly motivated.

Ironically, according to Novell, customer loyalty tends to increase as these communities grow. Social relationships develop around the company, and troubles are removed from the products. One Novell open forum claims to be one of the biggest news groups on the Internet.