If you’ve ever wondered what the real-life people behind the avatars of HP’s Consumer Support Forum are like, look no further than the upcoming AARP Life@50+ National Conference and Expo in N’awlins. At the conference, the Messrs. (and Mses.) Fix-Its of the Forums will be taking their award-winning Expert Day program live. Keep on reading to learn more about the upcoming event and how you can meet HP support experts -- and maybe become one, yourself.
If you read Darren’s interview with HP tech support hotshot Jeff Contos last month, you’ll have an idea of what an HP Expert is all about. Experts are to the Forums what Jeff is to @HPSupport on Twitter. The HP Experts come in two flavors – paid HP employees and a slew of volunteer customer advocates. And as far as HP Expert Days go, we like to think of them as the Super Bowl of tech support, a 24-hour global marathon where volunteers and HP employees man the forums in droves to answer customers’ toughest tech questions. It’s one of the best opportunities for HP customers to talk directly with the people who designed their product or wrote the manual for it, no matter how old their product is. And it’s free. Ordinarily an online-only event, Expert Day is going on the road this month.
Why AARP? Well, some of HP’s volunteer Experts happen to be card-carrying members of AARP – or at minimum they are eligible to join – and they want to talk with their peer group about what it means to be an HP Expert and why they have opted to volunteer their time to help other HP customers answer their tech questions. Hint – building relationships worldwide, having the satisfaction that only comes from helping others, and rewards (!!) are just a few of the reasons.
Truth is, we couldn’t be nearly as effective providing tech support as we are without folks like Mumbodog, lasvegaswireman, and old_geekster out there answering questions. The volunteer Experts are the heart of the Forums and solve more than 50% of the questions that come in. We need them, and we want more folks out there stepping up to the plate for their chance to swing away in the Forums. And we think there’s considerable hidden Expert potential residing within the AARP attendees.
If you happen to be in the Big Easy for the AARP show, take some time to stop by the HP booth (#2709) and test drive what it takes to become the next HP Expert. Oh, and we’ll have a nifty souvenir for you if you do. If you’re not going to be at the AARP conference, take a few minutes to acquaint yourself with the Expert program by reading some of my colleagues’ blogs here. Your new HP Expert avatar is awaiting you.
More to follow live from New Orleans, so stay tuned (or just come out and visit us)!
