“A Best practice is the belief that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. Best practices can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.” -- Wikipedia

It’s no mere belief.  Best Practices work. I’ve often said that it doesn’t matter how smart you are, if the other guy already knows the answer and you have to think of it, he’s likely to win. So do your homework, quit reinventing the wheel and grab all the Best Practices you can get your hands on.

Today, we’re announcing the HelpExchange Community. Anyone can join—you don’t have to be a Helpstream customer. You can request your own account on this page.

We created HelpExchange to deliver Best Practices for community-based customer service. It’s a relatively new area. There’s a tremendous amount of discussion about it in the blogosphere, but the availability of Best Practices around it has been limited, so we thought we’d create a resource for the industry.

The HelpExchange consists of a few different parts.

• First, there are the Best Practices themselves. Each one is written up according to a standard template to make them immediately accessible and quick to browse through.
• The Best Practices are organized by purpose into a collection of categories. There are categories to help you build your community by attracting new participants and evangelizing. There are categories aimed at making the best use of traditional customer service tools, such as case management and knowledge base. There are still yet categories to help in the planning and management of your community.
• Each of these Best Practices is delivered to you after being tested by Helpstream, our customers or other experts in the field. Each one includes full information on applicability to your problem, potential challenges you’ll face implementing the practice, as well as details on what you can expect to get from doing so. In addition, they’re all released under Creative Commons license. We’re doing the equivalent of open-sourcing our Best Practices so everyone can benefit. You’re welcome to use them in any way you need to so long as you give us proper attribution for them.

In addition to the Best Practices themselves, there are a couple of other areas we think you’ll find helpful. We’ve included a category called “Wisdom of the Web.” Wisdom is where we’ll share with you some of the great articles we’ve found elsewhere on the Web. Think of it as a sort of “Reader’s Digest” of other great Web content around Best Practices. If you come across interesting content you’d like to see added to Wisdom, by all means drop us a note.

Last, but definitely not least, we’ve created a category where you can submit your own ideas for Best Practices and the community can vote on them. Assuming the community likes and agrees with the idea, we’ll write it up as another Best Practice.

That’s the scoop on HelpExchange. We're constantly cooking up new ideas to make it more vibrant and useful for you - we'll roll out new stuff over the next few weeks and months.  HelpExchange is by no means “done," and it never will be. Please let us know what you think of it and how we can make it better!