How to create a customer center

Hi,



We are a software company and we want to create a customer portal or customer center, where the paid customers can submit priority support ticket, download software and subscribe support plan. We are thinking of several solutions:



1. Hire someone to create the customer center from scratch with PHP/MySQL.

2. Purchase some mature products with similar functions, then customize them based on our own needs. Currently we have checked the help desk software such as Kayako.

3. Built customer center via WordPress. I heard of WordPress is powerful, but just wonder if it is appropriate to do such a task.



Please kindly give advice as I am not familiar with web development.

 

1. Reinventing the wheel
2. Probably the best idea
3. Bad idea

I would not recommend option 3 due to the security issues surrounding WordPress themes & plugins. The WordPress core in itself is pretty secure however, everyone under sun is putting poorly coded themes & plugins that half the time are vulnerable.

I think option 2 is the best idea, there's tons of helpdesk software out there, many that can be customized.

 

You're a software company...............

 

Have you checked out Comm 100? it is a live support chat that you can add to your website and its free.

 

The best way to develop a quality project.

 

Although the irony my seem too damn high, it's not really that shocking. Their group is probably self-taught, this is the most usual case. Software company can be another word for a company which is selling primarely one product. They manage to tweak the software to their likes, and they can't figure on how to build a proper customer server. (Or they fired the guy who knew how. )

 

I would definitely go with option 2. In-house development (even if you did have the required competence) is very expensive, and rarely worth it if it isn't a long-term scalable solution.