Welcome to GoutCaster

From The Editor

Though the next newsletter is not due out until November, GoutPal has an urgent need to write to you about gout support. I never ignore GoutPal's urges, so here is your support special.

The format is slightly different from the regular newsletter. If you are a new subscriber, please do not think that this edition is typical. The regular newsletter contains much more gout information, whereas this special is more about using the website. This special includes:

Gout Support Initiative

A realization from GoutPal. Do as you would be done by.

GoutPal Support Charter

GoutPal introduces his policy to improve your satisfaction.

What To Do For Gout

Where do you start to look when there is so much information about gout.

How You Can Help

Tell GoutPal your thoughts and help him improve the website.

How Else You Can Help

GoutPal recalls the confusion he felt when first looking for gout information. If you find something you don't understand, let GoutPal know.

If you are reading the text only version of this newsletter, some formatting may look slightly strange. By the time you read this, the HTML version of this newsletter, and all preceding ones, should be online at:
http://www.goutpal.com/GoutCaster-backissues.html

GoutCaster Editor

Uri Khassid

Why Care About Gout?

I turned to their website in hope that it would explain more about how they worked, so that I could ask the right questions. Like most support sites, it was full of technical information that I half understood, but nothing about the people. How do they approach their work? What information do they need to quickly fix a problem? How can the problem be escalated if it is not solved immediately?

No answers.

I pondered how I would present the site if I was trying to be customer focused. Then it hit me.

My website is just as bad. Me, me, me. With barely a thought for my customers. I cannot hide behind the fact that my website is free. It is not free. You pay for it through advertising, and have even threatened donations. Most importantly, you pay with your time.

I apologize for all thoughts of maximizing advertising revenue and increasing visitor numbers. It stops right now.

You come first. Gout second. Me last.

No more me, me, me. No more money worries. Let banks and bailiffs care for money. GoutPal will care for you.

But that vestige of business manager still left inside tells me it is no use. Just as love and care won't pay the bills, they won't answer the emails promptly or improve the website either. Lazy little ******s, love and care. Must be why I like them so much.

So the business manager says I will have a customer care strategy. You can read how it works below.

Gout Satisfaction Guaranteed

• When you seek information, you find it.
• When you seek understanding, you know it.
• When you seek comfort, you get it.

I want to make sure that your questions are answered promptly, and I explain gout properly.

You now have a gout care page to let me know if I am failing to provide these things. In the old days, it would be the complaints department. Business gurus have renamed it to customer care, customer service, service improvement and a host of other customer focused names. You and I will call it the gout care department.

As for the guarantee. I have nothing to refund, and no gouty goodies for compensation (yet), but I can give you my time.

The form sends email to a priority address, that I will check first when I start my computer. As a valued subscriber, let me give you that email address to keep with your allopurinol and water jug: [subscribers only]

If you find anything on GoutPal.com that needs improvement, I guarantee my time to you until it is fixed.

I will develop a formal policy later. For now, my commitment is to provide you with:

• Gout Care Dept.
• Goutpal Satisfaction Survey - more below
• Priority Customer Satisfaction email address - as above
• Guaranteed email response time. By the end of September, I will clear the backlog, and then keep to a 3 day maximum response time.
• Respond to gout forum posts and gout blog comments within 3 days (assuming I can get it working again).
• Add the Gout Satisfaction Guaranteed symbol to a prominent position at the top of all pages so that visitors can:
  1. Quickly find what they are looking for
  2. Know where to complain if they can't find it
• Produce a beginners guide to GoutPal so new visitors can quickly learn how, why and where to find what they need

What To Do For Gout

• Newly diagnosed with gout
• Longterm gout sufferer
• Care for gout sufferer
• Health care professional
• Studying gout
• Pseudogout sufferer

This list will form the backbone of my beginners guide to GoutPal.com, where I will recommend a sequence of pages and sections to browse for the most relevant information.

I am adding a new button for first time visitors to GoutPal.com on every page. This will link to the beginners guide, which will include a form to tell me the reason for visiting.

Please think back to the first time you visited GoutPal.com, and record your reason on the form on my living with gout page.

How You Can Help

Use the forms on the site by all means, or just email me direct. I do not publish my email address on the website, but as a valued GoutCaster subscriber I can tell you it is [subscribers only]

I have introduced a GoutPal Satisfaction Survey to get some feedback on how well the website meets your needs. Please take a moment to complete that short survey.

How Else Can You Help

If you spot something on another website that you don't understand, or believe it is wrong, let me know.

If you spot a good source of gout-related information, let me know. I will add it to a new searchable gout database that I'm launching soon.

A final note of thanks from the editor

Thank you for reading this GoutCaster Special Issue. If you've any ideas for improving it, please write to me [subscribers only].

If you know anyone else who might be interested, please forward this to them. I'm particularly keen to get views from the medical profession (if I can understand them), so why not send it to your doctor? If you do forward it to someone it is a good idea to remove the final two paragraphs, which are automatically added so you can manage your subscription.

If you've been sent this by a subscriber, why not sign up for your own copy? Just fill in the free newsletter subscription form.

Thanks again for reading GoutCaster.

Uri Khassid