Exactly this. One of the KPIs we’re tracking is the impact that community support has on our support funnel. We’re aiming to reduce tickets that end up with our support team that could be answered by the community - after all, a question asked to a community is limited by the knowledge of the community. A question asked to a support agent is limited by the knowledge of the person they are connected with.
The percentage of topics marked solved is one indicator of this KPI.
We’ve considered once a month/week going through and marking things as solved, but not reaching out privately. With a canned message, this could be equal the length of time but have stronger results and build that culture.
We’d looked at the overall benefits of marking something solved (there are a couple of other KPIs and initiatives we’re planning - not 100% relevant for this conversation), but not specifically the benefit it brings to community members on an individual basis.
We have a fair mix of 1-off questions and returning members.