I know for more customer support type forums this probably won't be something wanted, but those type forums make up a small part of forums across the web. For the rest of us, our members look forward to something that distinguishes them from other members in the way of awards. For gaming forums, this is huge, but I've also seen it on dating sites, SEOChat.com and many others. An example is below.

 

I suggest these be either automatic or manual. Automatic may be based off the number of posts or age of membership (or both). Manual would be something given by the admins only.

 

These would also be beneficial for customer support type sites as well, I believe. If a company supports multiple products, you could indicate which product(s) a user has. This would help not only the admins, but might help other members as well. When you see a member answering your question and you see that member uses many of your products, you would probably think that member knows your products well. As you can tell on these forums, members helping members can be a huge help.

 

These awards would also show up in a users profile.

 

Thanks for the consideration.