An Overview – Part I of III
Smart businesses always look for ways to help their customers. Especially when it can also minimize expenses and maximize profit. If utilized successfully, crowdsourcing can be profitable in many ways. The concept of crowdsourcing is very simple to understand. Crowd and sourcing is exactly what it means-using “the crowd” as the “source” for help.
Simply put – Crowdsourcing utilizes the customer’s experiences and emotions to provide collaborative answers to commonly encountered problems.
In a traditional customer service environment this duty is performed by a set number of employees, whereas in crowdsourcing an infinite number of people can perform this task without increasing labor costs.
In addition to the “free” labor, the company can also benefit from fresh and innovative ideas. Allowing customers to participate in the Customer Service process engages the customer in a deeper level. That by itself increases customer loyalty. Crowdsourcing utilizes the customer’s own experiences and emotions to provide collaborative answers to commonly encountered problems.
Crowdsourcing is one of the best tools for a company’s customer service toolbox for any business that wants to provide quality products and services and is, of course, customer service oriented. To effectively use crowdsourcing it has to be planned and well maintained. Web Services such as www.getsatisfaction.com allow business to build online communities and easily enable valuable and productive conversations between customers. The www.getsatisfaction.com service focus on four conversations around simple, outcome-oriented topic types:
- Ask a question-this service enables customers to quickly connect with each other, the company and the answers they are looking for.
- Share an Idea-a Focus Group 2.0 allowing feedback in a way that maximizes valuable conversation among customers.
- Report a Problem-Fast search and solutions to problems customers may encounter. “Real time insight into potential issues and defects”
- Give Praise-real time love between the customer and the company
All four services channel discussions effectively, while maintaining focused and productive conversations. Not only do companies reduce support costs, but they also drastically increase traffic to their website, fan pages, and blog. Most importantly of all, crowdsourcing allows businesses and organizations to build strong relationships with its customers and gain loyalty.
