The collection of technologies that enable customers to be participants in and not just the passive recipients of communication is what many are calling Web 2.0. While there as just as many definitions of Web 2.0 as there are people writing about it, Id say its safe ground to include the following as blogs, peer-to-peer networking for both files and music, RSS (Real Simple Syndication), social media, social networking sites including LinkedIn, wikis, and the combining of web applications, called mash-ups, which I first learned of from reading Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Charlene Lis blog. Taken together, those are the building blocks of Web 2.0. Some claim tagging is part of Web 2.0; others dont, but decide for yourself by checking out del.icio.us and Digg to see what they are about.
In fact Web 2.0 is transforming the Internet into an operating platform unto itself, and from that vantage point the revolutionary product ideas that Google must be exploring are, I am sure, fascinating. One can only imagine what Google must be thinking regarding Web 2.0-based customer centric initiatives based on their advances in several key technology areas, all visible to the outside world at Google Labs papers section, which is worth a look from time to time just to see whats going on in their R&D departments.
Salesforce.com + Google = The Beginnings of Customer-Driven Web 2.0?
Tim Reillys article on What is Web 2.0? from 2005 got me to thinking about how Web 2.0 has progressed in the last year and a half since he wrote this piece, and reflecting on the Salesforce.com integration to Google AdWords, which sounds much like what Mr. OReilly is speaking of in terms of Web 2.0. For nearly every enterprise software company under $30M in Sales, AdWords is the biggest lead generation spend category in the yearly budgets. Integrating Salesforce.com and AdWords is another data point towards the rewriting of the CRM landscape towards being every more Web 2.0-centric.
Creating a Customer Listening System
Given many tools that comprise Web 2.0, many B2C companies are experimenting with each and working to synchronize content across each through a content management system. According to work being completed at several large consumer goods products (CPG) manufacturers this is working out very well, and is in fact leading to potential new product innovations. These CPG manufacturers rely on blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds to create a more collaborative level of communication with consumers. In addition the CPG manufacturers began tracking and monitoring activity across all Yahoo newsgroups for example. One of th CPG manufacturers in the set opted to outsource their customer listening system efforts to Cymfony, which is a company worth monitoring as their technologies and direction are fascinating in this area of listening to customers via Web 2.0 consumer-generated media.
While many smaller companies want to create an active customer listening system and arent ready to partner with Cymfony or a comparable vendor in this area, there are steps that can be taken. Here are some recommendations to get started on your own Customer Listening System:
Online communities for building product development panels. One globally known manufacturer of building products began creating an online community using first interest groups and then created an online panel of over 2,000 design, development, production, purchasing, procurement, sales and service professionals to assist in their new product development and introduction process (NPDI). From this group of 2,000 the manufacturer allowed much discussion in the community and 20 emerged as the leaders the cognoscenti if you will of the group. This group was placed into a second online community and interacted with design engineers from the manufacturer and hosted at a two day design review session. The result was the development of an entirely new building product that had greater global reach and led to the development of entirely new channels of distribution.
Start building an Expert Blog. Thats what Toyota did with their blog on the hybrid engines, assigning a development engineer to monitor the blog for technical support. Customers complained about the first hybrid engines catching fire due to a fuel line accidentally designed too close to the engine housing, and the design engineer owned up to the flaw, explained the situation online, even explained how dealers were being given instructions for fixing the situation, and the issue was resolved. Based on this Toyota has a full time blogger just for hybrids today. There are other companies following this direction as well. Expert blogs are powerful because they impart advice quickly and honestly definitely a great aspect of building an online brand.
Experts tackling disgruntled customers problems need to be fast and furious. Companies who have these expert blogs are learning that when a disgruntled customer gets online and posts their problems in getting service, that speed and accuracy of response are everything. Having a one-on-one response within 24 hours that moves closer to as resolution is critical; in fact doing whatever it takes to solve the problem and deliver exceptional customer service is what is needed in this instance. You want to start creating a legendary level of service here; earn a reputation for responsiveness and that will go a long way. Whatever happens dont institutionalize the response with canned e-mails.
Giving Your Customers A Chance to get their Groove on with YouTube
Whats turning into one of the hottest Web 2.0 trends this year is the sponsoring of commercial contests where customers have the opportunity to get their groove on with YouTube. Its been fascinating to watch the uptake of this trend, and the blog Church of the Customer has a good entry on this subject. Of all the ones viewed the TurboTax one is one of the most entertaining and the Southwest Airlines ones are hilarious as well. In a sense, these videos from customers reflect back the branding values projected by your company. Thought for the day: what kind of YouTube videos would your customers create if you sponsored a contest? This is an interesting question and one work pondering even for a laugh during the day.
In closing, wouldnt it be great if Google bought LinkedIn, and instead of people there were entire company groupings up there? Complete with YouTube videos, both from the company and from customers online? In the new Uber-LinkedIn you could get comprehensive view of any company from a customers perspective complete with videos and a real sense of who they were. This would be sales force automation on steroids, and just one of the many implications of how Customer-Driven Web 2.0 will change how companies present themselves to customers forever.
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