Customer Communication and Web2.0
Customer Communication and Web2.0
Hi – My name is Bob MacKie and this post is about web based customer communication and your business.
Web Based Communication – Good or Bad for Your Business?
You have undoubtedly noticed that the internet is changing the way people communicate in some fundamental ways. There are good and bad aspects to this; however, it is important to realize that the good and bad aspects are not attributes of the technology itself but of how it is used. Of course choosing the right technology can have a major effect on how it is used; but the main point is there is nothing intrinsically right or wrong, useful or not about the technology itself.
Some people have learned how to use web based technology effectively and some find it exasperating and irritating. It is important to your business to ensure that your customers are not in the latter category when receiving communications from the people within your company. To gain competitive advantage and to build good relationships with your customers it is crucial to pay attention to web based communication. You may feel that many or even most of your customers are not web friendly. The truth is that it is especially for those customers that you have to ensure your web communications are top notch.
Web Communication Channels and Competition
I am not just talking emails here. Web based customer communication includes your web site, how your customers order their products, how you distribute your literature and finally and most importantly how your employees communicate with their customers via email, web based meetings, web based training, web based promotions . . . the list goes on. You may not be using many of these communication channels but you can rest assured that if you are not over the next few years your competitors will be. And . . . they will be able to communicate at lower cost and often more effectively than you. You must incorporate web based technology or become less efficient and effective than your competition.
How do I know this? I have seen it happening as I imagine you have. Research supports us. Web traffic is forecast to increase close to 50% per year over the next few years. This is not just Facebook traffic, video downloads and porn. Business to business traffic is growing as is business to consumer traffic.
Your Customers are Talking – Are they talking to you?
The major shift however is not business to consumer or from your business to your business’s customer; it is consumer to business, customer to business and amongst customers. Never before have individual customers and consumers had the ability to communicate and collaborate with you; rate and discuss you with others in public forums that are open to anyone. Let me give you one practical example. United Airlines broke a singer’s guitar. After compensation was turned down, he wrote a song about the incident and put it on YouTube. It went viral. In a few months there were over 5 million views.
There are web sites where customers are encouraged to rate restaurants, doctors and hotels. There are forums where people discuss their problems and search for solutions. This is part of what is called Web2.0. The Wikipedia article on Web2.0 notes that the 2006 TIME magazine Person of The Year was “You.” That is, TIME selected the masses of users who were participating in content creation on social networks, blogs, wikis, and media sharing sites. The cover story author Lev Grossman explains:
“It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It’s about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people’s network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.”
How C3 can Help
C3 can help the people within your business adapt to, become familiar with, adopt and use Web2.0. It is a major change in communication and collaboration . . . one that can possibly improve your customer relations.
Give me a call . . . surprised I’m not suggesting an email? Well, you can do that too, but a call is more personal. Actually, we could Skype or use MS Live Meeting or GoToMeeting if you subscribe. If you don’t use a web based meeting service, we could use one of the free services. Then if you have a web cam we could talk face to face . . . sort of . . . really we will be virtually face to face.
There are lots of possibilities . . . contact me and we can discuss pragmatic possibilities.
Thanks for your time,
Bob, Salt Spring Island
Here is a link to a McKinsey study on Business and Web 2.0:
