Customer Service and Crowdsourcing

I. Customer Service

Social Networking Forces Change in Customer Service

The business saying, "The Customer Is Always Right" has never been truer than it is now. The Internet has completely changed the game of customer service, and no longer can you have sub-par customer service be an acceptable part of your company. With the massive numbers of people connected through social networks, a company's downfall can instantly be broadcast to hundreds, thousands, or even millions and become a part of public discussion.

The following is a perfect example of how the world of customer service has greatly changed:



This video, featuring famous video blogger iJustine, had over 3 million views in it's first 10 days online. This Wikipedia article covers the fallout of the video, which included press coverage of the video from USA Today, ABC News, CNN, and Fox News, to name a few. In these interviews, she discussed how she felt that the bills, which detailed each telephone call made and received and text message sent and received, weren't environmentally friendly, nor was sending a box for the bill cost-effective. After the press coverage, AT&T released a statement saying that subsequent bills would be in summary format, with details provided upon request. The company needed to respond as more and more people became upset with the format in which they were receiving their bills.

A company that is an innovator in customer service is Zappos, the online retailer. The company is know for their customer service policy, which will go to great lengths to serve the customer. The company has a 365 day return policy on all of the items, and will guide you through the process either online or on the phone. They have even been know to help customers with issues that are non-Zappos related in order to create a trust and between company and customer. These two articles go greater in depth about the awesome company and their awesome customer service.

II.

Video on crowdsourcing

As more and more people are becoming active citizens on the Internet, working together to accomplish a common goal becomes easier than ever before. The idea almost seems ubiquitous now, as sites like Wikipedia and Threadless have been around for quite a while, and the concepts that these sites first introduced no longer seem foreign to most users.

I have participated in my fair share of crowdsourcing projects, on of them being on The Guardian's MP Expenses investigations this past summer, in which the British newspaper invited it's online readers to look through over 700,000 expense reports from the Parliament and determine whether or not they were probably filed, etc. Check out the details here.

Lastly, iPhone apps have been used in the to 'make a difference' using crowdsourcing techniques. Check them out here.