Customer Service 2.0 and VRM - A Revisit

Along the lines of my earlier post...

Sandy Kemsley at Stowe Boyd's /Message does a nice job restating the emerging Customer Service 2.0 model found at the intersection of social software and customer service... and represented by the likes of Twitter, GetSatisfaction.com and UserVoice.com.

"So this is the new model for customer service: totally transparent, community-driven, involving multiple online channels including micro-blogging and independent community forums. You'd better be ready for it, because your customers no longer need your permission to talk about you."

Yet, as Rob Cottingham at Social Signal points out below, some enterprises and vendors may have a hard time accepting this new shift in customer/user control enabled by social customer service models:

The balance of power - and as a result, the sources of value creation - between customer/user and enterprise/vendor is shifting.

My earlier post highlights this shift.  

As Customer Service 2.0 and VRM solutions redefine who and how transaction, conversation and relationship information can be used, those enterprises that embrace these solutions will win.  

Enterprises that successfully engage in transparent, community driven, multi-channel, multi-touchpoint service and support models will attract new customers, retain existing customers and create new value faster than their competitors... because they are part of the conversation.... not just trying to shape it, own it or control it from the outside.

Comments

[Rob Cottingham]

Thanks for using the cartoon - I'm glad it resonated with this post, because I think you're bang on the money.