Tech Tools: Let Your Customers Speak

 

By Ricardo Harvin
E-mail Questions for Tech Tools to rharvin@uschamber.com

 

Everybody has at least one product or service that they love to use and tell others about. Are you selling someone's favorite something, and if you are, how would you or anyone else know?

 

The answer may be to let your customers generate buzz and help market your business by giving them an easy way to talk publicly about your product or service. Many e-commerce sites that allow customer feedback to be posted for public consumption are reporting significant increases in sales (see E-Sources at lower right, "Retailers Take a Tip from MySpace"). This feedback isn't limited to just blog posts; it includes general comments, customer reviews, and even photos.

 

Online customer engagement isn't just about creating stronger loyalty among your existing customers. It's also about gaining new customers. Almost all shoppers these days, even those who don't make purchases online, use the Internet to research before they buy. If they see favorable comments about your company's product from satisfied customers, they're much more likely to buy from you. You can use customer feedback to identify products and services that are winners and those that may need to be revamped or replaced.

 

For most small businesses, blogs and message boards are the easiest, most cost-effective tools to get your customers engaged. Message boards allow multiple conversations, or threads, to run simultaneously. Depending on the level of access and control you permit on your message board, people can create new subject threads, start their own conversations within a subject, or reply to comments that others have posted. This can keep discussions going long after the original comment was posted.

 

Conversely, blogs tend to be more linear, with most of the action focused on the few items that have been posted most recently.

 

The cost for blog and message board software is often free or relatively inexpensive, and setup is generally easy. Message board software and fees may be included in your Web site's hosting cost. You may have to pay a setup fee to your Internet Service Provider or webmaster, but it should be well under $100.

 

Your customers are the best source of information about what's good-or bad-about your product. Let them share what they know and help your business grow.

 

To learn more about how online research is changing customer shopping habits and how to use customer communications to take advantage of those changes, read the E-Source articles "Local (Business) Search" and "Creative Customer Communications."