What is a successful organization? In three words, it is one which ‘embraces customer suggestions.’ Li and Bernoff refer to this as embracing the groundswell. Simply put, organizations should listen to customer conversations on online forums and integrate these suggestions into their products/services. The key for organizations is not just to listen, but also to create avenues for customers to talk, such as through private communities, and ratings and reviews sections on websites.
For organizations, harnessing customer innovation in product development processes is as easy as ABC:
A: Always encourage customers to talk on forums, and to rate and review your products and services.
B: Be sure to listen carefully to this conversation
C: Channel these ideas, compliments and complaints into enhancing your product/service and corporate brand.
Organizations and consumers should build a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship. After all, an organization needs feedback on improving its products and services and on developing new ones, and the consumer is eager to tell the organization exactly what they need or desire. Such collaboration is ideal.
Starbucks is an excellent example of an organization that has tapped into community ideas through social media and made customers an integral part of their innovation. Starbucks received over 17,000 coffee ideas in the first year of the launch of its online forum, "My StarBucks Idea." To date, the company has received 20,627 ideas just about coffee and expresso drinks. The site is overflowing with ideas - in fact, just 6 minutes ago, a customer posted this: “Please offer ‘truvia’, a natural calorie-free sweetner.”
To effectively tap onto customer suggestions, Starbucks has organized its site into ‘Product ideas,’ ‘Experience ideas’ and ‘Involvement ideas’ with the last category referring to corporate social responsibility and community involvement. Importantly, the coffee giant tells customers what has been done with their ideas by placing a tick next to “Under Review”, “Reviewed”, “Coming Soon,” and “Launched.”
Do check out their site and share your thoughts on what they did well and what they could do better to engage their customers. http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hey Neha,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! After reading this, I went onto their website to check it out. I felt they were trying to make it as transparent and genuine as possible. I registered and it was the most easiest registration I've ever come across. :)
Starbucks always talked about putting people before their products and this "idea" of theirs proves it.
I like your posts and I'm gonna follow you from now on. :)
-Maggie Munchkin :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI like your ABC's "A" most: "Always encourage customers to talk on forums, and to rate and review your products and services".
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard for some companies to follow because they have fears that their customers may have bad reviews about their products. I think for them, more customer surveys and informal feedback will work better.
Thanks Meghnaa. Yes, Starbucks is indeed a role model organization. I do agree that their website is very transparent and they welcome both positive and negative comments. The key for any organization is to listen to customers and to act upon their feedback and that's exactly what Starbucks is doing. Glad you're following my blog...hope to hear more comments from you in the weeks ahead. : )
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Jing. And you made a great point that because companies fear bad reviews, they are reluctant to create online forums or customer feedback links on their website. I do agree that in such cases customer surveys and informal feedback are the way to go. However, I also feel that companies should be transparent and willing to embrace negative comments as this will ultimately help them improve and strengthen their brand. Keep those comments coming. : )
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that Starbucks was doing this. I agree, I think this is a wonderful idea for organizations. It does not gaurantee success but I think there is a greater chance with this type of interactive feedback.
ReplyDeleteHey Neha, a very positive case study. I especially like how Starbucks is keeping that engagement going on through those categories of under 'review',...'coming soon'. This lets people know that their suggestions are having an impact, it makes them feel valued.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Eileen. : ) I do agree that Starbucks is on the right track by seeking interactive customer feedback. So far it seems that this online initiative has been a success. Hopefully other organizations will follow suit.
ReplyDeleteThat's right Paromita. : ) I particularly liked those categories as well. I feel it creates a longer lasting connection between customers and the organization rather than just those 5 minutes when the customer is posting a comment. As you said, this way the customer feels that he/she is making a difference and will be encouraged to continue posting comments in the future.
ReplyDelete