Author:  Gary Barnett

Keith Dawson recently posted a blog on Call Center Magazine’s website that talked about how “customer service blunders can become amplified in today’s supercharged media environment.” 

This supercharged media environment that Mr. Dawson refers to is part of something that we at Aspect like to call Power Shift 2.0:  the age of the activist consumer that makes use of emerging web technologies to air praises and frustrations about experiences with corporate brands. Power Shift 1.0 began in the 1990’s when consumers could suddenly go online to access and compare product features, service capabilities and pricing.  Just think about how this ability has changed something as simple as buying a camera.  Instead of visiting your local retail outlet, asking questions to learn about the cameras they carry, and then physically shopping at various stores until you found the best price, the Internet enabled you to go online, research an endless variety of cameras, and order the right camera from the retailer that could give you the right deal – regardless of where they were located – right then and there.   

Power Shift 2.0 is taking that one step further.  Back to our camera example: you may be interested in a certain make and model, but you probably want some tried and true customer feedback on the products and the retailers you’re considering before you spend your hard-earned money.  You go online to read about other people’s first-hand experiences that will help you make your buying decision. These can be gathered from multiple sources including blogs, wikis, content syndication feeds, chat rooms, personal web pages, and retailer web pages.

These new technologies are empowering consumers to directly influence other consumers’ perceptions and buying decisions.  When you read research that shows each unhappy customer will tell 13 to 15 people about their bad experience with a company, it really makes you think.  And, as demonstrated by Mr. Dawson’s writings, your contact center could mean the difference between engendering lifelong loyalty and sending your customers running for the hills.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 7:35 am and is filed under Customer Service/Consumer Demands. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.