Many consumers are frustrated when wanting to interact with corporations. Phone calls met with “please hold” notices, or emails that get a “thanks for your input” reply, but nothing further.
Getsatisfaction is trying to solve these challenges by providing a place where consumers and marketeers can communicate. They call it “people-powered customer service” and allows consumers a platform where they can converse about customer service issues specific to a particular company or product.
Examples are this request on the Product “I want Sandy”, which is a pretty cool reminder service that I have been testing out. The replies to the initial request include suggestions and claficiations from a representative of “I want Sandy“, and demonstrate how effective this is.
Participants in the conversations can include other consumers or employee representatives (declared as such), and the ability to rank useful posts enable the community rated posts to bubble to the top.
Discussions are controlled by the community, providing a freedom that is harder to provide inside normal corporate consumer response services. From a corporate view, representatives are encouraged to respond to feedback in a collaborative way.
Currently the service is free, although I suspect it gains traction they could monetise the service by either charging corporate participation on a monthly fee, or offering extended offerings that are paid for.
Perspective: More and more consumers are willing to express their opinions about your products and services, and brands that ignore these conversations do so at their own risk.
