If We Build It, We Will Come
Examples of successful crowdsourcing initiatives are abundant in today’s participatory world. Last.fm, SugarCRM, Wikia, WordPress - the list of web companies leveraging their user base to gradually evolve a profitable service is expanding daily. However, is it realistic to assume all companies can benefit from the Wisdom of Crowds? Or is the crowdsourcing phenomenon monopolized by bleeding edge technology companies?
A new work by Barry Libert and Jon Spector entitled “We Are Smarter Than Me” details specific action items for companies of any size or technological background to benefit from crowds. While large scale benefactors like Linden Labs (creators of Second Life) are chronicled, the book also provides examples of atypical companies such as CookShack - a CA based manufacturer of barbecue and smoke ovens. CookShack is dedicated to customer service, but the influx of questions, complaints, and commentary was not manageable for the company’s small staff. The solution: a forum allowing fanatical barbecue gurus to discuss best practices, recipes, problems, etc. At publishing date, the forum included +1000 topics - more than enough data to solve the majority of problems.
Awesome! All a company needs is a forum and customer service costs are diminished…not entirely. The problem of generating interest remains. Why are customers willing to contribute to a forum for free? Libert and Spector have several hypotheses including the following:
- Cater to your customer’s ego. Most consumers want to be viewed as an expert or authority after using a product, so provide a platform for them to share their experience.
- Make sure your customers know they can help. Without spending extensive time trolling a website, purchasers should be informed about the power of online platforms.
- Reward or recognize customers who suggest outstanding improvements to your product. What bbq fan would not appreciate a complimentary slab of ribs?
Another emphasis of the book surrounds the barrier between understanding crowdsourcing and actually implementing a large, inexpensive support base. A number of stupid-simple services exist including Wufoo, which allows companies to easily embed surveys into a website (check out the Wufoo form on this website). For more ambitious, data-hungry enterprises, Spigit provides a reputation based networking platform currently used for collecting innovation, event feedback, and organizing contests. Check out a demonstration of Spigit through their recent work with BlogWorld Expo. Qwizzy is another startup with a simple crowdsourcing solution - the service quickly generates customized Q&A pages for websites allowing users to interact directly with each other and staff members.
VentureBeat also provides some commentary on tapping the wisdom of crowds if the above examples were not enough to keep you busy.
Filed under: Infonalysis