Dynamic Business

Challenges and implications
Tremendous opportunities exist in Web 2.0 technologies, however risks do exist too. When a customer enters into a deeper relationship with a company through web-bsed technologies, the company must address potential breaches of privacy of the customer and security of the organisation. Additionally, greater transparency in relationships can require closer management of how the company is represented, and greater interpersonal interaction across channels may create greater potential for criticism.

However, companies can maximise the value and minimise the risk of adopting social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies in their customer relationship programs. For example, they can begin by adopting these technologies behind the firewall, with employees or other internal audiences. Then they can extend them to customers, after the company has had the chance to fully evaluate potential benefits and risks. Companies can also adopt a partial or phased approach in extending Web 2.0 technologies to customers, starting with their best customers, or a highly targeted customer segment first.
Finally, it’s important for a company to adopt measurable goals for these initiatives. Then they can create a baseline against which to measure progress toward those goals. However, Web 2.0 technologies can challenge traditional metrics used in customer management. So new metrics should be carefully considered, taking into account key stakeholders such as the legal and human resources departments. Also, given that the goal is to empower the customer, key customers should be invited to contribute their perspectives as well.

Actively engaging customers in the service process and how they interact with companies is increasingly important, whether it involves metrics, communication or outcomes. With the emergence of new social media technologies, businesses need to find ways to use them to shift the focus from managing transactions to building deeper relationships.

Australians want, and in the future may demand, Web 2.0 technologies that allow then to engage as partners in the business transaction. The evolution of social media empowers customers to create a deeper relationship with the companies with which they do business.

-Craig Dower is Australian managing director for Avanade (www.avanade.com), a global It consultancy, specialising in solutions based on the Microsoft enterprise platform.

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