More and more systems automatically capture knowledge which can be used to make intelligent decisions. Whether it’s Amazon matching our product choices with those of other “similar” shoppers, Google tracking anonymous user data or the Tesco club card, our habits and activities are being mined for insightful information.
This capture extends to information about solutions to problems. This ranges from simply helping customers fix problems themselves, to invoking and tracking additional services. All knowledge, tips and tricks are being captured.
For most products there is a critical mass where the knowledge captured can serve a reasonably large proportion of customer needs.
Even as product life cycles continue to shorten, knowledge capture evolves at a faster pace. Couple this with the popularity of social media networks and information accessibility, and traditional vendor organisation customer service teams could be set to experience a world where they’re not required for a large proportion of service needs. The days of vendors having a monopoly on their product information may soon be over.
Social media can be used to share, update and evaluate product knowledge
Some product vendors accept this and offer information freely while providing platforms to encourage customers to create and share their own information. Many retail vendors allow honest on–site product reviews, while most internet hosting companies will refer customers to a wiki for their service queries.
Sometimes these platforms come at a price (essentially a new service fee), sometimes they don’t and are seen as an investment in reducing service costs and improving reputation.
Models like OpenSource Software are similar, where the power of the many come together in a controlled manner to create real value. Interestingly, the services supporting open source software were originally seen as a limitation to adoption (customers asked “where do I go if it breaks?”); however, in reality the community itself provides support, backed–up by vendors offering premium services. The success of a product like the Firefox web browser demonstrates how powerful this model can be.
This, I hope, is what may happen to many customer services. A base–level of help can be found using the extensive knowledge within the related community structure, with vendors providing an improved range of premium services that compliment (not just support) their products.