Proactively engage with your customers!

As of today the main benefit of social crm was being able to reduce damages or to react on time to developing crises and mitigate risk factors. But as the tool evolved from a technological point of view new possibilities arose, one of the most significant of them is the ability to proactively engage with trendsetter customers. This new development could be use to cheaply improve the public image of a company and to proactively initiate a dialogue. This could be useful if, for example, the company wanted to test a new iteration of one of its products or if they wanted to test any change in their value proposition. The ability to receive real time feedback provided by some of the most representative customers of the company will significantly shorten the time required by the company to validate the change; moreover the ability to do it in a controlled environment will reduce the likelihood of the spillage of failures.

One of the best options to do it is by tapping into the already existing group of users that are actively engaged on Facebook for example. A convenient tool to do so is Innubu, a company that will help you identify, select and engage your customers within your installed fan base on Facebook. Once selected the right users it will be possible to track in real time their feedback regarding the new product in development by offering a fast and effective Facebook application.

This will enable your company to receive results in real time and you will be able to segment the information in order to tailor your offer to the best target audience.

Tools such as Innubu enables the company to shorten product development times, segment your customers to find the ideal type and get your product to the market in the fastest possible time. The ability to slice even more precisely through your existing user will provide better feedback on business decisions, at the same time the customers will feel more engaged with the company they like. Those users being the most vocal among the supporters will have a magnifying effect on the acceptance of the products within the general population.

It’s easy to continue to do business as usual without adapting to the new tools but not adapting will be the best way to a certain death, in fact if you don’t adapt your competitors will do. An option like the one provided by Innubu is so powerful and so easy to implement that any company should pursue this course of action.

As a side note this idea was developed within IE Venture Lab by fellow students.