Strategies for tapping the groundswell

                From reading Groundswell it becomes clear that one of the biggest issues for businesses trying to tap into the groundswell is how different it is from traditional business practices. Obviously there are other concerns as well, but for the most part all of those fears stem from the fact that business practices are just so different now. Why else is the fact that customers have easy access to communicating with one another such a great problem in the eyes of so many businesses? It is because this is a practice that they are simply not used to dealing with – a force they have not needed to invest much (or any) effort into before now.

                In my opinion the book does an excellent job in quelling the fears companies may have regarding this issue of newness. In part by simply separating each chapter into very coherent sections that lead from understanding the actual changes to learning how to work with them and put them to your advantage. In chapter four there is a really interesting table (pg. 69) that the authors made up to demonstrate the links between existing business practices and their groundswell alternatives – a decision which I think was integral in clearly setting up their main talking points in that chapter (and the rest of the book for that matter). They list research, marketing, sales, support, and development as traditional business functions that occur now, and matched those up respectively with listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing. The concept of what each task does is very similar, except that the groundswell versions rely much more heavily on the customer’s input and customer-to-customer communications.

                For example, the difference between the traditional “development” and the new “embracing.” Companies are always trying to develop their products and make those things more marketable themselves so that more people will want to purchase them. Traditionally this has been done much more “in-house” and often with very intelligent and gifted individuals working on ways to accomplish this. But with the groundswell, this process does not need to be so cut off from the outside world. In fact, companies are encouraged to use their customers as a main resource to improve products and services. Companies have easy access to direct suggestions (or complaints that can lead to suggestions) from customers.

                From my point of view, this works out amazingly well for both sides. The customers have a say in what kinds of products and services are being offered so that they get exactly what they need. It also enables companies to greatly increase their profit margin if their products accurately reflect the changes that their customers demand. It does make for a pickier customer (one who wants everything personalized because they know companies are listening to them) but ultimately, I believe, happier ones in the end.