Groundswell supporting the groundswell!

My reading reflection this week will focus mainly on what was posted in Chapter 8 in Groundswell - "helping the groundswell support itself". This chapter stuck with me because I could completely relate. In Groundswell, Li and Bernoff talk about the way in which people use social forums to help each other. "People are far more willing to trust each other than a company" 

Customers helping each other and answering each other's questions actually benefits both the consumer and the company. The company saves a lot of money by this. Table 8-1 in Groundswell explains the economics of support forums. As you can see - it is highly valuable to have a community support forum around your company. 

An article on ScienceNordic.com titled "Customers and companies benefit from online support communities" also brings up how support forums increase customer loyalty. 

You see, people like helping others when they know what they are talking about. It makes them feel helpful and like some sort of expert. In Science Nordic's article they say "These are dedicated users, who are self-taught experts on products. Some of them are regulars who put in hours each week to guide customers on a product's technical features". These people tend to just love the products they use so much, that they enjoy helping others learn to love the same products. 

In my own personal experience, I type questions into Google almost daily. They range from insanely simple to more complex and detailed. Most of these searches land me on a Yahoo! answers forum. Actually almost all of them. And for some reason, I trust these anonymous strangers. I certainly trust them more than I would trust the company website. 

Li and Bernoff give great case studies regarding this topic in Chapter 8 including using Wikis, Dell's support forum, and Linksys - to name a few. One case study that I enjoyed was on CBS and, specifically, the show Jericho. Viewers loved commenting on the discussion boards on the website discussing the happenings and theories. This, as mentioned in Groundswell, energizes viewers. It makes their passion for the show even stronger. Once Jericho was cancelled, the groundswell used that passion to create such a force that CBS announced they ordered more episodes of the show. 

The video below pokes fun at Tech Support - which amusingly shows why it's more effective for consumers to use web-based support than a tech call center!