6 business trends 2007: two-way communication

Original author: Daniel Akst
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Buyers are chatting. Companies are listening. Everyone is happy.

Previously, the task of companies was only selling goods, today this has come to an end. True, the buyer was always right, but only in front of the box office or in the queue for the return of the goods. Today, the network makes elementary communication between buyers and sellers. Smart management companies, in particular from Silicon Valley, listen carefully to their customers, using their opinions to create and develop new products, and try to maintain long-term relationships with customers.

Call it the era of continuous bilateral business. Amazon.com relies on customer reviews to make its services more convenient than a traditional store. Legooffers software downloads, and customers can design their own software packages and then buy them online. Linden Labs subscribers at Second Life begin to invest in virtual landscapes, improving them so that the environment becomes even more attractive to other subscribers. Medtronic does not just sell you a heart stimulant. He sells you a heart implant, which sends information about your health to your doctor. This allows you to keep in touch with the doctor and it gives him constant contact with Medtronic. Amazon.com

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Apple Customer Reviews of Products and Services - Buyer- side Sales and Services
Medtronic - working with electronic heart stimulants online
Netflix - a system of recommendations based on the tastes of customers

It is not surprising that in most cases this trend is associated with companies that conduct most of the online business. Take Netflix. The Cinematch system of this resource advises selecting films based on the user's rating of other films and on how other similarly minded people rate films. Buyers can also get recommendations based on their friends' preferences. The result expands user tastes, supports independent cinema - and reliably binds Netflix users to resource services. Now Netflix is ​​a permanent meeting place for moviegoers who can access other people's ratings and movie requests. These buyer-buyer contacts only strengthen the relationship between buyers and companies, their cooperation is firmly anchored by the slogan “Friends will not let friends leave Netflix”.

Customer loyalty to the company, born of a two-way business, reduces price sensitivity, this is a possible reason for the failure of Wal-Mart's Netflix-like service with lower prices. Linking customers online also helps you learn more about them, which means identifying new products that you can sell to them. Amazon, for example, uses the habits of book buyers to recommend everything from DVDs to clothing. At the same time, for customers, a feeling of closeness with the company can quickly lead to feelings of betrayal: when the news became knownthat Netflix has a system that delays sending DVDs to users who rent DVDs most often, outrage spread instantly through blogs and forums. And when one user leaves Netflix, his friends can leave with him.

As feedback between buyer and seller is being used more and more often, storefronts are also becoming more interactive. Customers with cell phones or handheld computers will be able to access device instructions, instant technical support, read user reviews, and possibly place orders for devices that are not yet on their shelves - or those that online store servers offer based on non not only on your past purchases, but also on what your friends enjoy.

In other words, the time will come when all stores will work with customers through feedback. Even those in supermarkets.

Daniel Akst, Wired 04/15/07

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