Groundswell and the everyday life

When most people think of Groundswell, they associate it with something new to learn. Many do not know that they are already incorporating the groundswell in their everyday activities. Groundswell is based entiredly on relationships. Most people use the groundswell technology and they don't even know it. It places the company and the customer together as one. Groundswell involves everybody in the community. Person to person activity is really crucial. Companies must be ready to connect to customers they never met before in order to figure what they want. This also helps build long-term loyalties that will help your company out in the future. Companies need these connections to assist with their startegy They can make groundswell a key resource in their business.

Customer Service

When a customer purchases a particular product, when he or she has a problem with that product, the first group that is contacted is customer service or some kind of support that is available for that product. Sometimes supporting a customer can be a burden for the company. It can cause the company lots of time and a loss of profit for the loss of time spent. Usually customers only call the company when something is going wrong. Every company tries to avoid situations like this. Many companies have spent millions of dollars funding these call centers that are used to help these customers. Now companies have realized that they can now provide online support and send their customers to the web instead. This started in the late 1990s as more and more companies started to follow this trend. This way the company and the customer can both benefit. The company will save money by switching to this method. More information can be posted so that the company can save it resources. The customers are able to get the information at any time of the day without having having to rely on the company. Companies can set up forums which consist of articles that answer common problems to that problems. This also saves the customer some time because he or she doesn't have to spend a lot of time on the phone following the prompts to get to a representative. Sometimes you can be on the phone forever for just one simple answer.

Officemax Reviews

Just recently, OfficeMax, the company that I work for just created a tool on their website that allows customers to give ratings on products and services in a particular store. It was somethings that they always had but they did not have a site formatted for this types of user comments. Something like this would really benefit us because it would help us to figure out what product works and which isn't so good. According to a customer that I was helping yesterday, it allows the user to create a profile and lets them submit all their products (the ones that they would like to write a review on) and lets them rate with a 1 to 10 scale for each category. It also lets the user comment on the service provided at that store A new improvement that definitely improve the product selection and the services provided at each location.

Social Networks

Another technology that the Groundswell uses in establishing relationships is the use of social networks. There are several different networks available for use but the two primary ones are Facebook and Myspace. Behind blogs, social networks are the next most popular technology with the groundswell. These social networks are important in helping the user create relations and it also helps them maintain the relationship that have build. One in every four Americans visit a social networking site each day. I think that fact is pretty accurate. I find myself spending a lot time on Facebook, at least a couple of hours each day. Facebook and Myspace, users have opportunity to create a profile and then use that to add different people to their network of friends. There are also many applications that Facebook has added to increase the interaction between the users. Even companies are also using these sites to keep up with their customer base and to send out important information to their clients. The only downfall to the networks is that they suck up a lot of time by the users.

Blogs

In the 2nd Chapter of Groundswell, it discusses the different Groundswell methods that businesses use to communicate with their customer base. Even though Groundswell discusses the different technologies, it focuses on the relationships that these technologies creates. The first technology that they discuss is personal blogs. It describes blogs as being an online journal for all kinds of entries. A lot of people use this to write about personal thoughts or they use it to reflect on different event that has took place. This technology is mostly used by the Groundswell. The only disadvantage to this technology is that there are no restrictions to this technology which allows people to say whatever they feel whether it be positive or negative Consumers blog about things that were purchased and then other people who are looking into purchasing the same item usually go online to read the reviews or to see what other people think before they make their purchase. This serves as an advantage to businesses these days because if the product gets good feed back then that could help them increase their sales of that item. Examples of blog would be sites like yahoo who has their own blog site. YouTube is also considered a blog site. With YouTube bloggers can upload videos which are also considered blogs as well. Blogging is considered one of the most used technologies of the Groundswell

Groundswell 1st Chapter

Well, I read the first chapter of Groundswell and it is actually not too bad. It goes on to explain what Groundswell is and why it is taking place. People rely on other people for information so this is why they turn to this method. There are many people who use Groundswell as a means of communication with other people. Communication is the main theme that the Groundswell method involves. A lot of people are wondering why Groundswell is taking place right now. There are a couple of reasons why. The first reason is one that I have already explained. People need a way to obtain information and Ground well serves that purpose. Another reason is technology. With technology changing so much, it is forces people to use Groundswell who normally would not. The last reason would be the emergence of online communities which have involved a lot of business these years.