¿Acabará la llamada web 2.0 con las técnicas clásicas de CRM? ¿ Significa la web 2.0 que las empresas perderán el control absoluto que han ejercido sobre las relaciones con sus clientes? ¿Estamos también ante una revolución en la que los clientes van a ejercer una mayor presión sobre la calidad de las transacciones y en la post-venta?

La “inteligencia de las multitudes” que aporta la web 2.0 va a hacer que las empresas tengan que crecer en inteligencia social , van a tener que adaptar sus procedimientos y estructuras a un mercado en el que los consumidores ya no son entes individuales, ya no son el final de la cadena, sino comunidades organizadas de usuarios en las que las evaluaciones de calidad van a ser inmediatas y, lo que es más importante, públicas y publicadas con una resonancia tal que los errores y aciertos van a ser magnificados ad infinitum
Si el CRM nace para analizar a los clientes tratando de estudiar su comportamiento y aprender de ellos , en la web 2.0 son los comportamientos de la empresa, y sus productos y servicios los que son analizados por sus usuarios. La web 2.0 supone por tanto una inversión de los términos para los que nace el CRM, es decir, que estamos ante un cambio de paradigma en el que son los clientes los que, además de tener el poder, van a tener herramientas para ejercerlo.

Dion Hichcliffe, editor del Web 2.0 journal aporta una serie de 5 sencillas recetas con las que las empresas pueden comenzar a navegar en este nuevo mundo y reinventar la relación empresa-cliente, de las que les voy a referir 3:

1. Collect User (Customer) Contributions. And make it as easy as possible to do. Your customers are almost always your very best source of information about your products. In fact, your customers likely know more about them than you do and there are also a huge number of them. So actively leverage this vast sea of knowledge and collect feedback, criticisms, tips, suggestions, preferences, conversations amongst your customers, and even conversations between you and your customer (if they approve it). These latter two, if made public, can form true communities and can let your best customers help other customers when you don’t have the ability. If you’re in the business of providing content, let them mark it up, improve it, and share it with others. Amazon is still the leading example here, and their database of user generated reviews and ratings is simply one of the best out there. Collecting customer contributions can be as simple as a wiki or submission form, or as sophisticated as a MySpace-style community.
2. Enable Formation of Communities. As it turns out, if your customers like what you sell they will form online communities based on this common trait, whether you provide it or not. In these online communities they’ll share ideas and information, create an atmosphere of enthusiasm, help other customers, organize online events, etc.. Furthermore, this supports the trend that buyers are moving from buying products to buying overarching experiences, and community adds to this effect. Having your customers build a community somewhere else other than one that you provide and nurture is generally of less value. There is less ability to collect and reuse user generated content and provide active support of the community. Fortunately, building a good community environment is fairly easy these days. For example software support is getting extremely good and platforms like Drupal and CivicSpace are pushing the envelope of best practices in combining online communities and Web 2.0 techniques. Finally, from a cost-benefit perspective, an online community can keep your customer base more unified and self-servicing, puts customers in front of your branding for longer, and increases opportunities for repeat business.
3. Become An Open Platform. While many companies selling material products might think they have less things to open up, you’d be surprised at how much useful, non-strategic information virtually all organizations are sitting on top of that could be opened up over the Web for both existing and new customer benefit. Even if it’s just your product listings, technical support knowledge base, or what have you, you might be surprised at the ingenuity and new uses that this information can be put to by others if it’s available. Monetizing this can even be of serious financial value (Amazon raked in $211 million dollars last year by doing this). Leaving mountains of potentially valuable information and services unexploited and off the open market can be a huge mistake. Study the successes here (Amazon and Salesforce), inventory your offerings, figure out how to scale and monetize, and start with a pilot, but the Global SOA is still an emerging concept that has major opportunities. Never mind that your customers will have more useful information from you, increased transparency, and the ability to innovate on top of what you provide. Even just providing RSS or ATOM feeds of your most requested information is a great place to start.