Service-Comparison Sites Up The Customer Service Stakes

The rise of the 'i' economy, with internet users wielding significant power in the construction (and potentially deconstruction) of consumers' perceptions of brand image, is likely to force businesses into working harder at improving their customer service provision levels.

With the advent of Web 2.0, there are now more portals for consumers to make their voices heard than ever before: micro-blogging sites like Twitter, social network groups, blogs, forums, review sites – the content on all of these contributes to the general perception of a brand in the buying public's eyes. It's near impossible to suppress bad press and negative feedback once it leaks onto the internet and companies have very little power to manipulate things in their favour, save for going to the root of the problem and exceeding customer service expectations.

It's now the clients and consumers who are in control of content, not the companies, hence the term, 'i' economy: the business world is being forced to abandon the old 'top-down' model where businesses could simply broadcast their customer service message using traditional advertising channels - TV, print and radio - without potentially facing a very public discussion on the merits of such a claim. Web 2.0 has changed that.

Customer service has always been a popular talking point and the opportunity to praise or complain about a company on-line has been taken up by consumers with enthusiasm. Now the stakes are being upped another notch with service comparison sites such as Plebble.com encouraging users to contrast their customer service experiences with that of other users – another feather in the consumer's bow.

With comparison sites now dedicated to particular industries like broadband connections and utilities, customer service feedback is becoming more specialised; those on the consumer/client side are gaining more qualitative criteria – customer feedback – on which to judge businesses. With the economy in a tail-spin, customer service could feasibly make or break companies' fortunes in 2009 but it remains to be seen how, or even whether businesses will rise to the customer service challenges they face.