Sometimes, the best business ideas don’t come from within, but from your most engaged and raving fans. After all, since the customer is buying the product, shouldn’t they also have some say in what they are thinking about purchasing?
Enter crowdsourcing, a term created by Jeff Howe back in 2006 to describe the act of turning over business strategy to the masses. In recent years, the strategy has hit the mainstream with numerous consumer and technology brands embracing the technique to remain innovative.
Applying crowdsourcing techniques requires meticulous planning and control. Covering the entire buyer’s journey, a successful crowdsourcing campaign can ultimately lead to more sales, satisfaction, and vested interest from a customer base to participate in day-to-day business activities. In this installment of the digital experience, we explore several best practices organizations should consider before pursuing their crowdsourcing initiatives.
- Eliminate the Influence of Rabid Groups: When letting the crowd make a business decision, it crucial that you prevent a small group have an out-sized influence. Ensure that you’re able to vet those whom you’ve let crowdsource, unless you’re willing to experience the consequences.
- Poll Those Who Don’t Know Anything: People with experience outside your particular field can actually be the best at solving certain problems. A diversity of intellectual background can sometimes offer a breath of fresh air. This may not work as well for more technical products, however.
- Focus on Quality, not Quantity: Focus on the numbers that will matter to your objectives, not the easy ones to measure. While it’s easy to boast about the number of submissions, it’s the quality of those submissions that ultimately will stand out.
- Choose the Right Incentives: It’s important to learn what inspires people to participate. After all, consumers buy from organizations for more than just need. Are they after money, recognition or the chance at impress their peers? Find what motivates them and you’ll get better results.
- Not Everyone Has to Agree: To avoid getting stuck in an echo chamber, make it OK for everyone to not have to agree. If you want to know where new interesting useful ideas are going to come from, don’t look at crowds and don’t look at individuals. Instead, focus on the small groups of people arguing with each other.
Drive Your Organizational Innovation
Is your organization looking for opportunities to innovate? Work with us as we help create the plans necessary for the best crowdsourcing campaign and email us at sales@perficient.com to get started. Additionally, download our portals guide below for additional guidance on how to improve the digital experience of your customers.
Today’s organizations must be more connected to their customer than ever. As the buyer’s journey evolves, leaders must also adopt the right technologies to influence positive business outcomes. This post is a part of a series focused on helping enterprises develop the necessary strategies and best practices to better connect with their customers. Check out the other blogs in this series
