Needle Helps Brands Find the Best Product Experts to Help Customers
Katherinev123 — December 28, 2011 — Business
According to Needle, a platform that helps brands identify product experts, when a consumer wants product information and recommendations, they're typically sent to a call center where they receive robotic responses from people who can't help them decide what to purchase. With Needle, however, companies identify their own product experts -- people who use their products and can provide expert advice -- and assign them to customers, making the entire product recommendation and sales process more effective.
Needle points out that a brand's most passionate fans, recruited from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, will offer better customer service and advice than any call center since they are actually owners and advocates of the product. A company just has to install a Needle button on their product pages and assign a product expert to answer a customer's questions and give advice. This is done through online text, video or voice chats. In return for helping a brand sell its products, experts will earn points; they can then use these points to purchase the brand's products.
According to Needle, a chat with a Needle product expert is "the equivalent of having a personal shopper giving real-time reviews and recommendations to your customers based on rich, interactive dialogues."
Needle points out that a brand's most passionate fans, recruited from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, will offer better customer service and advice than any call center since they are actually owners and advocates of the product. A company just has to install a Needle button on their product pages and assign a product expert to answer a customer's questions and give advice. This is done through online text, video or voice chats. In return for helping a brand sell its products, experts will earn points; they can then use these points to purchase the brand's products.
According to Needle, a chat with a Needle product expert is "the equivalent of having a personal shopper giving real-time reviews and recommendations to your customers based on rich, interactive dialogues."
Trend Themes
1. Crowdsourced Product Experts - Brands can leverage their passionate fans recruited from social media sites to provide personalized customer service and expert advice.
2. Direct Customer-expert Interaction - Using online text, video, or voice chats, brands can connect customers directly with product experts to enhance the product recommendation and sales process.
3. Gamification of Expertise - By rewarding experts with points that can be used to purchase products, brands create a gamified system that incentivizes experts to help sell their products.
Industry Implications
1. E-commerce - Online retailers can employ the Needle platform to improve customer engagement and increase sales by connecting customers with knowledgeable product experts.
2. Customer Support - Companies in the customer support industry can enhance their services by integrating crowd-sourced product experts to provide personalized solutions and recommendations to customers.
3. Social Media - Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can explore partnerships with Needle to facilitate the recruitment of brand enthusiasts as product experts, creating more value and engagement for their users.
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