Customerforce

From Beta to Launch

The journey from beta launch to full launch will be an interesting one. I really have no idea what the product will look like when it finally launches. The feedback already has been staggering. We have been able to add and change quite a few things immediately. And we have lots more already in development. I have a feeling though the initial launch product will look significantly different as we currently have a major redesign underway. More on that to follow…

The Customerforce Widget

The Customerforce Widget allows you browse 120,000+ favorite Customerforce items. You don’t need to join to browse and therefore if you are not a member you can use the widget as an additional reference source. However, you don’t get member recommendations (because we don’t know who you are or who you are connected to) but you do get a search listing. Let us know what you think.

Taking Control of the Customer Experience

Customerforce is based the premise that over time users will take control of the customer experience. This means we will be ‘market at’ less and we will share more of our preferences with our trusted network. At some point this will just be the norm. Think of it like email. The recipient doesn’t have to be present to collect the email or available to have the conversation in real time. The email is waiting for them whenever they are ready to read it. Whenever you choose to search or browse, the knowledge base of your trusted network will be similarly available. Additionally you can choose to subscribe to a weekly newsletter summarizing all of the favorites added by your trusted network. Next step, just plug me into my friends!

Now You Know What Your Friends Know.

Customerforce is so new that people understand the concept when explained but they don’t always realize why it is worth the investment of time. Think of it this way, how much would it be worth to know everything that your friends know? That is literally what we are talking about. Maybe you initially share information slowly but as you start to see the benefits you and your contacts share more information. Pretty soon, you know what your friends know.

How do I use Customerforce?

We all informally share information with our friends and the people that we trust. If we added it all up, we spend a large percentage of our time sharing information on our preferences with our ‘friends’. From widgets to web sites, blogs to businesses. It might be a favorite book, movie, travel destination. Customerforce simply organizes this information for you and your friends. First you organize yourself by adding some of your favorite items to the 120,000+ items already added by Customerforce members, e.g., web sites, books or movies. You can add items right from the home page. Be sure to choose a category and sub-category when adding items so that you can find them easily afterwards. Coming soon, a ‘quick add’ and a toolbar that you can use Install the Customerforce toolbar in your browser and hit the ‘Add Favorites’ to file any web sites you come across them while surfing.. The web site is now stored, categorized and ready to share with your friends. Here ‘sharing’ means that your friends can browse your favorites and these items will rank higher in search listings.

That’s it. If you have a few friends who also add items, in a short time you will be browsing only things that have been recommended by people that you trust. How sweet is that?

Beta Launch

Customerforce.com is now in public Beta. Everyone knows how grueling launches are.

I got my first glimpse of the future today. I saw my default Customerforce search page. After using the new portal for a few weeks it had finally figured me out. When it presented my default search I was completely shocked. It had three of my favorite TV programs (well actually the only three I have time to watch) and a couple of my favorite artists. Right then I knew I had seen the future. Download customerforce_launch_image.bmp and here's the press release.

What is Customerforce?

Customerforce is focused on customers (we're all customers) taking control of the customer experience. In the fifties, it was all about mass broadcast. We had limited TV and Radio choices and consumer companies were able to reach mass audiences through advertisements or sponsored programs on TV or Radio. Fast Forward fifty years and we are now at the point where audiences are declining for the mass media channel and increasing for the user-generated channels. If you follow this to its logical conclusion, in the beginning we were broadcast to but in the future we will all decide how and when to give our attention. This is a whole different subject but a key component of this attention will be deciding on 'trusted' sources of information. Think about it this way, who do we look to for recommendations? People or sources that have given us reliable information in the past. Frequently but not always those sources of information that we rely upon are our 'trusted network' of contacts. They might be friends, family, colleagues, etc. We may rely on different sources for different type of information, for example, a particular friend might be a great choice for a music recommendation but not so good on a computer purchase. Simply put Customerforce puts all of this information at your disposal. You get unfiltered recommendations from people that you trust, whenever you need it. In addition, you can always fall back on the recommendations of particular group or the whole Customerforce population.