Build Customer Communities
Coverage Hosted CRM’s Necessary Divergence Communispace WizKids Case Study
Synopsis Communispace, (www.communispace.com) a Boston based company specializing in online customer communities, provides an application for companies that need deep and instant market research and a constant stream of customer feedback such as consumer goods companies and many others. The analog alternatives of this application are either traditional focus groups or community portals sponsored by a company. But focus groups are fraught with problems of small sample size, economic inefficiencies, and an inability to circle back to participants once the focus group is over. By the same token, sponsored community portals can provide fast results but they lack a true sense of independence and some people may not feel entirely free to speak their minds in such a situation. The participants in these portals are anonymous, and thus it is difficult for marketers to interpret what they are saying, and the resulting insights tend to be superficial. By using the Internet to provide a WN environment for private networks of targeted customers, Communispace has redefined the business problem and delivered a higher value solution. Companies that use Communispace are able to access a customized community of target customers on a frequent basis and receive credible market insight in hours rather than weeks. The result is the potential for a faster and more iterative collaboration with customers on product design, pricing, programs, and more. |
