Society and communication are mutually dependent on each other, without a society there is no language and without language and communication there can be no society.  The di facto is that humans are social creatures; we enjoy nothing more than sharing our experiences with each other.  Provide social creatures with a way to connect and they will. Provide them with a way to exchange information within communities, and place aside authoritarian sources of content, and they will gravitate toward peers.  And this is exactly what’s happening with Web 2.0. Web 2.0 has the power to rearrange greatly the relationship between companies and their customers. 

Organisations that don’t take a proactive Web 2.0 customer service approach risk, at best, missing opportunities and, at the worst, causing irreparable damage to their relationship with their customers.    This rearrangement is going to happen, whether you like it or not. You can either learn to accept this and work with Web 2.0 technologies or you can ignore it and eventually lose touch. Companies can no longer rely on traditional methods of communication to address customer dissatisfaction.  Companies now need to harness the power of Web2.0 and develop a cross-channel customer service solutions approach to dealing with dissatisfaction. 

Adding to the traditional way of dealing with a complaint (telephone, email and face-to-face), companies need to look at how they can use new technologies in order to identify and deal with complaints and negativity using real-time transparent dialogue.  Companies must look at the social media landscape and identify how their customers and prospects are interacting with each other, and what platforms they are using for this interaction.  Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, YouTube, Friendster, MySpace, etc. should be utilized by companies when surveying the landscape for dissatisfied customers, trends, movements, etc. 

Those who are proactive and fluid enough to develop a cross-platform customer service solution can dominate their competitors.  Listening and responding to customer requirements is paramount to success and Web 2.0 means you can step into their playing field and deal directly and promptly with any potential curve balls they throw at you. Although significant questions regarding social media’s worth are yet to be answered ( such as ROI companies can realise), Natalie Petouhoff, senior analyst at Forrester, identified seven key benefits that companies obtain when using customer service online communities. These are:

1. Reduction in agent-assisted interactions
   
2. Reduction in agent-assisted email
   
3. Increase in first-contact resolution
   
4. Increase in agent productivity
   
5. Increase in product ideation
   
6. Boost in relevant Web-site content and reduced search-engine optimization costs
   
7. Improved customer retention and customer lifetime value
   

So with all these benefits, why aren’t companies taking advantage of Web 2.0 technologies and investing resources in cross-channel customer service solutions? There are number of reasons for this; some companies are afraid of the legal implications, some don’t have the resources or knowledge, companies are worried employees will cause embarrassment, and there are a lot of companies who are fearful of change. 

But one thing is for certain, the burgeoning Web 2.0 landscape has created a revolution and it’s a revolution that firmly places power back in the hands of the customer.