Steve Rubel on his Micro Persuasion blog has an interesting post describing how to use Google Reader for knowledge management – Becoming a Knowledge Management Ninja with Google Reader.
Steve provides some interesting tips and tricks well worth reading. Looking at a more specific scenario, you could apply his advice to create a CRM (customer-relationship management) system using Google Reader. One of the biggest challenges facing many organisations is that the Internet and, more specifically, Web 2.0 tools are helping to make customers more informed than employees. Traditional CRM systems seem to be more about generating reports than relationships – forecasting, planning and reviewing targets. Creating replicable and measurable processes to ensure consistent interactions. Great in a rational world. But we don’t live in one. Does your CRM warn you about the blog post just published describing how to hack your best-selling product? Does it show you what your customers have been writing about you on public forums?
Keeping track of news feeds could help ensure that employees are as, if not more, informed than customers. And that is likely to go a long way to improving relationships and increasing sales and retention… Of course, this may require an adjustment to processes. Whilst customers have become more informed thanks to the Internet, too many organisations are ensuring their employees become less informed by banning access to the very tools that customers use – Facebook, Myspace, Wikipedia, Google, the Internet…
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