(This is part three of a three-part blog series on the Rise of Social Business Applications based on a meeting with Geoffrey Moore, world-renowned business consultant and author, Dave Hersh, CEO of Jive Software, and Eugene Lee, CEO of Socialtext.)

A Customer is a Terrible Thing to Waste

In my two previous posts, I mentioned the need to include customers in your social computing strategy, so let’s dig into this topic a bit more.

Simply stated, customers are the most neglected asset in companies today. Despite the fact that huge investments have been made in systems theoretically designed to manage customer relationships, these systems were actually designed primarily to keep customers at arms length. Deflecting customers and reducing the costs of resolving customer problems has been the primary design criteria for the vast majority of so-called customer service systems in use by most companies. This is the sad but true reality, and we’ve all been victims of it for a very long time.

In essence, companies have done to customers the same thing they did to middle managers. Though companies rely on customers more than ever, they’ve isolated customers and deprived them of the tools they need to positively impact the business. In a world where lower levels of the organization are being asked to do so much, companies haven’t provided a way for their people to truly engage with customers and solicit their help and participation.

Customers who have already spent money with you are very likely to spend more money with you. Customers have experience using your product and they know what works, what doesn’t, what needs to be improved. Customers are a tremendous source of ideas for new products and innovations you might not uncover otherwise. Customers will refer you to other customers if they are happy with you. Social business applications are the critical component for unlocking this value.

Helpstream’s mission is to lead a new wave in customer service, one that is focused on engaging and leveraging customers. Helpstream provides social, community-aware business solutions that turn customer service into the most strategic activity in the company. We believe the next-generation of customer service professionals, particularly those in middle management, will be focused on helping companies leverage their customers to build community, solve problems and increase the value customers receive from the company’s products and services. Our job is to provide the technology platform to make that task easy and rewarding for everyone involved.