Website as product testing

One of the things that I find remarkable about the whole 'Web 2.0' movement is the way that the web has changed from becoming a one way medium to a two way conduit. More and more people are finding ways to interact online. We can now video conference with people half a world away or IM the guy in the next room. With facebook, myspace and myriad other online applications we can keep in touch with friends and family like never before.

My stepson routinely plays CounterStrike Source online with his 'clan' or team of players. This is a collaborative game of teams battling other teams online in a World War II setting. His clan members are from down the street, across the country, and even one member from England. With an online game he has made global friends, many whom he would never encounter were it not for this online experience. They even routinely chat online outside the game. This has exposed him to a world of diverse cultures and ideas that used to require lengthy and expensive travel, all from the safety of his bedroom.

We used to think that the greatest thing about the web was access to information. Truly the greatest thing about Web 2.0 is access to PEOPLE.

So my thought process has recently been on using this access to people, this conversation, to make business better. And after recently hearing Clay Shirkly's talk at the Web 2.0 Expo I realized that businesses can actually utilize what he refers to as "the Principle of Participation" to connect and get feedback from their customers.

Anyone who has spent time in the local megamall has come across the smiling people with the clipboard wanting to offer you a nice coupon for participating in a research survey. Depending on my mood and/or amount of free time; I will either avoid them like the plague, participate to get the free coupon, or for fun participate and tell them the opposite of what they want to hear.

Now with these new forms of interaction on the web, you can build this kind of market research RIGHT INTO YOUR WEBSITE.

Use the power of the Feedback, the Customer Review, the Poll, to allow your customers to talk to you. Make your website a CONVERSATION with the customers. Make it APPARENT, in many locations, the OPPORTUNITY for them to TELL YOU WHAT THEY THINK.

I will go a step further. Don't offer them a reward. If you say, "Fill out this survey to get a free coupon" what you are going to get is alot of randomness simply to get the free coupon! Simply, OFFER THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE. Give them the tools to tell you what they like and don't like about your product, your site, your whatever. Then LISTEN. Listen publicly. Respond to their comments online. Talk BACK to them. Take the info that they give you the same as the info that you got from that expensive marketing study you paid for, the one that sent those smiling clipboard people to the megamall.

I am willing to bet that if you are persistent, if you honestly and wholeheartedly participate in this dialog with your customers; your customers will be happier with you and you will have a better product because of it!