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Thursday, May 10, 2007

Transparency Tyranny

A web site I check for new trends called trendwatching .com has an interesting article this month called Transparency Tyranny. They point to the fact that over a billion consumers are now online and they have opinions and reviews that they freely share on the web. They posit that new reviews will be posted about everything on a hour by hour basis. In short, these reviews can either make or break your brand or company based on the reviews one gets and the fact that the 1 billion other savvy online customers read the reviews before they buy.

An extension is that as more cell phone get/give web access, these reviews can be read and posted whiel the customer is in the store while th egood or bad experience is still fresh. In addition, with the ease it is to post reviews about something, many reviews can come from "staff on the inside" who can say good or bad things as well as serve in the whistle blower capacity.

One positive note to this is that if your issues get exposed, you may get advice from other companies or entities on how to handle the problem.

In short, they say,

" "Old economy fog is clearing: no longer can incompetence, below-par performance, ignored global standards, anti-social & anti-eco behavior, or opaque pricing be obscured. In its place has come a transparent, fully informed marketplace, where producers have no excuse left to underperform. TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY for some, TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH for others."

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