MxMIndia

Tag: Faisal Farooqui

  • It's not just about gripes and grouses. Your customers are providing invaluable feedback when they write about your brand on social media websites. Six tips from Faisal I Farooqui

    Bracing yr Brand 4 Online Feedbk

     

    By Faisal I Farooqui

     

    Understanding the economic consequences of social interactions has always been a challenge in the regular, monetary economy. Where land, labour and capital were considered crucial elements in wealth generation, social interactions, private discussions and other ‘non-economic activities’ — while valuable and necessary — did not have any greater meaning. Until the advent of the internet, that is.

     

    While studies dating as far back as 1955 show us that word-of-mouth is an important source of product information and positioning, recent research by marketing gurus highlights that such word-of-mouth recommendation influences a consumer’s product purchase decision a great deal. The all-pervasive Internet has made it possible for thousands, or even millions of consumers to interact online — the consequences of which are now beginning to haunt every CEO and marketer involved in selling a product or a service. A rising culture of sharing experiences and opinions on everything, from goods and services, to the arts and attitude, is the result of a rapidly-shrinking world, with a global economy, global brands and global icons all well within reach of practically everyone.

     

    One thing is indisputable: social media is driving consumer choices and feedback. Social media’s growth relies around content that is primarily generated by users– or consumers in this case — and is bound by two common threads. The first thread is the platform’s binding medium, which is the internet with its software, servers, apps, websites and bandwidth.

     

    The second thread is human emotions: the passion of consumers who believe in empowering others by sharing their own thoughts and experiences. As the country’s landscape is rapidly flooded with products manufactured from all over the world, Indian consumers are taking to their laptops and various mobile devices to talk about the hundreds of thousands of goods and services on offer – and not always in a flattering way. But what is significant, though, is that with this trend, a sociological ‘mapping’ of the consumer space is also taking place.

     

    Various studies have indicated that more than 60% of online users in India do research on products and read reviews online before going ahead with their online or offline transactions.

     

    So, what makes people share their experiences online? These days, around the world, there is a set of extremely well-informed consumers who are trying their best to help other consumers. This ‘competitive altruism’ or the eagerness to help other consumers with honest opinions, is resulting in the creation of a unique and a powerful community of consumers. It is this community that turns the spotlight on both the good and the bad; the pros and the cons of things.

     

    The relative anonymity that the Internet offers has been known to enable people to shed their biases online, and review websites apparently draw out even the shyest of consumers and make them express their the opinions. And sometimes that feedback turns out to be quite influential.

     

    Such largescale opinion-sharing is creating a direct impact on the reputation and the bottomlines of brands. While consumers are calling the shots, companies can leverage such discussions to monitor these reviews and consequently improve their offerings.

     

    It is quite possible that if you are a brand manager or the CEO, you may come across opinions and reviews that criticise your products and services. You should have the ability to understand that most of the time, this is honest and unbiased feedback, and it would be good to address it.

     

    Six ways to engage the online consumer –

    1. Two-way communication: Set up a culture of dialogue. Build two-way communication with those who have written about your brand online.

    2. Listening: Don’t confront. The smart CEO will never confront reviewers, but engage and communicate with them instead

    3. Staff training and attitude: Empower your customer support team to quickly resolve issues. Often the cost of pampering a disgruntled customer is negligible, while the consequences of delaying it may only escalate matters.

    4. Analysis: The shift from word-of-mouth to offline-to-online provides the single biggest opportunity to measure and analyse an activity that has always been a challenge to economists. Analytical tools will help you analyse all online feedback

    5. Increase service quality allocation: Brands must spend more on service quality and customer support. If that means shifting some money from promotions and campaigns, so be it

    6. Reward: Thank those who talk about your brand online. Remember, millions of people who write reviews are actually providing you feedback — subtle or otherwise — without you paying them. It’s the biggest market research data available to you. And you don’t even have to hire an agency to get it!

     

    So get online, and listen to what your customers are saying.

     

    Faisal I. Farooqui is CEO of MouthShut.com, a leading consumer review and feedback platform

     

  • MouthShut.com's plea challenging IT Rules 2011 is to come up for hearing in the Supreme Court

    MouthShut’s plea on IT Rules 2011 to come up for hearing in SC

    By A Correspondent

     

    The writ petition filed before the Supreme Court by Mouthshut.com, India’s online community for consumer reviews, challenging the Information Technology Rules, 2011 is to come up for hearing on January 13, 2014. The plea seeks to declare the IT Rules as violation of Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India which guarantee freedom of expression. Mouthshut.com will be represented by senior counsel, Harish Salve.

     

    It may be recalled that Mouthshut.com had approached the Supreme Court with a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, to rescind India’s Information Technology Rules 2011 that “jeopardises the freedom of expression”. The appeal declares the IT Rules to be offensive under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. “We are pleading with the highest court in the land to protect the rights of Indian citizens and consumers that are granted by the Constitution of India,” said Faisal Farooqui, Founder & CEO, MouthShut.com.

     

    Mouthshut.com says it has stuck to its own policy of taking down content only under legal coercion. But the IT rules stating that ‘any affected person’ can simply send an email to request the removal of any content within 36 hours or they can lose their ‘safe harbour’ protection as an ‘intermediary, pay damages, legal fee and court time’. Web-based organisations need to have a difference between free expression and making feasible services.

     

    Mr Farooqui further added, “We have been threatened with hundreds of legal notices, cybercrime complaints and defamation cases. At other times, officers from various police stations call our office, demanding deletion of various reviews or face dire consequences under the IT rules.”

     

    “It is a privilege to be a citizen of a democracy like India, where an ordinary citizen can appeal to a powerful court. Laws are meant to ensure the well-being of the nation – its people and institutions. Despite good intentions, IT Rules fall short of doing that. This law has the potential to weaken or, worse, entirely corrode the robust protection that the constitution of India offers to the freedom of speech,” he continued

     

     

     

  • Digital industry has to think that digital is beyond the website, says Faisal Farooqui

    The Anchor: Faisal Farooqui on 5 changes he would like to see in digital media

    By Faisal Farooqui

     

    1. Government adopting Digital:

    There is a lot that the government can do by adopting the digital media. We look forward to significant changes in the government where the entire delivery of the government public interface services should be digital. I would like the government to understand that digital media is not just about having a website but it is really about reaching out to your citizens on a larger scale.

     

    2. More schools adopting Digital:

    All schools inIndiastarting with government schools must adopt digital as part of their curriculum and treat it as a separate medium. All the schools in this country should realize that digital is not a separate medium, but a medium which can be integrated with their teaching and curriculum, and they should make this change.

     

    3. Cutting down on the middle men:

    I would like advertisers and publishers to reach out directly to each other. There are a lot of middle men involved in the whole process of buying and selling of ads in the digital space. If the digital industry, both on the advertiser and publisher front, has to make progress then we need a lot of direct interaction between buyer and sellers. This will help ad buyers reach out to inventory sellers directly. Therefore, we need to cut down on some of the layers in between.

     

    4. Cell phone operators adopting digital:

    Cell phone operators inIndiahave not adopted digital completely. They have to realize that digital doesn’t just mean subscribing to SMS jokes. Most of their websites are not optimized. Hence, a great push can be given if the mobile operators can go digital. Cell phone companies must therefore make a lot of their services digital. So if they can change their digital strategies and adopt digital in a bigger way, I think that will be a big boost.

     

    5. Digital industry must think beyond the websites:

    Digital industry has to think that digital is beyond the website. You have to build social integration and a lot of these digital companies inIndiahave not embraced social media. Hence digital I believe has to become social.

     

    Faisal Farooqui is the Founder – CEO, Mouthshut.com

     

  • Consumer review website MouthShut.com is set to shift from being a reviews-only to a buyer's guide website

    Mouthshut.com to turn a buyer’sguide

    By Robin Thomas

     

    Popular consumer review website MouthShut.com is set to shift from being a reviews-only site to a buyer’s guide. This transition is scheduled to take place within a fortnight.

     

    In its new role, MouthShut will position itself as a company that helps consumers decide which product they want to buy from a host of product categories — ranging from cars, bikes, cellphones and so on. Restaurants and hotels will also be part of the buyer’s guide enabling users to know the type of cuisine available, phone numbers and addresses for deliveries and so on. Moreover, MouthShut will constantly add newer categories on its portal after every few weeks.

     

    Speaking to MxMIndia about the transition to a consumer buying guide, Faisal Farooqui, CEO, Mouthshut.com said, “We realized that a transition from a reviews-only site to buying guide is more important today because the consumer needs are changing fast as they no longer use the internet just for emails and chats but, also for buying. As e-commerce is growing robustly in India, people are getting more comfortable buying products online. Thus we decided that we need to provide consumers not just reviews but also help or guide them buy products.”

     

    Mouthshut.com will partner car dealers and manufacturers and allow for registering for test drives. In fact it has tied with Maruti and General Motors already.

     

    The transformation to a users buying guide will also mean revamping the Mouthshut.com website, which will take place along with the roll-out. Also on the anvil is a mobile version of the site.  “The mobile experience will be totally customized for mobile users and while the look-and-feel will be different, the content will of course be the same” said Mr Farooqui.