The Future of Customer Service - Skullcandy's Fansourcing Model

Courtesy of Skullcandy via Fortune Website

In the December 26th issue of Fortune magazine, there is this article written by Jennifer Alsever entitled, "The Service Dude." The story is about a company called Skullcandy who is, according to the article, "maker of highend headphones." They have employed a rather ingenious method of providing customer service. They basically pay their fans an hourly rate and give them points towards Skullcandy headphones and ipads to provide online customer service. This is quite different from every other company's customer service model. The typical company hires people who may or may not even use or like their products or services to assist their customers when they call in or go online to contact them for help. I see this being the future for many companies that have cultivated loyal fan bases like Skullcandy. There are some limitations to this strategy. For example, you will still need separate customer service reps to handle billing or personal information related matters. But for troubleshooting or product experience level questions, companies should embrace the future and start recruiting your fans before your competitors do.

Skullcandy Products: http://amzn.to/t8tMEG

Fortune Article: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/21/skullcandy-fan-sourcing/ 

Edit 1/4/2012: After doing more research, this fansourcing platform Skullcandy uses is a service provided by a company called Needle http://www.needle.com Check it out!