I have been pondering of late about if there is enough of a market for being an online customer service geek, so here is the idea for the job. You get paid to read and participate in online communities by a firm(s).

To start as an example from my homebrewing hobby, Company X makes a brand new homebrewing widget. I get paid by the visit MoreBeer, Brewing Network and other beer related boards looking for comments daily. If there is a customer service issue, I login into the company’s network to get the background information on the sale. Call the appropriate person who worked on the issue and try to find a point of compromising and lend a human voice to the issue. There would be travel and training by the company to know their products, locations, and day to day operations, but afterwards perhaps only a regular reports and the occasional meeting.

Now obviously you would have to have a very structured billing arrangement. At minimum you might make just a retainer for keeping your eyes open, but then during a
busy time you might be at near full-time working to resolve issues or help answer questions. An online help desk if you will.

There would be times when someone would be slow and just do the necessary work but then no other billable hours. Yes I can see that you would have to keep track of your hours fairly regularly so that you can properly bill, heck Evo mentioned something like this internal monitoring with Twitter, you might just twitter your daily visits on a special account for work purposes.

So what would the busy times be like for one if one of my companies were a homebrew wine or cider related early fall would get very busy during picking season and likewise the holidays and month or two afterwards would probably get rather busy.

I could see someone like this participating of being on retainer for upwards of 4 to 5 small to medium size business clients but that beyond that one person would be stretched too thin. If the client was large enough I could see the person hired could be doing this full-time, but I suspect anyone with that large of business would be unlikely to be so web savy unless they have been through a case of Dell Hell.

Speaking of which none of this is really that much of
an original concept if you have read Cluetrain, Gaping
void, Gonzo Marketing, or Jeff Jarvis’ blog the last few years. It’s more about putting these discussions into practice.

When I say participate, I don’t me a corporate shill promoting the new latest and greatest product. Might you occasional post on something new and interesting a
community may like sure, but no press releases or anything so frankly boring. In a homebrewers example talk about what your brewing, help people with problems, laugh and joke with friends. But join the ongoing conversation and get to be known as some of a stand up reputation who can help with a problem about the company or product is needed.

Last and certainly not least I think it has to be a topic you love and have interest in. If I were paid by a car company to do this I doubt I’d last 3 months. I just wouldn’t care, but products related to homebrewing beer as example is something I think I would really enjoy.

Are such jobs coming one day soon I wouldn't doubt it, but not today. If any companies think today is that day and are willing to give serious talk about customer service web geek send me an email, let’s talk.