Concur has opened to the public its client community. "You can see what Concur customers are saying to each other," said Concur COO and president Raj Singh during a panel discussion on social networking today at The Masters Program in Washington, DC.
Conversations on the site are organized by category--such as expense reporting, travel, data reporting and meeting management--and have generated nearly 700 posts.
Singh moderated a panel discussion in which corporate travel buyers and others contemplated some of the harder questions about integrating social networking and media into their programs. For example, he asked, "What level of transparency are you comfortable with?"
Apparently Concur is comfortable with a lot of transparency. A January post to the forum asks, "Is it just me or is Concur Support (if any) really slow? I was wondering what is the normal turn around from Concur support to even look at the ticket? I've submitted a ticket 9 days ago ..." Another user, apparently a Concur client, responded within hours with one suggestion, while a more detailed response from a Concur representative appeared more than 24 hours later.
Corporate communications cops must shudder to think that such situations be made public, but we all have warts. Concur's executives should be applauded for allowing the world to see theirs--or, at least, the ones clients think they have. The firm's awareness of, and responsiveness to, customer demands can only benefit.