A Virtual Customer Environment (VCE) is a web forum to facilitate customer co-innovation or user innovation.
Customers can partner with companies in different phases of product (or service) innovation - in product ideation, in product design & development, in product testing, and in product diffusion. VCEs can be designed so as to facilitate these different customer co-innovation roles. Examples of customer co-innovation through VCEs include Microsoft and the MVP forum; Nokia and the Concept Lounge; Ducati and the Tech Cafe; etc.
The term 'Virtual Customer Environment' was introduced by Satish Nambisan of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Recent research published in MIT Sloan Management Review has focused on customer experience in such virtual customer environments and how companies can establish their VCEs so as to provide positive customer experiences in value co-creation.
Read more about Virtual Customer Environment: See Also
Famous quotes containing the words virtual, customer and/or environment:
“Tragedy dramatizes human life as potentiality and fulfillment. Its virtual future, or Destiny, is therefore quite different from that created in comedy. Comic Destiny is Fortune—what the world will bring, and the man will take or miss, encounter or escape; tragic Destiny is what the man brings, and the world will demand of him. That is his Fate.”
—Susanne K. Langer (1895–1985)
“A good customer should not change his shop, nor a good shop change its customers.”
—Chinese proverb.
“A positive learning climate in a school for young children is a composite of many things. It is an attitude that respects children. It is a place where children receive guidance and encouragement from the responsible adults around them. It is an environment where children can experiment and try out new ideas without fear of failure. It is an atmosphere that builds children’s self-confidence so they dare to take risks. It is an environment that nurtures a love of learning.”
—Carol B. Hillman (20th century)