Understanding Crowdsourcing

Fascinating facts to understand how it works

Many companies are achieving significant results through a phenomenon known as crowdsourcing. This concept is revolutionizing multiple industries, from Uber to Airbnb, but how exactly does it work and benefit brands of all sorts?

The term crowdsourcing combines the words crowd and outsourcing. It occurs when an organization outsources a project to a large group of people, breaking it into individual micro-tasks. These crowdsourcing projects can be presented in many ways, and the way a business decides to gather crowds to perform tasks depends on the kind of task that needs to be completed.

One prevalent application is completing projects that would otherwise be expensive, large, and labor-intensive. However, when "crowdsourced," they become faster and more cost-effective.

Crowdsourcing allows companies to connect with people anywhere in the country virtually (or even the world). It lets brands tap into a broad range of skills and expertise without incurring the typical overhead costs of in-house or field employees. Crowdsourcing is about working not only lighter but smarter.

In this note, Smartspotter breaks down for you the benefits of crowdsourcing as follows:

The crowd gets it right.

Aristotle was right when he first wrote about the "wisdom of the crowd" in his work Politics. The wisdom of crowds is the idea that large groups of people are collectively smarter than individual experts in problem-solving, decision-making, innovating, and predicting.

Most of our clients come to us with very pressing questions: Are my products available for purchase on the shelf? Are the promotional displays properly positioned and executed in stores? Are the staff giving a good customer experience? What do customers think about the new product? And so on.

Smartspotter connects with shoppers all over Australia who remain mystery shoppers. These spotters can provide you with eyes on the ground in every corner of the country, ensuring extensive coverage and real-time perspectives. Our spotters collectively provide companies with answers to their most pressing questions, executing tasks directly through smartphones.

The crowd—that is, our high-skilled spotters—will not only provide your business with data such as photos, videos, and surveys, but they will also provide real-time insights and speak with authority. As we know, the collective opinion of many people counts a great deal.

The work done by the crowd is of high quality.

In SmartSpotter, we are pleased with spotters' timely, accurate contributions. Trusted by 350+ business partners in over eight countries, we have supported the most significant campaigns on the shop floor, flawlessly executing tasks. 

Not only are our spotters high-skilled and perform the tasks as we need them to, but our platform also has a quality control team to ensure our clients receive only the most trustworthy, accurate information and insights.

Every piece of data that comes through our system is carefully reviewed. Moreover, the dashboard is supported by our in-house development team, business intelligence, and AI integrations, so you receive verified and geo-located insights!

For over five years, SmartSpotter has successfully co-created quality work with the help of the crowd. 

The crowd provides fast, real-time insights and data

No request is too big! The power of crowdsourcing saves opportunity costs and gets faster results by collecting instant data from the shoppers on day-to-day completion tasks. 

We have a network of 100,000+ Spotters who feed our interactive dashboard. The SmartSpotter network of crowdsourced mystery shoppers is always ready anywhere in the country. They provide all required insights when an assignment is close to their location. 

So, no matter how big your request is, we often have full results within days or even hours. 

The crowd is highly skilled and can tackle a wide variety of tasks

One great thing about crowdsourcing is that it is versatile. It is widely used in many areas, such as transportation and infrastructure. In our case, it has transformed the retail industry, helping optimize companies' operations, strategies, and in-store executions. 

Our spotters are primarily trained members of the public who enjoy visiting retail stores and reporting on what they find. Together with mobile technology, our shoppers are trained to complete a wide variety of tasks: 

  • In-Store Mobile Audits

  • Mystery Shopping

  • On-shelf availability/out-of-stocks 

  • Promotional execution

  • Planogram compliance

  • Surveys

  • Market Research

  • Competitive Intelligence

  • Product Sampling

The best part? People from your company can do field research via the TEAM version of our app! Designed to let your team focus on their expertise: build relationships, improve in-store experiences, and grow sales.

We get the job done, so you don't have to

With our timely, cost-effective, and accurate results, crowdsourcing has a positive impact on companies. SmartSpotter cuts traditional expenses tied to Field Sales Teams and the managerial costs of store visits and auditing. 

With the help of the crowd, companies can save kilometers traveled by the field team, reducing your company's carbon footprint, improving your sales, and allowing your team to work more professionally with a real-time dashboard that helps take immediate action.