# Product Review Matchmaking Needle Helps Brands Find the Best Product Experts to Help Customers By Katherinev123 | Published 2011-12-28 | Business Source: Trend Hunter, https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/needle References: [psfk](http://www.psfk.com/2011/12/outsourcing-for-and-awarding-brand-ambassadors-future-of-gaming.html) & [needle](http://needle.com/) According to Needle, a platform that helps brands identify product experts, when a consumer wants product information and recommendations, they're typically sent to a call center where they receive robotic responses from people who can't help them decide what to purchase. With Needle, however, companies identify their own product experts -- people who use their products and can provide expert advice -- and assign them to customers, making the entire product recommendation and sales process more effective. Needle points out that a brand's most passionate fans, recruited from social media sites like [Facebook](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/replyguy) and [Twitter](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/magic-wall-of-love), will offer better customer service and advice than any call center since they are actually owners and advocates of the product. A company just has to install a Needle button on their product pages and assign a product expert to answer a customer's questions and give advice. This is done through online text, video or voice chats. In return for helping a brand sell its products, experts will earn points; they can then use these points to purchase the brand's products. According to Needle, a chat with a Needle product expert is "the equivalent of having a [personal shopper](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/perplexity-shopping-experience) giving real-time reviews and recommendations to your customers based on rich, interactive dialogues." ## Trend Insights (Trend Hunter) - Score: 2.7/10 - Popularity: 34% | Activity: 40% | Freshness: 8% - Audience gender: 50% men, 50% women - Primary generations: Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X - Top markets: North America ## Categories [Trend Hunter](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends) > [Business](https://www.trendhunter.com/business) > [Retail](https://www.trendhunter.com/retail) ## Key Themes ### Key Themes Behind This Trend - **Crowdsourced Product Experts:** Brands can leverage their passionate fans recruited from social media sites to provide personalized customer service and expert advice. - **Direct Customer-expert Interaction:** Using online text, video, or voice chats, brands can connect customers directly with product experts to enhance the product recommendation and sales process. - **Gamification of Expertise:** By rewarding experts with points that can be used to purchase products, brands create a gamified system that incentivizes experts to help sell their products. ### Where This Applies - **E-commerce:** Online retailers can employ the Needle platform to improve customer engagement and increase sales by connecting customers with knowledgeable product experts. - **Customer Support:** Companies in the customer support industry can enhance their services by integrating crowd-sourced product experts to provide personalized solutions and recommendations to customers. - **Social Media:** Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can explore partnerships with Needle to facilitate the recruitment of brand enthusiasts as product experts, creating more value and engagement for their users. ## Related on Trend Hunter - [AI Workflow Automation](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/custom-ai-agents.md) - [Curated Book Recommendations](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/expert-book-recommendations.md) - [Marketing Social Advocacy Tools](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/nut-tree.md) - [Personalized Advice Apps](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/intro-app.md) - [Video Call Shopping Services](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/specialist-over-video.md) - [Brand Discovery Platforms](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/smartcustomer.md) - [AI-Powered Digital Employees](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/product-genius.md) - [Product Review Hubs](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/cherrypicksreviews.md) - [AI-Powered Creator Review Platforms](https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/pair-by-pearpop.md)