Consumer Power

Steve Rubel  quotes Scott Rafer on how blogs are giving consumers unprecedented power

Blogging itself is the leading indicator of what customer interaction will be like in an always-on internet world, where customers must be listened to because they are easily able to listen to each other. It is easier to find out what individual shippers think of UPS compared to FedEx than it is for me to find the official UPS position on the topic. Treating the broadband-connected customer as a consumer of information, viewer of keywords and clicker of links will be a market-share losing strategy in two or three years.

If you are not thinking about how to make your customer relationships collaborative ones, you're going to miss the boat, the train and the plane.

Over at Tom Peters, Steve Yastrow asks 

How many of your customers would regularly talk about themselves and you as "We," as opposed to "Us" and "Them?"

If you're blogging for your company or small business, I bet you'd get far more "we's" than your competitors.  It's time to get on the same side as your customers.