It's quite interesting reading Jonathan Schwartz's blog. Frankly, the fact that he "gets it" is quite refreshing; there aren't too many of those folks around anymore, especially not as his level. Reading his latest post made me want to comment on something which seems kinds of backwards to me and has pissed me off in the recent past.
What's up with companies setting up "Direct" blogs, similar to what Dell has done, through which they communicate directly with customers? Where's the magic? What's the message there exactly? Before blogs we never really ever needed to listen to you guys, but now through the magic of the internets we thought it might be a good idea? Many companies hail this particular setup as a great achievement and, call me stupid, I just don't see it as that.
Wake up!!! You have been foolish not to listen to your customers in the past and just assume you know what was good for them and what they wanted was whatever was on your menu that particular quarter. A blog alone is not going to help until you admit that you've sinned, repented and decided that from now on, not only will you let customers post stuff to a blog for you to read, you will actually read it, listen and adjust accordingly.
I just love how good we've gotten at extolling the virtues of mediocrity.
