• by Tom Hespos , May 9, 2006

When corporations eventually wake up and allow their people to communicate meaningfully with their customers, business will take an immense leap forward. Until then, one of the barriers standing in the way of such communication is the notion of scale. Put simply, how does a business that employs perhaps hundreds or thousands of people communicate meaningfully, in a one-to-one manner, with perhaps millions of potential customers?

It's certainly a valid question. We're used to the idea of speaking to millions of people at a time with our advertising. How can we be expected to have enough people to address perhaps thousands of questions and comments being lobbed at us from the blogosphere, message boards, online chats and other two-way media?

As the saying goes, a thousand-mile journey begins with a single step. Along the way, though, you will be able to count on some of the unique properties of interactive media to assist you.

Let's say that Fred bought a red widget from your company. It's broken, and Fred wants to know why, so he posts to his blog about what he was doing when the widget broke. Turns out he got it wet, which is a big no-no for widgets, since they shatter into a million pieces when you leave them out in the rain.

You come across Fred's blog post in a keyword search. When you find it, you're faced with an interesting choice. You can break with established rules within your company about all communications being "on message," or you can answer Fred's question about why his red widget broke.

Let's also say, for argument's sake, you decide to go ahead and tell Fred that red widgets aren't waterproof, that you're sorry his red one broke, and that if he needed a waterproof widget, your company makes a line of blue widgets that would do the job nicely. Perhaps Fred will respond with some comments of his own, but you can bet that he'll be happy your company is listening and responding to the market.

You'll also get another benefit--the one I alluded to earlier--that's unique to the Internet. That conversation you had with Fred will stick around. It will be persistent and will serve as a guidepost to others who have breakdowns when their widgets get wet. Others may link to it or reference it in subsequent conversations. I won't say that you won't have to answer the same question more than once, but the notion of engaging your customers in legitimate dialogue is less like the repetitive Q&A of a customer service call center and more like writing a distributed FAQ. I say distributed, because such conversations may not take place on your Web site, but they will still be easily found and referenced by people interested enough to care.

The persistent presence of engagement pays another benefit, too. It shows people that you're listening. It shows people that you care what your customers think. And it shows a readiness to get out from behind the corporate firewall and actually pay attention. Don't underestimate how much that's worth in the minds of your customers and prospects.