• Ad Age, Monday, June 11, 2007 11 AM

Behold the present and future of customer service: Working to shrug off its image as an arrogant giant, Dell launched IdeaStorm--an online forum for customers to air grievances and share product ideas--last February. It has become the repository for more than 5,500 recommendations and 24,000 comments, and has inspired 21 initiatives so far.

IdeaStorm is part of an effort "to make sure the customer is walking the hallways at Dell," says Bob Pearson, Dell's vice president-corporate group communications. It also includes blogging, through its Direct2Dell site, getting involved in online conversations about the company, and dealing with the complaints of angry customers who make their dissatisfaction clear.

More and more companies are seeing the benefits of what Sam Decker, vice president-marketing and products at Bazaarvoice, calls "social commerce." For instance, Delta--part of an industry with notoriously low customer satisfaction--recently created a Web site, Change.Delta.com, that hosts suggestions from consumers, as well as polls about features and offerings.

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