We have the pleasure of working with a variety of customers across multiple verticals like retail, consumer banking, web applications, hospitality, outdoors and more. The most common theme across all of these customers is that they have made the simple idea of “capturing customer feedback” not just about collecting great ideas from their customers, but connecting to build better customer relationships.

Most of the time what these companies are doing go overlooked unless you’re embedded in that niche community, but I want to call attention to the fact that no matter what size business you are; connecting to your customers and understanding their needs is your #1 challenge on a daily basis. Customers can help shape new products, old features, event locations and even new drink flavors. What Starbucks, Dell and now Oracle have done is simply laid the foundation for companies around the world to start figuring out how to get that invaluable feedback from customers and even beyond that, connecting with them to drive improvement throughout the organization.

I wanted to share some links to some of these industry leaders who have embraced the online suggestion box:

• Oracle Listens
• MyStarbucksIdea
• Dell Ideastorm

The above initiatives are great examples of Customer Listening Programs and good reasons to evaluate how you are currently capturing customer feedback. If you are capturing customer feedback, what are you doing with it? Are you keeping customers, employees, partners, vendors and others in the loop? Are you taking action on these ideas? Reading Charlene Li’s post about her preview of the Oracle Listens program, she states, “I think the biggest risk is that Oracle as an organization does not sustain the effort over the long term.” I could not help but agree with her. Taking the step to launch a customer-focused initiative like this needs to be well thought out and embedded into your operational efforts as well as a source for great ideas that can help shape your company’s direction.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be modifying SuggestionBox a bit. In a good way. If you’re considering a customer listening program, customer feedback solution, online suggestion box or customer relationship tool; I suggest learning more about our platform SuggestionBox. You don’t need a team of developers, IT certifications or rocket science degree to get started. Build better customer relationships now.

What better way to grasp the importance of customer feedback than asking someone who is embracing it in so many ways. I recently had the opportunity to email interview Andy Beal, well known blogger, speaker, author and analyst. I’ve had the opportunity to interact with Andy as a founding Gooru on Gooruze.com and as a customer of SuggestionBox. I sent Andy 3 questions covering customer feedback, how he is using it for Trackur and the benefits of publicizing your “customer interaction points.” Enjoy.

Why is it important to listen to your customers and capture their feedback?

For years, customers have discussed companies, products, and services in their homes, offices, and coffee shops. Now the conversation has shifted to the internet, we shouldn’t cover our ears. Instead, we should realize that, as businesses, we have a huge opportunity to learn from our customers and provide a better experience.

The customers that take the time to provide feedback are generally the ones that sincerely hope you’ll listen and make the improvements they’d like to see. Listening to that feedback–especially when echoed by more than one customer–allows you to build better products, provide better service, and ultimately, improve your profits.

How are you applying the above steps to the development of Trackur?

I’m all ears! I’m learning from blog reviews, Twitter feedback, customer questions, and services such as SuggestionBox. Does it make me wince, when I receive some negative feedback? Sure, it does. But then I see the opportunity to make Trackur even better. When you build a service that includes feedback from your customers, you gain their loyalty and they’ll take partial ownership in your success–they’ll be active in helping your grow.

What effects could a company expect by publicizing their “customer interaction points?”

How many companies can you name, that seem to care about the feedback you provide. Chances are, your list is very short, but the ones you can name stay top of mind because you are impressed by their radical transparency. With that in mind, why wouldn’t you want to have your feedback show up in multiple places online.

If I’m torn between a similar product from two rival companies, as a customer, I’ll more likely buy from the business that demonstrates it listens to its customers and gives them a platform to share their reviews, suggestions, and general feedback.

Thanks Andy!

If you want to learn more about Andy Beal and his work:

• Attend his Online Reputation Management Workshop in Raleigh, August 7th.
• Learn about his new book Radically Transparent
• Monitor your reputation automatically with Trackur