Owyang, Starbucks, and Jarvis have the Same Idea

What do Jeremiah Owyang, Starbucks, and Jeff Jarvis have in common?

They all highly value customer feedback. At first, I disregarded who wrote the assigned reading article about Starbuck's ideas garnered from customers. As I finished the end, fascinated by how much power customers have with large business corporations like Starbucks, I realized that the style of writing and perspective seemed oddly familiar.

Then the light bulb clicked and I made the semi-obvious connection. My book report book for this class, What Would Google Do?, is also written by Jeff Jarvis. I just finished reading a chapter about how valuable customers will be to any company, from start-ups to already-established enterprises. Starbucks and Owyang undoubtedly agree.

I was fascinated by Owyang's article that articulated how company websites should be transformed to being communication and transparent-friendly. It's true, most people do not enter a corporation's home site because they get inundated with all the biased, glittery goodness of the product. Most of the time, they enter and search with a pre-conceived notion of what to expect and the likelihood of what they will purchase. CEO's should all step down on the hierarchy, even if temporarily, to interact with customers. With the Dell incident, they should all know that one person could be the downfall of a company's rigorous PR system. That's right, just one. And that one person could be you.

In the Starbuck's article, it was interesting to see the different ideas stemming from the public. After all, a million heads are better than...oh, let's just say 40-50 (that was a complete estimate). Coffee ice cubes, bathroom shelves, and sipping plugs are all great ideas that, although not 100% economically feasible, corporate probably would not have thought of otherwise. Change is good and that's what customers are bringing to the table.

And the "pre-ordered" order on a card, shorter lines, and online requests are all something the company should mull over. Even if they don't directly use that idea, dozens of other solutions could stem from it. Knowing that a CEO is listening is not only flattering, but will also generate customer loyalty to your brand. That, as we all know, carries a lot of weight and spreads through the online realm faster than we can say "grande iced vanilla mocha latte with no whipped cream."

These posts and authors are all successful in the online world for a reason. Customers are #1, they're always right, and if you don't listen, that will be your downfall.