Everyone is always talking about listening to your customers, and so you should, but actually doing something based on their feedback is not as common (generally only when they are upset do companies act , take the recent Vegemite iSnack 2.0 "scandal"or new coke).
Anyway, rather then going on about the virtues of listening to customers, here are a few ways that you can actually monitor what people are saying.
- Set up a facebook "fan" page for you product, monitor what people who take the time to link up to you, have to say about your offering.
- Ensure you have a corporate twitter account, and follow people who follow you. Also set up search profiles for your company (search on name, industry keywords, etc).
- Set up a google search for your company, and key industry terms. This way you will also pick up on what is being said about you on the web and in blogs. I run my google searches into my RSS feed reader, but you can also set them up to Email on a regular basis the information they find.
- Network online with people who are key to your industry, LinkedIn, myspace, linkMe, where ever key people in your industry may spend time, you need to spend some time there also.
Oh, and by the way, do something with the information you gather!
