Paul Allen writes:
Imagine working for years at a company, developing products or services, and not knowing what your customers think of them. I think the vast majority of employees are in that situation–nearly completely disconnected from their customers. Yes, companies have technical support people and sales people who talk to customers, but what about executives and senior managers? The people making the big decisions often have little if any “customer capital” — or knowledge of what the customers want and think.
When I was VP Marketing at MyFamily.com in 2001, I required my marketing employees to spend a day a week at our call center listening to customer calls, so that they could be aware of what the customers were thinking and saying. This had a major impact on all of us.
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